[Music]
Hello everybody, welcome to a very special edition of the Pop Culture Junkie podcast. My name is Shauna and I am joined today by a serious badass. She is a singer, songwriter, actress, activist. Thank you for being here. Kate Nash. Hi, thanks for having me. Absolutely. What a pleasure. So it is 7.30 in the morning here where I am. I took care of her early and looking so glamorous. This is usually not the 7.30 look. Absolutely not. It is like absolutely lipstick for Kate Nash. Come on.
I was trying to, I don't have any on, but I do have green nails. I do like the green nails. Mine are very sad right now. What time is it where you are? Are you in England right now? I'm in England. Yeah, I'm in London and it is like 3.30. I have always wanted to go to London. I have never been. Is it cold? It's actually a very nice day today. It's sunny out there. I mean, you can't really see on my camera,
but it's like a really nice spring day. It's been raining and kind of horrible. So everybody's like quite happy out there today. Sounds delightful. I love it. So it's the Pop Culture Junkie podcast. You are going to be my fellow junkie today. I am missing to fabulous co-host today. So you got to fill in for them, Kate. I'm here. You got to. So what is your biggest fandom? I feel like we have the same favorite TV show. So I definitely want to dive into some Buffy talk.
I think about my Slayer. Yes. Oh my god. Me too. I am such a Buffy fan girl. What is it about Buffy, the vampire Slayer that hooked you? What does it keep this fanbase going after all these years? It's so interesting. I was just thinking as you said that, it's funny that my love for it has, I just feel like, stayed the same if not grown. It hasn't weaned in any way. I remember seeing an advert for Buffy. My older sister had had a sleep over the night before.
Which was a big thing when you were a teenager. Absolutely. I just had a sleep over and she had two of her friends from her secondary school, her high school sleeping over who I just thought was so cool. They were watching Scream. We were all on the sofa the next day and one of her friends had stayed over and we'd got the bus into her own, got McDonald's and then came home and I was like, oh my god, I'm so happy right now. My little teen self has just had such a girl crush on my sister's
friend. Coolest thing ever. Then I remember on BBC 2 there was this advert that came on and it had the kind of, oh, like, like, in her and I was like, what is this? And Buffy, I just remember being like in that episode where she's like in the bronze, like on the sneak table. Yes. Has the steak and she's like standing there looking so cool. And I was like, oh my god, I think my life has just changed. You feel like that shift to the trajectory right there.
An episode and I was like, something really important just happened and I can tell you're going to be a very important thing in my life. And it really was. And like, there was a couple of there was one girl in particular called Jordana who I went to school with. It was a huge Buffy fan but also my sisters and my mom weren't huge Buffy fans. And it was just like Thursday night 6.45 pm. I lived for it and I like, it just evokes like a feeling in me of excitement and anticipation and
connection. And like, I think looking back on it because I have thought about this a lot. I'm like,
what is the feeling that I got from Buffy that was just so, so strong? And I think that really a show that prioritized this teenage girl and a girl that was like, you know, I mean, obviously she was Sarah Michelle Geller but in the show she was like outcast in her from like, you know, because of her responsibilities, yeah, she ended up being friends with like the nerds and kind of having a hard time as a teenage girl just being teased and considered like the weirdo of the school
and always kind of getting into these awkward situations. And it was like that she was so like, basically to her she had to save the world but she also really valued being a teenage girl and to her she was like, you know, being a teenager and like being a teenage girl is as important as saving the world, you know, there was all these like things going on but she always valued that so much.
And I think it like put value on on teenage girls. And I think that we are so often, I'm like we, I'm not a teenager anymore, but as a person has been a teenage girl, teenagers teenage girls are often like, we're like so underestimated. Just dismissed. Just dismissed, manipulated. I didn't think back to like my first album made bricks in the way people and the media and men in the media would
like talk about it. And it's sort of like smeared, there's certain journalists that will always talk about me with kind of like a, oh, because I was like a teenage girl like and my record was very like a teenage girl. And I can't stop saying teenage girl. But I feel like I'm still a teenage girl almost at a time and I'm 34 years old so it's fine. I'm like 12, too. But I think like it was just something that validated being a teenage girl and like it was actually so loved and respected.
And even though she was like an outsider and a nerd and like she fought for being respected for that. And also like people did really value her. And she was strong and she fought back and she went out to save the day as like a young woman. And I think that it was just so needed in my life to see that. And I've just never stopped loving her. Same, hard same. It's my comfort show. It's what I put on when I'm like I just, I need something that I know how it ends. And that makes me feel good while
I'm watching it and that I can still laugh at and amote over. You still know like all the lines. And also if you're going through a hard time you're like I'm just going to watch season five and then I know I can get through anything that life does. Yes, yes. As long as you skip like the body then you're good. Season five. So I read that you produced a musical based on what's more with feeling. Is that right or a stage show? I did. Yeah, with my friend Emma, like,
Emma from Emma the great. We were both hearing through breakups and we went out one night in London and got drunk and we were talking about the musical episode of Buffy and Buffy and came back to my house and watched. I watched once more with feeling I'm laughing so much. And we were like this is the most amazing thing ever. We need to recreate this and put it on the stage. We're
sort of like drunkenly swaying through the night talking about it. And then the next day I think I was just sort of like hung over in bed and she called me and she's like I've booked to venue and I was like what? I love when those drunken plans get solidified the next day. Yeah, when someone sees a drunk and planned through that's like that's just like a person and that's someone I really respect.
Yep. So we put on once more with feeling and really like massive my band did most of the work because they had to like learn the score and we had different characters come in and people dressed up and it was Halloween and then we screened the episode afterwards and it was one of my favourite shows. It was so funny. It was like definitely like a teenage dream thing to do. I like a kind of like community thing to do too because it's like almost like community theatre vibes.
Oh my gosh. To be in that audience like just that sounds amazing. Maybe I'll do it again this year because I'm back in London. I've been living in LA for like nine years and I just need back to London because I have loads of work here this year and maybe I'll do it again. I think you should and then I'll finally make that trip to London. Oh I love that. Okay, most important question of the podcast and then we'll get over our buffy chat because I'm sure
we could go on forever. Spike or Angel? Spike. Yes, she's team Spike. Same. Same. Oh my goodness. My favourite Spike is when she's like, what are you doing outside? What are you doing outside? I'm house Spike and he's like out for a walk bitch. Five words or less. Oh I love it. Absolutely. Spike girl. I mean no offense to Angel. He's Broody. He's handsome but yeah. I did watch Angels but it went off. It went off a little of paste a little. Oh my god. It got so goofy there at the end with
Jasmine and everything. I watched it all too because that's what any buffy fam girl does but so what are you watching right now when you're you know in between work what what goes on your TV?
What are you listening to or reading? Oh my god. Okay, so I'm reading this book right now called Holding the Baby by Nell Fruzel and I guess I'd have just got back to London and I was in a bookshop and you know when you like well I don't know if you've had this experience but I've lived away from home for a long time so then coming back everything is even though it's so familiar as kind of
weirdly in a style. You're thinking of all these like themes in a new way. I was in a bookshop and I saw this name Nell Fruzel and I was like oh my god I know that's Nell like I was friends with Nell when I lived in London years ago and then someone that I lost touch with and I didn't realise had published books and so I bought the book and it's about motherhood and it is an absolutely amazing
read. It's basically you know it's like I think it's called like milk in the front of the book. It's has like milk blood and tears or milk skin tears from the front motherhood and I don't have kids but a lot of people in my age now do and it's just really interesting to read such an honest take on like parenthood and how difficult it is and being really open about
every single aspect of it and how hard it is and I'm just like speeding through the book. It's an amazing read and I think for anybody who's like I mean when I saw it I thought I wonder if by
you know like mothers obviously buy this book. I was like men should buy this big too and then I was like I should also be reading this book because I don't have kids you know so I just think the more that we can understand each other's experiences the better really because you just learn about like other people's worlds and yeah it's an amazing amazing read so I'm reading that I'm like nearly finished.
Oh that's awesome I love a good book I have so many half-read books that I just need to sit down and focus on yeah and I totally agree it's just I don't have children either but it's so important to just see it through another person's eyes sometimes especially because you know so many of our girlfriends are going to be having kids right now and it's just what are they experiencing how can
I relate to them yeah. Totally and how can I be more like supportive friend or just ally I guess absolutely as like mothers are going through a lot and what am I listening to I am well she does have a podcast as well called The Panic Years which I think is a great title where she is a different people really it is about motherhood but it's also about people that chose not to have kids or you know dads or like people with fertility issues and it's just like really important discussions
I think which is really interesting and then I also listen to like Justin Long's podcast I think of Justin like as a podcast that's awesome yeah he started it in the pandemic I think it's him and his brother and it's just like they're really like fun to listen to I love him yeah I love him too and I loved barbarian yes it was so good oh god it was so good it like you did actresses British oh really that's awesome I'm really proud and he's just like someone's
British and film I'm not that so cool I'm happy is it for the prince I love it yeah you go into that movie you have no idea what it's gonna be about and then it completely just comes out of no way like when that scene where she's like leaning against the thing and these just you're just like what and then it can't straights like Justin Long like singing sorry spoiler yeah it's okay but oh my god I love that film I love a fun horror film that's also scary like that's the best me too I love
that yeah I love it when it it's great it's genre-defying kind of like Buffy it's like I could see it's got like those horror elements everything comes back to Buffy in the end right everything comes back to me what else am I watching well I haven't started yet but I really want to watch succession oh yeah although I will say it's it's like not the most enjoyable show because it's so stressful it's like when I'm watching succession I'm like I can't wait for this to be over because
I'm obsessed but I it's just the most incredible writing and I really like Lucy Preble who is one of the writers on succession and she also wrote I hate Susie starring Billy Piper which I don't know if you've seen no I like Billy Piper though I think I'm gonna love it it's an amazing amazing show about sort of like I mean there's a lot of things in it that mirror her career but like she it's not autobiographical but there are things that mirror her experiences like being sort of like a singer
TV star that's kind of trying to come back basically into the meet and it's just a really unique show and it's she's absolutely incredible in it so I've really been enjoying that I'm gonna have to look that up is it on like the BBC I'm sure I could probably stream in the US somehow HBO in the US oh cool okay awesome I hate Susie yeah well well well are you into like Marvel or Star Wars anything like that I I you know what I'm not massively but I do love the Mandalorian
yeah me too and and you see that that thing going around of what's his name from head to the hotel yeah Pedro Pascal was in Buffy yeah I did I love that we talked about that a couple of the sets ago and he's in the premiere of season four and he's so cute and young and then just dies immediately I know but yeah like I just like feel I mean I'm like obsessed with the way people are culturally obsessed with him as well he seems like such a nice guy I don't know if that's all
just I don't feel like it's an act though I feel like he just seems like a genuinely like he's a goober there's a weird interview with him what's the identity of him on uh I can't remember but it's like one of the big podcasts and he is basically talking about like how long it took for his career to take off and how much doubt you have to overcome and like a lot of acts like were really there for him
during that and like I think it was Kate Blanchett or something gave him oh no was it Sarah I can't remember what actress but someone gave him like a car and like people would like look out for him because he was respected and loved amongst his peers and like people wanted him to get work and you know get a being an actor as a strange job because you just don't have a job until you get a job and then you get a job and you're like ah working and then you don't have when that ends you don't
have a job gets your whole focus for you know months at an end and throwing yourself into someone right and then just oh I guess we're done yeah but I feel like really I'm so happy with how much everyone's obsessed with him and how much success he's getting I like that I like it when you see people who see him nice like succeed and everyone rallies around them like brinjan freer yeah just like let's start yes glorifying and lifting up nice people some more you know and wanting them to succeed
yeah it's so cool I love that yeah I mean I've I watched coffee wars this week but we'll get into that after our break amazing yes and oh I saw the new Creed movie Creed 3 oh yeah it's really good um I'm not usually a inspirational sports movie fan that's our other house Nicole but those don't seem like this they're just really neat and Michael B Jordan is really good in them and man I could I could watch him in anything he could just read the telephone book just
stand right there Michael be it's fine oh man but yeah let's uh let's take a short break and then I want to launch into all things Kate Nash okay Kate so when you first started and decided like what you wanted to be when you grew up did you see yourself as a singer songwriter was it acting your first to love how did the jury begin I actually do you have a diary entry from when I'm little really small I loved writing in my diary and uh I wrote I wanted to be a singer and an actress
and a teddy bear maker and an ice cream lady you still have a way to go with some of those then I still have a way to go yeah I'm not quite there yeah I love it yeah apparently always wanted to do it and um I just loved singing so much and I loved like being part of storytelling I loved being in plays at school and I think uh it I just always always enjoyed it yeah awesome uh did you write I mean music growing up or did you just kind of did made of bricks come to you I mean what was the process
of writing that yeah so I went to a school called the Brit school which I was very lucky to get into I auditioned for it and um it's a free performing arts school in London awesome which is amazing because we need like free performing arts access to everybody otherwise absolutely rich people can be performers and and I think uh that school I studied theatre there so I'd grown up like playing piano and writing songs and loving music and then I just started taking acting classes and I got into
the Brit school and I I applied to be in the theatre department which was a little bit of a curveball like from my perspective but um I'd gone to an open day there and I was just so impressed with the theatre team and and theatre department that I was like I really want to try this and I'm so glad that I did because I really think that being part of theatre and doing so much storytelling through plays and monologues and like learning to write scripts and it was just such a creative environment
and I think it really honed my songwriting skills because I really just was storytelling through a different medium and I think that's why my first album is the way it is you know it's quite theatrical like skeleton song and mariello and little red and I've wanted to tell these like fairy tales almost through music so it was very influenced by my experience at the Brit school just kind of growing up
as a teenage girl a teenage girl in London yeah I love that our co-host Haley had foundations as her my space song and she said that her uh her mom and dad did not approve of it I think some of the language in the album which is hilarious knowing Haley she's our I've never heard or even say H.E. double hockey sticks she's so hilarious so I want to talk about girl talk and the influence that right girl music has had on you how did that album come to fruition um
yeah so I guess really it started with my second record my best friend is you which is the sort of beginnings of me expressing myself in like an angry way I was always into well no I wasn't always into punk music I got into punk music at like 16 or 17 years old when I was working in a shop called River Island selling like clothes and I hadn't gotten into university and I bought this buzzcock's record and I was like oh this feels like me and I suddenly I think I always thought
some writing before had to be so like poetic and all of a sudden the buzzcooks were just telling me like how they felt and it was pop really in my opinion but and it was simple but it was still really important um and I thought I can write like this and so I loved the buzzcooks and then I went down to to the spit-all-fills record market that I had on I think it was on Wednesdays back then I don't know
if it's still on even but I went down there and I had those all these like bloke selling records and I just went up and I said I really like punk music I think because I love this buzzcooks record and I don't really know anything about it and I really want to know and he loved it got out all these albums for me and he was like yeah teaching me all about British punk let me show you the way yeah it was really cool he was like really it was really great and um and so I got into bands like
the adverts and the zips and like just just like British punk really there's punk compilations called boards at teenagers like I got really into and and and so my punk journey began then and then when my first record came out my life kind of changed really drastically and I was just treated quite badly by the media you know I would sort of be like the guardian would be like rolling the eyes and being like very like oh she's like I don't know the guardian of was kind of like doff all of my
creative work because I was harsh enough or something but um and then also the daily mail we're like highlighting my acne and and like and lots of online media with pulling me like too fat and too ugly to be a pop star to the daily mail sucks like she's oh my god I can't imagine talking about anybody like that let alone I mean somebody who's so young it yeah and I was just you know it was difficult and
and I also was experiencing sexism in my industry and the music industry and like how it was so male dominated and how those men would sort of treat me and talk about me and I started to get really angry about that I know I know I was in a relationship that wasn't happy in and I was dealing with like a bunch of shit there as well and I just started to write a bit more expressing that anger yeah and then hi my best friend as you uh was done there was just so much going on in my career that I
felt out of control of in terms of who I was employing and then I realized I can fire everyone and I did yes love it right and then I got dropped by my record label although this didn't happen I didn't get dropped straight away so I think I like had this big break up I was like angry at the media I was angry with how I was being treated I didn't like how I was being treated in my own workplace and I realized I could fire everybody so I hired like an all-girl band and I wanted like women on stage
and I wanted to like take some control back myself and my life and um yeah I just decided like I'm going to go on this like rampage of like getting really into like the punk music I was into and the riot girl movement that really inspired me and have girls on stage and like really connect with all these teenage girls that the media are writing about in this negative way well I'm going to like connect with them and like make something for them that they can listen to yeah yeah and all my fans
are like they are they do kind of have this like outside feel you know it's like people that are misunderstood or underestimated or in some way often like I'm drawn to my lyrics and so I feel like I became so close with my fans and I wrote this like angry guitar record inspired by the riot girl movement and punk music and my label just got like less and less communicative with me and then they dropped me and I just sort of I felt like I describe this time as being like on a train
where the driver is dead and me and my band were like at the back of the train character we had to like get the front before and it was like going to go over like a train track that like was yeah get to the front before it's all destroyed yeah and we had to like get to the front and try and take the wheel and um and that's what those years were like which were very chaotic as you can imagine but also yeah really quite fun and uh they also just like completely shaped me and made me the woman I
am today like I'm so grateful for those chaotic years and that doesn't mean I'm grateful to people that like treat me badly but I'm grateful that I like navigated those experiences with people that I did who have my back and like helped me learn and grow it on the way and um yeah they just kind of have just made me who I am can't imagine not going through all that stuff now right like looking back on yeah just shitty times or anything where you felt like you were underestimated things weren't
going your way and then making it back on to the other side and you have those people that made it to the front of the train with you and you're like okay this is my squad like these are my bitches yeah like true anything now absolutely oh I love rye girl music too I love um war on women and petrol girls yeah so any any of that music it just resonates with me so much especially since uh I don't know
when there's different legislative things coming down the track and the United States and you know things are just changing I'll just sit in my car and I'm like okay it's a day that I need that playlist yeah you tell us it to some like fuck the patriarchy music right now I'm sad do you know I'm skating poly no skating poly oh my god I've just changed your life like you're gonna be obsessed with them you should actually interview them because they are oh that'd be sick they're two uh sisters and
actually their brother is also in the band um Curtis he joined the band later but they've been like a band since they were like kids really little kids like Kelly I don't know how she was she must be like 10 nine or 10 when she was first in the band I mean there's footage of the first gig and Kelly Kelly's like I'm like oh wait she's like this tiny little girl I've been waiting yep um and I met them on
the girl during the girl talk era uh somebody introduced them to me like showed me a music video and I was like these girls are so cool I've got to get them to open up for me and they opened up two shows to me and one was in Chicago and it was Halloween when I met them and when I met them uh Kelly was in uh like a bride outfit dead bride like covered in blood and she had this like platinum hair and
she was just really she's like so much energy and she's like talking and she's just a little kid and she's just like oh no she's such a spirit and then Hayton was like silent and she had a hand homemade Dalek costume from Doctor 2 and she was just really quite a mysterious and I was a bit scared of her and I was thinking oh my god it hits me um but it's you know like it reminds me of Dynamics and then my I have two sisters it reminds me of like some of our Dynamics and then they got on stage and
they opened up and just blew me away with this performance and they're just incredible incredible songwriters like electric performers they're so prolific they've made so many albums even though they're so young oh my gosh they've poured for years and they're just they're like they're they're almost like veteran rock stars but they're they're only like 21 like they've just been like doing it so long and they're one of my favorite bands ever and I feel when you need a moment like that where
you just need some like emotion and some raid and just like like powerful women like kind of giving you hope in the world and expressing how exactly how you feel I will always listen to them that's amazing thank you for the recommendation I'm absolutely gonna check that out any music that Kate Nash tells me to listen to I'm gonna listen to it's gonna happen so and then your album after Girl Talk you funded through Kickstarter right yeah so I funded my fourth
album through Kickstarter and that was nerve-racking but beautiful really because it again like just connected me with my fans and gave me independence and an opportunity to put out a record without signing to a record label yeah so I still haven't done and I'm like working on a new album and yeah like I really value my independence now even though it can be difficult navigating the music industry I think that you just learn each time you put something out you learn something new
and it's just it's a career that will never be one path it will never be oh here's the guidebook on how you will you you work in the music industry it just doesn't have that because it's different for every single artist you know so yeah I am still navigating it now for my next record but I'm excited and I feel inspired to like keep writing records and yeah what's the like the sound like for your next
album coming out I mean is it gonna be more of that like punk kind of aspect in there any hints you can give us the puts to come yeah so I was really inspired actually worked on a musical in New York talking about once more feeling I worked on a musical where I closed the all of the music for the show and so I was very inspired by like string arrangements and like writing for a musical so there's a bit of a musical theatre influence in my new awesome yeah so going back to my Buffy days
once again all comes back to Buffy oh that sounds awesome thank you very exciting is that gonna be 2023 that will I don't know who knows I'm like in the middle of planning that now so time will tell time will tell whenever it feels right absolutely when it feels done so I want to talk about your acting career as well yes me too yes so what you know helped you transition or what did that feel like when did you take your first acting role when did you think okay this is something I
want to try now too um I so I was doing theatre at the Brit school like I said and I basically just always wanted to do it and didn't have an opportunity so I met my acting manager because of my music because her daughter was into my songs she was into my music and so she came to one of my gigs and she'd read that I went to the Brit school and I had an interest in um you know acting and so I started auditioning with her and going out for things and then I got my first role in 2015 in a
pilot that was directed by Gus Van Sant and Junji Cohen um and that was just such an amazing experience of starting starring Eddie Isard um and it didn't get picked up yeah it was set in 1800s it was like Salon which is like it was really cool that's awesome yeah so cool but um Junji was producing a new show called The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling and I auditioned for that and I got the role of Ronda Richardson in Glow um and yeah that really felt like my first proper job
I'd done a couple of short films and I did the the pilot that didn't get picked up but Glow was like my first you know like a show that really went out into the world and um I just loved it so much um and so I loved Glow I watched Glow it's just the best it was the best like the girls everybody on that show is just so incredible to work with um but yeah I uh that's like you know what but how coffee wars came about because I was acting and I was working on Glow and then I got an audition
for coffee wars um so yeah which is kind of what I'm here to talk about really yeah absolutely so I watched coffee wars it is so cute I was cracking up the entire time I didn't expect it going into be so like raunchy and I loved that anytime there's a poop joke I'm gonna laugh like oh my it kind of reminded me of um of a dodgeball in some like points of it which I think is such a good movie too um but yeah let's let's talk about coffee wars I mean what was it like
unset it looks like you guys just had a lot of fun drank a lot of coffee right we did drink a lot of coffee um we had so much fun it was just I mean it's such a fun cast um it's a really funny like script it's got this important message I'm playing a vegan coffee booster um and I'm kind of like failing I guess like losing money and uh my character enters a coffee competition which is based on these real world championship like coffee competitions that I they have into Brovnik and um
my character's trying to like make it work and save the world one cup of coffee at a time so it's a comedy with a message and I think comedy is a great way to spread like any kind of message because it's not yeah look I abonbarded these days with bad news and like difficult things and I think that like laughing is a great way to take in a message because you don't have to feel horrible while you learn
how to do things in a better way for the planet and for animals you're like there's facts sprinkled in it so she would talk about you know how many gallons of water it takes to produce um like one gallon of cow's milk and so it's like there's there's facts in there but they aren't it feels natural that Joe is saying this she feels like within her character yeah yeah she's quite intense and she also is often the butt of the joke and it's not like you're necessarily she's not the one like
making all of the best decisions or always in the right or anything she makes mistakes and I think that that's such a great way as well to like get a message across because you're not like being Joe is quite preachy but she's not always right so you're not like like constantly thinking like she's doing the right thing you know I mean it's not kind of forcing it down your throat and and there's a team of misfits which I love a team of misfits and yeah and really funny actors in the show
that in the movie that was just so fun to work with I'm I really loved working with Toby Sebastian because we had so many scenes together and he plays oh he played the guy with the nose ring right who is competing against you oh my gosh he was so just funny and such a dick like I wrote funny his physical comedy is like ridiculous yeah we shot in Serbia and also in Colombia so I got to go to Colombia and see like real like coffee fields and that's amazing Maria Kansita who's just
incredible as well like physical comedian um I mean we just we had such a good summer making this movie it was so much fun and I think it's a really bright colorful um fun movie that I ever hope that people love I agree it's really just fun to look at like the color palette is just so bright and draws you in I mean even Joe's hair and her wardrobe it matches her personality so much with just how you know outspoken and passionate she is like of course she has to have green hair
of course she does yeah my boyfriend um did the hair actually um he worked doing his hair so I needed hair on the movie as well but we were talking at the beginning basically about like wanting to have this colorful hair and it kind of um there was like a few movie references that we had that uh eternal sunshine of the spotless mind was one where the hair is like such a part of a character and it's this kind of crazy hair but it's also weirdly natural on her and it feels
really lived in and like green it was such a like obviously because of like going green for the planet kind of had that you know connection that like even her hair has a message but it's like fun and bright and colorful and um and yeah her clothes we loved like both Sresha you know Sresha Monica Jackson from Derry Girl amazing in the film we just loved our wardrobe because it was so colorful it's so colorful oh she was so cute in this movie and I loved that she worked at the
bookstars for a second show goes and saves her so cute what are some like good stories you have from set did you guys all go out together while you were shooting it what kind of camaraderie was going on behind the scenes bar on top of the hotel that we'd like all hang out in and there was a night club that some people would go and party in but I didn't do a lot of partings I just had so many lines
and so much work to be who that I was often like trying as much sleep as possible um but we did drink a lot of coffee together um and we got taught how to make coffee by real coffee championships like the the beer winners and they have this amazing coffee shop called Bloom that they like owned in in Serbia and we'd go there on the weekends and um yeah like we all just stayed in the same hotel so that's really fun when you're kind of on this little trip it's like not a it's like a weird like
summer camp feeling you know yeah yeah it's like all sort of living together but separately and like getting to go to work together every day and in a new country and um me and Toby just laughed he just makes me laugh so much like he's so fun to work with and if I was like tired because it was really hot that summer and if I would like get like tired he'd always be like making me laugh and kind of turning and if I was like you know when you're like really hot and really exhausted like
I'm about to switch into being such a bitch right now because I'm gonna go in a cranky mode here in a second and he would always like stop that from happening because it was just so funny like being around him you're chemistry in the movie with him was so good I was like I know they're supposed to be enemies but these two are just so good in the same room together just bouncing off the little barbs waffee each other yeah it's really good to have a fun enemy I think right I'm chemistry to like
hate someone on screen but like love them in real life absolutely so do you know how to brew a good cup of coffee I actually do yeah awesome I learned why you get bad cups of coffee in terms of like an espresso because it's actually a recipe which I didn't realise so the way of it's like all it's very like specific and I just didn't know how detailed that it yeah and when you actually know how much like
detail goes into a cup of very good coffee you understand what what the difference is between like like why you why you go in a coffee shop and get a great like flat white or a latte and then you go into one you're like yeah it was just okay and it's like in the details and we got taught all about that by Lamazokko people at Lamazokko but also by the championships in Serbia and but I will say my art we got taught how to do like foam artwork and mine was horrendous I
I'm so amazed now when I go and get a coffee and they do like a little heart or something and I'm like oh my god that's amazing how you do that I'm so excited I have to like Instagram it immediately on one of those people who's like okay I'll enjoy it but first I have to like look at this really hard yeah hard to do it and so I respect it even more now that I know how terrible I am at it if you're going to a coffee shop in London where are you going and what are you ordering
oh my god um okay oh well there's a place called Charlie's in wood green that I really like and it has vegan breakfast so Joe from coffee wars would approve um and they just do a great like oat flat white oat flat white when I want like something creamy and then if I want like a like really a and a just like a purest coffee like a pour over yeah I have to know how to out bloom in Belgrade in Serbia and it is just like the most incredible pour over that I've ever had
it's so damn good watching the entire time make me want a good cup of coffee so bad I yeah suck my husband's really good he does he grinds his own beans and he does the french press and the pour over I'm gonna put myself on blast and I definitely like well pour my grounds into the Mr. Coffee and just press brew and then I wonder why it doesn't taste good so weird or drink yesterday's coffee so when you first read the script for for Joe I mean did her veganism resonate with you you're a vegan
too right how long has that been going on for and you know what what made you passionate about that want to go vegan yeah I have been vegan for five nearly six years and I was vegetarian for eight years before that and really I was watching Okja I don't know if you've seen that movie I have it it's amazing and it's got such a great cast and it's comedy and action and it's about this super pig that's been built to basically make like farming meat even cheaper and even quicker and this little
Korean girl is like best friends with her pig and she doesn't know that's why it's in her life because it was bread for that and then when it gets taken away to New York for this like competition she goes on a mission to like save her pig and it's really fun and it's and then like there's always action and it builds up to this scene at the end where there's all these like super pigs and their animation so they're not real pigs they're in this like massive factory farm and you just
watch it and you're like I know this isn't real because they're not real animals but this is real because this is how we part in this why why the fuck are we doing this you know and you can't deny like watching it you're like the way they filmed that was so impactful to me and I just sort of remember thinking I've been vegetarian for eight years and I've like denied the veganism thing for long enough and I was like I've watched the documentaries I know the truth yeah and I just
I can't do this anymore I can't just buy it and I don't want to be like I don't want to be part of um I just don't want to be part of it because like what we're doing is so far removed from even being like food that is so unethical and it's just so long that like I can't participate in any of it anymore so that's when I decided to go vegan and so when I got this script of coffee was I thought this is
great because I personally know that movies can actually change people and impact them and make them like change their ways and change their decisions and I'm an example of that so that's why I was like there is a point to making movies that have a message because I've personally been affected by one so yeah and I've I really like love I love being vegan because it um it's just like a really kind way to live and when there's so many things going on in the world and we're so aware of like
climate change and the threat of climate change to like the human survival it's a really easy way to participate in something positive because you know being vegan now is like pretty easy out there's lots of options yeah so many options there's ways to be really healthy there's also ways to be unhealthy if you're scared that it's too healthy to diet um but like it's just like a reassuring feeling that you're like not hurting anyone you're not hurting any animals although I do like
in Okja there's a character that doesn't eat anything because everything is basically bad for the planet and he's always like fainting because he doesn't have any energy because he doesn't eat any food um so I guess you're always cutting something but it's nice not to be like participating in like the mass cruelty of like and against animals and um yeah and it's nice to talk about that through comedy really is because people can feel good when they learn about it and think about it
they can feel good and laugh laugh you know yeah it's a nice way to get the message across and not I mean because I've seen those documentaries too where it's like you you don't want to look because it's just so horrifying and violent and those are very important for people to see but then when you give it to them and you know the comedy it's like something that you know people can kind of relax like oh that's an interesting fact oh that's funny yeah and makes it seem like it's more
accessible like oh yeah yeah I could do that I you know I uh I have a friend who's vegan who oh man I'm not seen in the movie when she's talking to the cow and then it immediately cuts to her dad serving the cow for dinner and that exact thing happens to my friend crystal who's a vegan she lived on a farm growing up and loved this cow and then her parents like served it to her no that's terrible and that's so traumatic yeah wait how can I be like oh my god and she became a vegan
right there like she was like yeah just horrifying is Joe yep yep yeah the whole what I saw that I was like oh my god this is crystal like she's just looked down at the plate was like what how could you do that like it's just so traumatic coffee man maybe for her then because she's gonna relate to that well yes I know I'm like I need to show her coffee or she's gonna love this so obviously you're into
you know veganism but I was reading a lot about your activism I mean what does it look like right now to be part of the you know feminist movement in England and first is Los Angeles yeah you know it's it's stressful out there in the world it's stressful out there in the world yeah I think that I've been thinking a lot about how to be a positive force in the world you know because I think that like there's a lot of heaviness and I think we need lightness we need joy we need we need
music we need art we need to like uplift people so that they don't feel defeated by what everybody's just gone through with like a global pandemic and now like this like economic crisis and cost of living crisis and just sort of like always feeling like the news is constantly like bombarding us if like bad bad feelings and so yeah I've been thinking a lot about how to be more involved with like local community so I'm I've just moved back so I'm gonna be exploring that to be honest but I'm
I'm going to an event tonight for this charity called Freedom Charity which is an amazing charity that they work to like prevent like violence against girls dishonor violence dishonor abuse and basically forced married and female genital mutilation so well and so it's like heavy subject matter that we did an art show a digital art show where we asked like lots of different artists and musician celebrities like actors different types of artists to including like traditional artists photographers
to submit something that basically represented freedom to them and we wanted to celebrate personal freedoms to like kind of again bring people into a heavy conversation but in like a lightweight so that you engage more people and like raise more awareness because it feels accessible and it's something you don't want to shy away from because it's like celebrating freedom and I think that the work that they do there is really amazing so we're going to an event tonight
to kind of close the event because they've raised a lot of money and sold a lot of the artwork and there's a choir performing called Lips Choir and then it's like amazing London female choir and they do like pop covers and like UK garage covers and just loads of like epic like songs that like make you feel really good and it's a bunch of women like all different ages are really diverse like all different types of people in the choir and it just is very uplifting
so I'm really looking forward to seeing them tonight. That sounds amazing one more time what's the charity called freedom freedom that sounds beautiful yeah I agree any just small ways to get involved in the local community is amazing it's just you know it helps you feel like you're making that little difference too but then you also know if enough people make that little difference you know big things
can happen and you can feel connected what's going on around you and just mean again like meeting different types of people so yeah I'm also I'm really excited that coffee was is going to come out in the UK and to see what people think of it and to like it's been a while since I've been able to like I don't know like promote any like glow was such a loss to us in the pandemic like the girls and yeah, locally we we missed like we side shooting season four but we only did two episodes and so we
didn't get to kind of have that celebratory like end of season so it's really nice to just so gut wrenching when glow is canceled but with coffee was it's nice to be kind of back in the acting world and like for writing something that I really enjoyed making and that I really care about as well that's beautiful so where can people watch coffee wars I found it on Google Play but how you know how is it most accessible for people to see yeah it's on Google Play Apple and Amazon
and and I'm not I think in the UK it would be the same and then after that they're going to be on I think I don't know when but like I think it's the 10th or 11th that comes out in the UK so yeah Google Play Amazon and Apple oh beautiful so it's all happening this month here in the midst of it yeah that's so exciting it was an amazing movie I really enjoyed myself I was giggling the whole time and it made me want coffee and it made me want to read more about veganism so I
think it did everything it was supposed to do yeah and then beyond that it made me want to add some green to my hair I'm gonna be honest green is a great hair color we're not I love having it so it's weirdly natural even though it's very unnatural I mean because it feels like it exists in the world like it's a natural color yeah it's like the grass one was it a wig or did you really dye your hair green no I dyed it yeah that's incredible I just rock it I loved it
awesome well thank you so much for being here with me today Kate it was honestly a pleasure I was so excited to meet you I don't know I just reading about you I was like I feel like we could just be like two buds just talking and that's exactly what it was like I love it yeah if if people want to you know connect with you follow you where can they find you in social media um @KateNash on Instagram and Twitter um and then I did start a TikTok but I don't really use it it's too much work
so Instagram's probably the place I agree TikTok's way too much work I can't do like I said he could millennial it's good if it's gonna be Instagram awesome so we will follow you on there everybody please make sure to check out coffee wars when it comes out in your country anything else you want to pitch while you're here today Kate anything else people should know about your journey go vegan people it's better for the planet and it's better for
you and you won't regret it you heard it from Kate Nash thank you all so much for tuning in I am Shauna you can find me on Instagram um and TikTok unfortunately at Shauna Trinidad S-H-A-U-N-A-T-R-I- N-I-D-A-D to hook up with us at pop culture junkie go to our website popculturejunkie.com you can find out how to download subscribe to the show reviews really help us you guys give us a thumbs up even if you just download an episode that helps us out our website is filled with all the links to
our social media and our patreon for some exclusive content thank you for listening thank you so much Kate Nash and everybody come back next time for another hit of pop culture yay Pop Culture Junkie is a production of Pop Culture Entertainment Group [Music]