Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - SARAH CHALKE: Scrubs Secrets, Replacing a Sitcom Icon & The Pressure of Growing Up on TV

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Sarah Chalke joins us for a candid and layered conversation about stepping into Roseanne as a teenager and the emotional toll of replacing a beloved character. She reflects on the Scrubs years, the freedom of comedy, and how that chemistry shaped her career. We also get into Firefly Lane, motherhood, advocacy for her son, and what it takes to protect your identity after growing up in front of millions. Thank you to our sponsors: 🛍️ Shopify: https://shopify.com/inside 🍽️ Hello Fresh: https://hellofresh.com/insideofyou10fm 🥬 AG1: https://drinkag1.com/inside/ __________________________________________________ 💖 Patreon: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/insideofyou⁠⁠ 👕 Inside Of You Merch: ⁠⁠https://store.insideofyoupodcast.com/⁠⁠ __________________________________________________ Watch or listen to more episodes! 📺 ⁠⁠https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/show⁠⁠ __________________________________________________ Follow us online! 📸 Instagram: ⁠⁠https://instagram.com/insideofyoupodcast/⁠⁠ 🤣 TikTok: ⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@insideofyou_podcast⁠⁠ 📘 Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/insideofyoupodcast/⁠⁠ 🐦 Twitter: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/insideofyoupod⁠⁠ 🌐 Website: ⁠⁠https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So I don't tell anybody at brunch. I didn't want to worry anyone. But my sleeve comes down and Zach's like, why are you bleeding from your arm? And I was like, oh, yeah, I, um, it was actually quite surreal stepping onto the set. Stepping onto a set where you spent your entire 20s and then you're stepping on 25 years later. I can't quite explain what that felt like. We were talking about awards the other day and I was like, I've got second place for racewalking and I have honorable mention for best dressed junior pirate in a sailing race.

I was kind of like jokingly. Like, you know when you, like, come really close to someone to snow spray them? You knew where the story was going? I did. You did. You felt it. When you said skiing in Japan. You were like, oh, no.

That's what the oh, no face was for. It's going to happen. Is it because when I opened my club soda, it sprayed you in the face? Well, things are adding up. First one cast on the show, is that true? Were there nerves when you were stepping under the set for the first time for the reboot? You're not tired of each other at all. And I know that it was hell on set.

Were you privy to that? Sprechenzezezeze with Schreiberin? Yeah, naturally. I mean, it was a long time, since I've spoken have, so I forgets all this. Why are you doing it? You're listening to Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. Thanks for joining us.

A lot of interviews lately. So if you're just joining us and you're here for Sarah Chalk, who is unbelievable scrubs and much more, stick around. And if you liked the interview, if you liked my interviewing skills, I'm asking you to subscribe and write a review. It's the least you could do, right?

Help out if you like the interview. Yeah. She was great. Um, you could follow us at at inside of you podcast on Instagram and Facebook at inside of you pod on the X. And, uh, you can go on my Instagram at the Michael Rosenbaum and the link tree is there. There's cameos. I do wonderful cameos. There's the inside of you online store.

If you want some great merch autograph pilot scripts and tumblers and small the lunch boxes, et cetera, et cetera, get it. You can go there, the inside of you online store and get a bunch of great stuff. And there's new tumblers coming too, Ryan. Cool. Yes, a few other things. I'm going to be doing cons. So I think my next con is Monterey, Mexico.

Oh, March 20th. And then I'm taking a little hiatus. And, but then we have a smallville cruise. Go to cruiseville.com. There's tons of excursions. You got to get on the boat. Ryan, it's going to be so much fun. I'm doing a swimming with reef sharks with Tom.

I'm doing, um, uh, What else am I doing? I'm doing a karaoke pajama party. There's dinner with the cast. There's so much stuff. Get on the cruise. Cruzeville.com. Get the excursions.

Reef sharks with me, swimming with pigs with me, all that stuff. And Rosie's puppy fresh breath for your dog's breath, just a cat full of, in your dog's water and odorless, tasteless and your dog's breath will be divine. Rosie's puppy fresh breath on Amazon.

Also letting you know that I will be, it's called cackle freaks March 27th my friend Cameron his friend at 930 p.m. at the lyric Hyperion March 27th 930 p.m. go to my Instagram then go to cackle C Cackel freaks Cackle Freaks and see me. It's going to be a blast. So I'm kind of the not the MC but the king for the night or something. They do something and it's a story and it's improv and I'm there and just come cackle freaks March 27th at 9.30 p.m. And also a big shout out to the good neighbor restaurant on Ventura Boulevard. I've been going there for 25 years.

Rick and Betty, I love you. It's in Studio City. I go there every week. It's family owned and support them. The good neighbor on Ventura, a little mom and paw place. And I just want to give them a shout out. Today we have a great guest. Ryan, are you feeling all right?

I mean, the fact that I fractured my finger the other week, last week. It's fine. Yeah. Yeah. You just got to be careful. Yeah, that's why it's wrapped up. No pick in your nose, bro. Well, I've got nine other figures for that.

That's true. And I use them all. Not yours, but mine. Sarah Chalk is an unbelievable guest. I had so much fun with her today. She is just the real deal. She's the real deal. She's incredibly funny.

And you'll have to hear what Zach Braff has to say about her. Said some funny things and some wonderful things. And let's just get inside of it. Let's do it. Let's get inside of Sarah. Chalk. It's my point of view. You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience. All right. Well, the first thing you were telling me is something about Zach's podcast.

Oh, yeah. Just, I mean, this is amazing to come in here and be in the room with you. And I don't have to worry about any technical difficulties. Every time I went on Zach and Donald's podcast, it was like they were dealing with a newborn. baby. It was the same drill every time and every time I'd be like, I think my headphones are charged and they'd be like, go to the drop. I'm like, you lost me at drop down menu. And I'd get on with Danil, their producer every time. Be like, Dan, come on Earth with me. I'm going to sail into this one. And then I don't know what would happen. But there would be like 11 minutes. And I'd be like, Zach, you're going to cut all this out right? And he's like, oh, no, we're leaving in every single second. And I'm like sweating and my laptop isn't working. And the head.

phones won't connect to Bluetooth. I'm like, I don't understand. It was working three minutes ago. You're like me. I'm a little like, there's a lot going on and it's hard to sort of compartmentalize and just certain tasks seem so easy to me that easy for others yet are kind of not easy for me. Yeah. Yeah. And I think there's just certain areas of your life where you're like, okay, no, my brain's actually, it's filled up with other things and I'm not allowing this piece of technology in just too much too much too much too much too much to allow the technical side and yeah I feel like I totally agree there's some things that seem so simple you just mellowed out all a sudden did you notice her whole disposition you know and this and this well let me tell you about

let me tell you about mabeline what's in this club soda um I don't know part of it's in my eye she opened it like like a refreshing club soda and it just squirted in my eye go figure Zach so Zach I just want to so I was texting with Zach and you know I thought he was going to send me like text me back like a one liner about you and he just kept going she's a brilliant comic actor comedic actor you could use every take with her no ego loves an idea to play with never misses a line an angel of a human, a comedy director's dream, down to do it 10 different ways, silly and kind. And she was the first one cast on the show. Is that true?

Well, first of all, that's really nice things. Yeah. Well, he also adds, very clumsy, always injured. Literally every day something insane happens to her. Yes. Yes. So what do you think about what he said? I'll just say thanks to the first half.

And the second, like very much, thank you. And the second half is true. And actually when we just went back to do this second version of scrubs, we have five new interns who are in their 20s and early 30s. And we were meeting them all two days before we started shooting. We were rehearsing. And he said to them, so Chalky's going to injure herself every day. Every day there's going to be something broken. Chalky.

She's going to come in. And she's going to be like, you're going to be like, you're going to injure herself every day. She's going to be like, you're not going to believe what happened. I was hiking the dogs. And so the next day is the day before shooting. And I'm running down the backside of Gross Mountain and with the dogs. In Vancouver. In Vancouver.

And I was going to meet actually Zach and the producers and a few of the actors for brunch. And I was in a rush. And I slipped and I broke my finger. And I thought, I haven't had an x-ray yet. Maybe it's fine. It's probably broken. but might be fine. So I don't tell anybody at brunch.

I don't want to worry anyone. But my sleeve comes down and Zach's like, why are you bleeding from your arm? And I was like, oh, yeah, I fell and my finger might be broken. Is he laughing right now? Is he laughing while you're telling you this? He's like, this is very on brand. Because I used to have to call our producer Randall like once a season on Scrubs 1.0 and say like, I'm going to have to stand in this scene behind a bed.

because I can't walk because I'm in a cast or a boot or crutches. And so you'd think that that would be like the one thing that would have changed in the 25 years since we started is that I would understand a little more where my body is in space. You know, that's okay. It's endearing. It's like chalky. Something's going to happen to chalky and it happens. And everybody's waiting for it to happen.

Yep. And I delivered. I came through. Yeah. I love that you're a Vancouverite. Is that what you said, Colin? Yeah. Yeah, Vancouver Heights.

I know the whole anthem, Canadian anthem. I know every province and territory. Yeah, because I did Smallville there for years. And then I did another show there. I did a couple of movies there. And Vancouver is beautiful. It's fantastic. People are too nice.

I always remembered like, oh my gosh, nobody ever gets upset. The only one upset is me or Tom on set. Why are you guys so freaking cool? Stop. Because it's pretty up there. It is. Good air. I mean, you wake up, you walk out your door, there are the mountains.

There's the mountains, there's the ocean. I mean, you really can't beat it. It's pretty great. How are you about the USA Canada gold medal match? Well, yeah, women's and men's. Yeah. I was really happy. Look, Canada wins all the time.

We've won the gold twice in history. Right. So, you know, I know it's a big rivalry, but you got to be like, okay, it's like the Patriots. They win every year at that one. point in their, you know. It's a heated rivalry. Yeah, speaking of a heated rivalry. Do you watch that? Oh my God. I have seen the first episode. My friends are texting me. There will be an intervention if you do not have the entire thing watched by the time you get back to Vancouver. Every woman, my girlfriend, every woman loves the show. And I'm like, okay, so you guys,

what you love is watching other men have sex. So what, what's, am I missing something in our relationship? But they tell me how, what a beautiful love story it is. Yeah. And, and, And I think that's cool. I mean, I'm literally, I'm, you know, one-sixth in. So in our next conversation, I'll be able to tell you all of the things I love about it. But I'm very happy that such an incredible piece of art is coming out of Canada. Yeah. Yeah.

And what's funny, ironic, if you will, I play ice hockey every Monday night in the men's league. I've been playing for years. And my nickname's Rosie, Rosenbaum. And there's a character, the lead character or one of them is Rosie. Amazing. Amazing. And so now they're like, Rosie. I love it.

He said, wait, how can we play ice hockey? I grew up playing. I grew up in Indiana, really. I was born in New York, but I grew up. My dad was president of the hockey league, and he used to ship me off to Canada for hockey school every summer. And I just, I always loved it. I was going to play college, and then I had a back surgery, and that kind of stopped me. Wow.

I mean, I was good, but I wasn't like, you know, I mean, you go to Canada and it's like, holy shit, everybody's good. Except for me. Except for you. You playing a mom's league? Well, I try. I'm the only Canadian who didn't learn how to ice skate growing up. We skied. Never learned to ice skate.

Okay. So I turned 40 and I, you know, my kids both play. My nieces and nephews all play. And my sister and I are like, we have to like learn so we can at least go do stick and puck. And so we bought all of the gear and then stepped on the ice. And I was like, oh, shit, this is actually not doable. But now I'm committed. Like I can't go home and be like, I bought all the gear kids and it's too hard.

I'm not going to try. So I took a year of like skating lessons. Wow. That's the key to learn the skate. And then I, a mom friend said, why don't you come join this mom's league? And so I did. It was like so much fun, but so hard. And then when I went back to work, I was like, I can't be, I'm injuring myself walking.

Yeah, you can't play during your filming. You can't. One fall and that's it. Yeah. And especially now. Like, I feel like learning how to play hockey in your 40s is not the move. You need to learn when you're tiny and close to the ground. I think that's beautiful, though, that you're playing.

I do. I think that's really cool. It's really a fun sport. And I also just love, like, all team sports, like anything that's a team sport. Because I think that's a bit of a, like, early childhood wound for me because I couldn't make one team. So I've had this insatiable need to fill of just, like, making a team. Right. So even though.

Are you a scorer or a defenseman? I'm guessing you're a winger. I'm guessing I'm somebody who's trying to stay upright. Are you up front like a winger, right wing? There was no positions. No positions. There was no positions. You just go out there and skate.

You skate and you just try and get your stick on the puck and do things. I'm going to check in with you in a couple of years and see where you are. You're going to get competitive. Oh, I mean, I'm a very, very competitive human in games, like gaming like board games. Sure. What's your board game? What you go to? Code names.

I don't know that. You don't know code names? You know code names, Ryan? Yes. It's the best. Okay, you have to play code names. You're going to love it. You're going to have to message me about code.

Yeah. Yeah, you're going to love it. Did you mention somewhere before the reboot of Scrubs that I wish I could do another series like Scrubs here in Vancouver? Or was that something you were hinting about because you already knew? No, this was a couple of years before we started talking about it in a serious way. and comedies don't really shoot in Vancouver. It's really rare that a comedy shoots up there. I grew up in Vancouver.

I moved to L.A. for 17 years, and then I moved back like a decade ago. And I was mostly traveling for work. And then I did a drama in Vancouver. And I was like, you know, I just want to do a comedy like scrubs that felt like scrubs that that shoots in Vancouver. And now my nieces are like, do you have powers? Because I'd like a boyfriend. The other one's like, I'd like this.

I'd like that. They're putting in orders to me. my manifesting powers after that happened because it makes no sense. Where did you shoot Scroves before? LA. Corner of Riverside. What a miracle for you. It truly is.

You thought you were going back to L.A.? Yeah. Yeah. Totally. It was like a six-month kind of period of time where it was like back and forth between is it going to be shooting in L.A. or Vancouver. And then I remember exactly where I was driving when I found out. Where?

On Granville Street in Vancouver. On Granville? Yeah. Granville would be, isn't there like a. Cherry bomb where you make t-shirts. They had a cherry bomb place. Oh, is it? I don't know.

I love making t-shirts off together. And there was that bar that everybody went to back in the day that was just dirty and fights and what was that bar? Oh, on Granville? Granville, I think it. The Roxy? Yes. The Roxy.

Yeah, I went there in my, my 19s and 20s. Not a great place to find someone, is it? No, no, I don't think that's what it's known for. No. I don't think that's what it is. I said, wait, did you love Vancouver when you're in? there? I did, but I missed home. I missed my friends. Yeah. So as the seasons went on, like I got a houseboat on Granville Island. I was on a houseboat. I was next to who's that

Chris Isaac had a houseboat next to me. And I, yeah, I lived in the houseboat with my friend Tom Danine. And honestly, the sliding glass doors in the back every day there would be like otters or whatever. Like, what do you call them? What do you call them? Sea lions. Yeah, sea all the otters. Yeah. Coming up, like literally on looking at me, there's only the door. It was just, it was beautiful.

It was awesome. And then. That's so cool. As the seasons went on, I was like, man, I really miss my friends. So if I was off Friday, I'd fly back Thursday night or Friday morning and come back Sunday. And I would start. Sometimes I'd come back twice in a week. And I would just, you know, so.

But I do love Vancouver. There will always always be a place in my heart for Vancouver. And I've been there many years. So Zach also said he's key for all this information that you're newly in love. I am. How long? Almost two years. Two years.

Has it been easy the whole time? Yeah. Really? Yeah. Should it be easy or is it okay if you go through some shit? No, I think it's probably important to, like I'm waiting for the shit. I think you have to, but it hasn't come yet. You're not tired of each other at all?

Not at all. Not at all. You're so giddy. I, you know, speaking of like manifesting and talking about scrubs and saying, why can't we have scrubs in Vancouver? I wanted to meet someone. And I was like, okay, well, you don't get to pick all of the things. This person actually does have all of the things.

But I didn't know that was possible. So I said, I just want to meet someone who is like up for it and wants to have adventures with me. And I kind of like way overshot that manifest. Like he's way more. than me to the point of like, he was like, let's go skiing. All my buddies and are going skiing in Japan. So when they leave, why don't you come and we'll go skiing together for a week in Japan?

I said, I'd love to. So we're getting ready for the trip. And he's like, okay, so for when we get to, you know, if the snow is the right conditions, then they open the gates, we can go into the backcountry. So he's got to, you know, where the avalanche beacons and the shovels and the probes and the backpack. And I'm like, yep, totally. Like my comfort zone's here and this is like way out here. And it was the most fun and the best skiing I've ever been a part of until he was sort of below me on the hill.

And I skied toward him. And I was kind of like jokingly. Like you know when you like come really close to someone with snow spray them. You knew where the story was going. I did. You did. You felt it. When you said skiing in Japan.

You were like, oh no. That's what the oh no face was for. It's going to happen. Is it because when I opened my club soda? sprayed you in the face. Well, things are adding up. It's starting to, the puzzle. Materialized.

The pieces, the broken finger. So he's downhill of me and I was skiing up to him and my ski caught something. Japan's known for the most beautiful fluffy powder. And it's like, you know, thigh deep powder. I'm skiing down towards him through the trees and I catch my ski on something and I just ski right into him. And he's across the snow on a snowboard. And I just take him out.

and he falls on top of me. One of my knees goes this way. The other ankle goes this way. And I'm just like, they're going, oh, my God. Were you hurt? I tore my MCL in my left knee. They had to get you out of there. On a sled and then an ambulance and then...

Were you in an x-ray? It wasn't a lot of pain. Were you crying? You know, I was like pretty tough at first. It wasn't really the pain that made me cry. I was kind of like sitting there in the snow. know for like 15 minutes going, I don't want to stand up because if I stand up, I'm going to know what the denouement of this situation is. And then I stood up and I could weight bear a little bit

and I took a step and my leg gave out and I was like, no. And so then I cried and it was because of the, like, I've never had knee injury and it was more the idea of like, oh fuck, like what, what lies ahead? Like now, is it surgery? Like, what is this? How long are you out for? And we also had like this whole Tokyo portion of the trip ahead and a couple of days of skiing left. But I actually got really lucky. It was a pretty good healing process and not super bad. And he was a good sport. Yeah.

Because he's perfect. Yeah, exactly. Well, at that point, you know, I had my friends said like, does Michael know about, because I'd come down here for Krista Miller, Bill Lawrence's wife's birthday. And she had knocked my water over near her laptop. And she was like, does Michael know about this? And I was like, no, because it was like a month and a half in. And then there was the MCL tear and I took him out on the hill.

And I was like, yeah, he knows now. Now he knows. This show is sponsored by Better Help. March brings International Women's Day, a moment to celebrate women's strength, progress, and while recognizing how much they carry every day with so many unseen responsibilities, their emotional well-being can easily get overlooked. women deserve a space to care for themselves and therapy can help and with better help that support is always within reach. Take a moment and think about all the roles you play.

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You don't have to stress about that. Your emotional well-being matters. Find support and feel lighter in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com slash inside. That's BetterHELP. dot com slash inside tired of partisan noise america's more divided than ever but independent americans is adding light to contrast all that heat independent americans daily news with army veteran paul rickew pressing issues of the day the leaders who are shaping what america will be in the future we're going to bring

the righteous media five eyes independence integrity information inspiration and impact join the movement, independent Americans from Believe, follow and listen on your favorite platform. Apparently, your daughter came to set with a notepad and gave the entire cast notes. Yes. Yeah. So my, my, my, my little list is nine and everyone called her mini EP on set, because she would come to set. She would sit at the monitors with the producers and the director. And, you know, they gave her a context. She was wearing headphones. And props, gave her a clipboard and she would take notes. And so the first time we kind of came back to the monitors after a take and I see Frankie's

taking notes and we're not talking like a couple of things. She was like a page. Like what are some of the notes? Like a page of notes. I was, it would be like, mom, I think less face was one of them. Less face. Did you take her notes? Yeah, I did very seriously.

She was like, Donald, I don't think it was kind. He had to tell a patient they didn't look very good. And she said, Donald, don't think it was very kind when you said. that to that patient. And Zach was like, well, that's a script note. And it's too late for that

because we're already shooting. So we're going to have to, we're going to have to table that note, but we'll run it up the chain and let them know you thought that wasn't super kind. But, yeah, it was one of the fun parts about shooting in Vancouver as like,

my kids, my nieces and nephew came and everybody would visit the set. And it was, it was my daughter's very favorite thing. Every day, she was like, can I,

I think she can't believe that's a job is what's happening. Yeah. She was like, if they pay people to do this? I can do this all day. I can criticize you all day. Totally. She's like, I'll just, I'll just do that for you in life if you want mom. If you need notes. Yeah, you sucked as a mom today and here's why. Totally. And I did not like the amount of berries on my granola.

What was it like? Were there nerves when you were stepping under the set for the first time for the reboot? Was it like, can I still play this character? How many years had it been? It was 25 years since the first day I played her. And then it was like, like 16 years since we had stopped. So this is like kind of foreign. It's another, it's a lifetime ago. And I know, I mean, if somebody said, hey, you're going to play Lex Luthor tomorrow, shave your head, you know, I'd be a little nervous. I know I could do it, but I'd be nervous. Were you nervous? So it was, you know, actually quite surreal stepping onto the set. We went two days before we started shooting for rehearsal. And first of all, stepping onto a set where you spent,

your entire 20s, and then you're stepping on 25 years later. I can't quite explain what that felt like, especially since we shot in this abandoned hospital, you know, in the valley, and that got torn down. And now they've rebuilt the sets, and we knew that was happening. But we kind of thought, oh, it'll be kind of pretty accurate. Like maybe they'll be like 60 or 70% like the sets were, and they were exactly the same.

Like to a T, everything was identical. So it was like, that was such a weird experience, seeing that. brought back like these you get these waves of memories just like stepping into the cafeteria set and remembering whatever was happening on set that day or in your life or you know a scene that you did or a fantasy sequence and so it felt like this weird kind of like time warp because it's the same character and the same people on the exact same set and writing and I had kind of thought it's going to take a minute to step back into it and what was weird was actually how natural it felt.

Like it was like within hours. Like you're just playing that part again because it's just in you. It's part of you. It's part of your cells. It's part of your bones. Like when you read a script, you just actually know how it's going to come out.

And as opposed to a regular first day where you don't know anyone, you're trying to meet the people, you're trying to find your way into the character. All of those elements were not there. And so I would say like the biggest adjustment was kind of figuring out along with Zach, who was directing the episode,

was great. He directed the pilot, was like, how do we make sure that we're kind of honoring the characters and who they were, but also bringing it into 2026 and it feeling super grounded? Because, you know, season one was super grounded. And then as we went on, we kind of got more and more broad. And Bill and Zach and Aseem, Batra, our showrunner,

and ABC wanted to really bring it back to that season one grounded feel. And so that was what we kind of, I think, would be the biggest thing that we played with in that first week, two weeks was like, you know, trying it. Luckily, we had the luxury to try it a few different ways. Play it. I'm sure the first scene, the first scene, they're like, hey, give this an extra couple hours, just so in case people need to, did anybody have a hard time jumping right

back into it? No. No. I bet the guest stars were kind of nervous. You know, so that we got so lucky. I mean, that was always the way it was in Scrubs, you know, the first round was like, it was such an embarrassment embarrassment of riches of guest stars. Like we had, you know, Michael J. Fox and Brendan Frazier and Elizabeth Banks and Sean Hayes. And like every week there was just somebody

amazing who would come and play. And in this iteration, I mean, obviously there was so many characters to service. And we had five new interns coming, but we still got to have like Vanessa Bayer and Joel Cambooster. And it was just, it was a, it's one of the fun parts of the show, I think, is like watching all these other parts kind of grow and kind of become part of the crew. Yeah. It's premiering now pretty much when this airs. And you'll be able to watch it on Hulu. It appears Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC, but next day on Hulu.

So, I mean, it's pretty, it's pretty amazing, like the reboots of some of these shows. And it was such a fan favorite. People loved this show. They love you. All my friends were like, what? She's coming on? You're like she's going to spray soda in my face. Yeah, this is good.

But you come from a German family and you spoke German at home and French at school. So, speak in some of the Dutch, can they listen and write and write? Yeah, naturally. It was a long time since I've spoken have,

so I forgets all this. Why are you doing English? Bissin. I'm like you. I have in the hosen made. I don't know a lot. But I know enough to, you know,

You know, I did on the important things, obviously. I did on Princevigtenstraza and Truegustraza, neither Frieden's Engel and Munchen. Oh my God. Why? And how come and when? I was doing some movie that no one ever saw. You know, it was good times. And the driver was named Nico.

And Nico used to say, you know, I said, how do you say shit? He said, Michael, what do you want to say these things? Nobody, nobody talks like this, Chaisa. But I'd learn things like, you know, cop, cop schmerzen. I have a headache, nausea, ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Myel. Haidt's Mao. That's the way you say, shut your mouth. Shut up, right? Heutz maul. I didn't know that. Hailtz, hajelz maule. No, I didn't know that. I forget everything. So, school was all day in French, all of our classes, math, sciences, everything. And then German school

was after school. We did not speak German at home. It was only for like an hour and a half on Mondays and Thursdays was German school. And so after my grandmother died, we stopped really speaking it. So actually don't remember French. I could. can remember because we did our whole schooling in it, but German, I don't remember as much. I can understand it, but it takes me, you know, I struggle to find the words. I love saying I'm tired in German. Isch been muda. So good.

Is it been muda? What do you call a German constipation? Far from pooping. Is that what it is? No. Somebody told me, somebody told me one of my female friends, what do you call a German bra? Stop him from flopping. I kind of like that one.

I like that one. That was good. You were a smart kid? Were you always involved in theater? What got you into that? Yeah, I loved theater. I mean, I remember the first musical theater class I took. I was like, what is happening? This is incredible.

I did this musical theater class with my sister. So you could sing. And not all. I can't. I literally was kicked out of the choir, the not fancy school choir, where we're singing Christmas carols in a mall. And Mrs. McKinnon was like,

Chalk girls, just mouth the words for this performance. And that just broke my heart in grade five. And I stopped trying. But before that happened, right before that happened, I started taking musical theater. My sister's year older than me. It develops from like the musical theater class to the performing group where you have to audition.

We audition. She gets the part of the lead. They call her at home. They're like, you got it. She's like, great. What about Sarah? They're like, yeah, no, we don't want her. And she was like, well, then I'm not.

what they said. We don't want her. Yeah. No, no, thank you on that one. And she said, well, that I'm not doing it and hung up the phone. So they call back five minutes later. And they're like, we really want you to play the lead. So we're going to take your sister as well. So she had the lead and all the dialogue. And I was in like all black with a tiger mask with two other tigers. And we're just kind of like moving side to side with our claws. And I was in heaven. I was like, it's happening. I'm doing it. No lines. No lines. Just loving life. You loved it. loved it. I was like, this is amazing. And it was kind of like, you know, where I felt just,

I was so excited. I just remember being so excited to go to musical theater class every time. And my other dream was not panning out to be an athlete, which I tried out for every team, basketball, volleyball, track and field. I didn't care what it was. And all of my good friends were athletes. And they would make every team. And I just remember like running up to the sheet in the hallway where they'd have everybody's names written. And it'd be like, Jen, Jen, Bree, Saras, Madge. And every time. And I would just read it and be like, totally fine.

I wasn't a, it's not a big deal. I wasn't excited about it anyway. And, but like legit couldn't make a team until finally I said to the coach, like, what is nobody signing up for that I can just get on the bus? And they said, racewalking, nobody will sign up for racewalking. So if you sign up for that, you've like got a spot. And so I did. Oh, my.

Racewalking. Yep. Walking fast. Yes. Like I call them mall walkers. Yes. Back in the day, they would just mall walk. You know, and I go, what are these guys doing?

And they're really walking fast in the mall. And they're instead of on a track or outside or in the neighborhood, they're at the mall. They're mall walkers. That's what I did. I did that. I got a ribbon for it. Do you still have the ribbon? I weirdly cleaned out my garage and I found this second place purple ribbon for race walking.

You got second place. I got second place. And I got my only two. We were talking about awards the other day, and I was like, I've got second place for racewalking, and I have honorable mention for best dressed junior pirate in a sailing race. Those are my two. But something kept you in there. Well, something drew you back to the acting thing.

Yeah. Yeah. Because we found out you're actually good. I mean, you didn't take no for an answer. And does your sister still do it? She does not. So she quit young. Yeah, she quit young.

And you are the one that she was like, no, you have to. to cast my sister. And then... It's all because of her. And that's where it all, and everything started to fall in place. Yeah. Yeah. I was, I was just doing it in Vancouver.

There was, you know, obviously a lot shooting up there. Sure. So I get like, tiny parts where I'd be like answering the phone, mom, phone. And that was like my only line in it. And I'd be like, oh, my God, I have to fly home from this family trip because I got this part answering the telephone and I have one line. Right. And, uh, and then got this random script that just had the names kind of whited out.

And it was so well written. And they said, send a VHS tape down to L.A. So I put it on tape and we put the tape in the mail. And they called back and they were like, it's actually, you know, we're looking for a Becky for the Roseanne show. And it was like the number one show on television at the time when, and that was the time when there was only like 11 shows on TV. And I had barely done anything.

And so I sent another tape down. And then they were like, come down an audition. And so I did. And it was seven of us. And they dressed us all the same. And they put us on the rosal shirt. Flannel shirt. It was this kind of like pink Hawaiian shirt, long sleeve shirt.

And then they tried to put all of the factors of a live taping into the audition. So they put us through hair and makeup. And then they had like four cameras. And they were calling out camera numbers during the audition. There was a laugh track. And was Roseanne there? She was. I don't want to be here.

She was there. But she wasn't in the audition process until the next round. They said that was going to be the last round. And that was with Glenn Quinn, who was 24 and Irish and gorgeous. And I was 16, and the whole scene was making out with him. And I remember thinking, like, how am I going to remember one line? It was like, the whole scene was, baby, baby, come here. And I'm like, get a job at the gas station.

He's like, come here. I'm like, get a job of the gas station. And that was the scene. And then I flew back to Vancouver. And they said, we're going to let you know in seven days. And the night before they were going to let us know. They called and said, come back and audition with Roseanne tomorrow. it's down to four of you.

And so I auditioned with Roseanne on the couch. Was she cool? We did the scene together. And I remember her turning to me at the end and saying, how old are you? And I was like, I'm 16. And she was like, no, how old are you really? And I, like the thought of lying about my age would never have occurred to me. But all the actresses I was auditioning with were all 21 and had moved to LA to act.

And they were worried that I was going to leave and go to college. if they gave me the job, I think. So I got a call from Tom Arnold at my house a few days later. And he was like, hey, how you doing, Sarah? Hey, buddy. Hey, they're great. Yeah, yeah. Totally.

It's a very good Tom Ronald. And he said, what are you thinking about? We shot the shit for a bit. And then he said, what are you thinking about college? And Lisi and Sarah had both wanted to go to college and had left the show to do that. Sarah only partially because they flew and shot some scenes in New York. and she would fly back and shoot some. And so I knew why he was calling.

And I was like, yeah, no, college, nope, not for me. And I knew I would go eventually, but I knew this was an amazing opportunity and I would do it later or on the side or something else. And so I was like, yeah, no college. So they called me and they said, you got the job. And I remember going to a party that night and telling a couple people. And it obviously spread around our high school. It sounded insane to say like that one show, I'm going to go play that person. So spread around our school by Monday morning.

everybody knew, and I got a phone call from the Roseanne show saying, we're getting cold feet about doing this. So if we do switch Beckys and actually have someone else come in and play Becky, instead of just having no Becky when Lucy goes away, it's going to be you, but we're not going to tell you for four months. And I thought, oh, my God, I'm going to be that crazy person in high school who lied about going on the Rosanne Show. No, it's coming. They're going to call me.

They're going to call me. They were going to. It was on and then it was off. And then can you imagine? Did they pay you at least for those four months? They paid me $10,000. That's a lot of money then. I had never heard of that kind of money.

Was it Canadian though? It was, I don't remember that detail weirdly. I don't remember. But it was regardless, it felt like an insane amount of money. And but also it felt terrifying that at school I was going to be, because we had a girl in grade seven who had lied about being on the mini pops. And the mini pops was this kind of Canadian kid cover band. And they were a very big deal.

And she came to school and said, going to be a mini pop. And that wasn't true. And so in my mind, I was like, I'm going to be mini pops 2.0 here is what's happening. Oh, my God. That's pressure. High school's already pressure. All right, before we jump back in, I just want to say thanks for listening and hanging out with us today. We've had the chance to sit down with over 300 guests on this show, a lot more than that for people like Alan Richon, Kenna Reeves, Kristen Ritter, and a lot of others along the way. So if you're newer here or if you've missed some episodes, there's a ton of great conversation. and the archives worth checking out.

And if you're enjoying the show, make sure you're subscribed wherever you're listening because it really helps support the podcast and make sure these episodes show up for you every week. So that's important. So be subscribed. And before we get back to it, here's a quick preview of what we've got coming up next week.

I have been with probably some of the world's scariest, but in terms of like getting tweaked and danger, no, getting tweaked. I'm not sure because the danger I try and separate this is part of the job that I do I try and separate Black Mamba is dangerous

they'll kill you in half an hour no one survived a black Mamba bite that is an extremely dangerous snake but I'm not going to be scared around it because that's going to make me slip and fall and they're going to bite me so I have to separate that thing the thing that is challenged my fear

the most where I had to go take a deep breath this is happening was King Cobra we did King Cobra in Bali and it was so big we had to wrap it around a tray. It was like 15 feet. How fast can that kill you? That'll kill you in under an hour.

In fact, it killed my guide. Yeah, it killed my guide. So my guide, whose job it was to take King Cobra's out of residential areas, we worked with him. And three months later, he'd been killed by a king cobra. All right. Let's jump back in. But like, you know, you're filling in for, not filling in for,

but you're taking over the role that, what's her name, Gorenson? Yeah, yeah. What's her name? Lisi Gorenson. Right, and she left for college. Yep. So that's why she left. Yep.

What was it like stepping on that set for the first time and being Becky Connor? Oh, my God. So my first time filming was actually in New York because they had built a few sets in New York because Sarah Gilbert was going away to school there. And so that was my first day. And my grandmother died the day before. And obviously, that's the thing with this business and this life is nothing stops. and I didn't know anyone, so I didn't tell anybody.

I remember just in general that feeling of that first season. I was 17. I was 16 when I auditioned. I was in grade 12 the year that it started. And I remember just the feeling of like, I mean, every single person working with that show was like a comedy legend. And they were all kind of in one place in one room. Goodman and Sandra Bernhardt and Lori Metcalfe and, you know, Sarah Gilbert, Johnny Galecki, It was, were they welcoming?

For the most part? Yeah, you know, I feel like I, my recollection of what it felt like was I felt like I did feel like what, I mean, I was so grateful. Had to be a world. But it was such a world. I felt like there's no more appropriate expression than fish out of water. Like I did feel like, I mean, I literally answered the phone on a couple of movies of the week, you know? And then you're just kind of like stepping into this new situation. And it was, it was all, everything was new to me.

Like if you imagine not really having been on a comedy set, very, very small experience on a TV or film set. And so all of the things like continuity. Knowing your lines. Have you always been good at learning your lines? Yeah, I feel like that was something that I, that was always pretty intuitive. of like I could learn them pretty fast. We got used to it. It was like the one muscle that you kind of keep using, obviously, as an actor after high school.

And so on Scrubs, sometimes the scripts would come in. Like, I remember one time getting a monologue and they literally had like a 20-minute lighting set up to learn. And so you just kind of like. That's my biggest fear. I couldn't do it. My mind, because I get too nervous, too like, oh, my God, oh, my God, I'm overwhelmed that I can't sort of zone in. I need to know the whole script before I get on set. And then I'm like, I'm free as a bird.

Yeah. Oh, you want to shoot that scene? Let's shoot that scene. Let's shoot this scene. Let's shoot I'm like that. But if you give me stuff the day of, I just don't, I just can't. I can't. My mind is really weird. If you say, say, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I've already forgotten it.

Right. Like I'm weird like that. My mind just doesn't work like that. But once I have it, I've got it. I've got it. So when you get a job, you look at the whole script and you just basically, you learn the whole thing. And then you could pop in.

If I get the part, I learn my entire part throughout the whole script. So if I'm going to shoot a movie, I don't just learn the scenes the day before, two days before. I learned the character. I learned the lines. I know exactly what I'm doing. I do the lines while I'm making breakfast. I do them while I'm like in the car. I know them so well that nothing can stop me. But if they and they've done it before and it's just going through that day, I'm so exhausted trying to get it. I'm like, just get a cue card. Just get a fucking cue card. That's not how my brain works. I can't do it. So it's just weird. But like, Everybody thinks, well, you always know your lines inside out, blah, blah, blah.

I do. But I need that time to learn my lines. Yeah. Like, you can't throw shit at me. I definitely prefer that. Like, if that can happen where you have that, like, it's definitely preferable because it frees you up so much. But I think it's interesting.

Like, when you said that, I was thinking, oh, yeah, like when you get it on the day, if it's for an audition, I hate it. Like, there's something different about, I think, having the job and not having the job. Having the job, you want to put everything into it. Yeah, I want to put everything. But even the pressure cooker of an audition, if I get it day of, I hate that. Like, I need time for that.

Like, I can't get an audition and then go in that day. I hate it. Because you can't, you don't have the, just in terms of what you're saying about the nerves piece. Like, when you pile that onto it, when it's an audition.

Yeah. Yeah. What was it like? Like, I knew Tom after that whole thing with Roseanne. And I know that it was hell on set. Like, I just have heard. Like, you know, I've heard. You've heard things.

people where John Goodman would just sit there and nap while they're bitching at each other or just go, oh, here we go. I'm not getting into this one. And I don't, I mean, were you privy to that? I was a kid. And so it was interesting. My experience was like, you're kind of up at the school. There's a school room right above. So you kind of go up to the school room. And then like anytime they're not shooting. You know, I was there. For the last, I was like season six, seven, second part of eight and nine. And so, yeah, I overlapped with Tom. Right.

He was always really good to me. He was really, you know, kind of like from that moment that he called me at home was like, you know, hey, like, how is this going to be good? You can be able to do this. But yeah, I think. But they were going through some shit. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, as a kid, like, I just kind of, I had really no frame of reference. Like, I had nothing to compare. Well, you knew that your parents weren't yelling at each other like that. You're like, oh, this is odd. This is odd. But I mean, just on set, like no frame of reference for sets, right? And so I was like, okay. Maybe all sets are crazy like this. I was there like the, you know, when people would, like, I remember writers got fired and the whole thing was new. Like, I remember going and thinking like, oh, you just all of the parts of it. it were new, like the fact that, like, I didn't know what press was.

Yeah. I didn't know what, like when they said, okay, show up on Saturday. Because nobody on that show at that time, to my knowledge, was doing a lot of press, right? They didn't need to. The show was such a hit. And so I think when I got there, they were like, great. Here's a Canadian who is going to, you know, come to do some press. So I remember getting a call when we came.

They're like, can you show up at this place at this studio a lot at this time? and Battle of the Network stars and I was like great and I get there and it's like the superstar American gladiators and we're given like a little sports bra and hot pants and it's like me Mario Lopez, Tina Yuthers there's a superstar American gladiator with like a giant hose spraying down a volcano

and we're clambering up this wet volcano and I'm thinking I'm going like where's the rest of my cast? Right. I thought this was supposed to be you know part of my work. Yeah. And from there like I just remember doing interviews

and just not understanding it. Like I would go do an interview and they'd ask me about my life and I'd talk about like, oh, like my favorite thing to do and hanging out of my friends in Vancouver and this is what we do. We go on these overnight hikes in the snow and I was a ski instructor

and you talk about your life and what that looked like and then you did a photo shoot to accompany the article. But nobody really explained to me that it's a fashion photo shoot. It has nothing to do with who you are. And when I left,

I remember everybody saying like, oh, like don't go to L.A. and change. Don't change. And so I remember being this photo shoot this photo shoot with my first time ever doing an interview and the clothes just got like smaller and smaller and smaller until I was in like hot pants, this tiny sports bra. I'm in like, like platform heels. They hand me a kitten. They're like pout. And I'm sitting there. You're young. And I'm like 17. I'm sitting there like this. And it's like a tear comes down

my face. And they're like, are you okay? And I was like, I don't think so. And I'm like, what's wrong? And I was like, I'm not sure. I just don't. All I could picture in my mind was all my buddies in grade 12, seeing me in little clothing holding this. cat and out and going like, what is happening? What are you doing? What are you doing? I mean, it was actually like, there was nothing wrong with the photos. It was actually kind of a cool photo shoot.

And now if I had context for it, I would understand it. I think it was just everything was so new. It was like, welcome to Hollywood. That's crazy. Totally. Yeah, I always imagine. He was just like, oh, shut up, Tom, you're a fucking idiot. You know, and he's like, yeah, yeah, I'm an idiot.

You just say the fucking, you know, I could just imagine, you know, because, you know, And he's with, yeah, I mean, he's got the biggest heart in the world. And, you know, seeing him now, it's amazing when you have, like, he had everything. And he had two kids. And that is his world. And I see the human being he is and how he is so fulfilled by these children that this is everything he's ever wanted. And that's all that matters. And knowing him for all these years.

years, you know, I was like, I bet you were a nightmare back in the day. He's like, I was on fucking drugs, man. I was doing Coke and I was doing all this shit and she was doing that. And we're fucking, you know, and so crazy shit. I'm sure you have stories, but you can keep them to yourself. Episode two. Episode two. Yeah, yeah, no. I just, when you auditioned for Scrubs initially, was it first, you just auditioned once? No. It was at the time when you, uh, You know, there's like that whole series of, and you go to studio and network by the end.

So stressful. So stressful. I had, I'd come to L.A. for pilot season before that. And I tested for seven things where you go to the end and you've auditioned six times. You've signed the contract for the next six years of your life. Yeah. And I'd come down here on my own. And I had rented a salsa dance teacher's apartment.

And she would teach salsa there during the day. And I would sleep there at night. And I remember like it was, you know, in the days of there was no way. is you're the Thomas Guide that this giant book of maps. You flip like page 134A and then back this way and we're pulling off the freeway. I never understood it. I never got it. I had to write them down.

Here's what you're going to do. You're going to make a left. If you ever need to get to this place. Yeah. Make a left here at the stop sign. Totally. Thomas guide was not. And you know, it was before email.

So you would even get like you'd get a call from your agency saying you've got an audition tomorrow. You'd drive an hour go get the script drive home to learn it. And you get a call from another agent within the agency saying you've got an audition tomorrow. You'd drive an hour drive back. It was the craziest few months of my life. So I went back to Vancouver.

My best friend had finished film school. And she said, you know, I want to go to L.A. She wanted to produce. I wanted to act. A friend of mine knew of this six-month sublet. So we were going to move down for six months. And I got Scrubs a couple months into that. But the audition process was wild.

Like we had just moved here. We never had plans. We had plans to go out. I wasn't going to cancel my friend. I knew I had two auditions the next day. And I was like, it's okay. I'm just going to, I'm just going to. we go out and I'll read them when I get home. And I got home at midnight and I opened this

envelope and it was scrubs and I started reading it. My audition was at 9 a.m. And I was like, oh shit. This is my favorite. This is the best thing I've ever read. It was so different and groundbreaking and like no other comedy that I had read and had so much heart and then was like so funny and so quick. And I was like, oh, I really want this job. And my audition. is in eight and a half hours. I never opened the other envelope. I have no idea what that audition was for. And I went in that morning with Debbie Romano and Brett Banner,

the casting directors, which is the two of them and me. And they told me the other day I didn't know this. I was the first person to audition for the show. First person audition for the show. Yeah, for the show. Of any character. Of any character. I didn't know this until a couple days ago.

And then that afternoon, they said come back at 4 o'clock. I meet with Bill. So I met with Bill Lawrence and auditioned for him that day. And then they're like, okay, now come back for the studio. And that was back. And like, now I think, you know, you audition with the producers. They put you on tape. They send it off to the studio network.

At that time, you would go to studio. And once you pass to that level, you go to network. And you're in these small offices with like 40 people and everybody's staring at you. And it's like a one shot deal. Like if you don't bring it in that one time, it's it's it. And you're out in the waiting room with like four other people that are dressed. exactly like you. And so it was like a few JDs, a few Elliotts and a few Turks.

And Donald and I both got cast that day. And it was one of those things where they say, you stay, you go home, you stay, you go home. Now the two of you come in in chemistry read together. And Donald and I got to read together. And then we both got the job that day. And they didn't cast a JD that day. And that was before Christmas. And then after Christmas, they were casting JD.

And so it was cool because I'd never had this experience before where I got to come in and read with all the potential JDs and do chemistry reads. And when it was down to four of them, and it was such an interesting experience as an actor because obviously you're always told, like, don't get in your head about an audition and how it went because it was either yours or it wasn't. Like, there's something intangible. It's either your part or it's not. And it was so cool to actually witness that because it was so 100% Zach's part by a mile.

And it was so obvious. And so it's really cool being like 24 and kind of being in that process that I'd never seen before. Process. In that process. That's an amazing story. That really is. That's so good. And you didn't know this until a few days ago that you were the first person ever.

Yeah, we were all out. What are the odds? We're going to start casting for this. Who's our first? You're the part. That's creepy. That doesn't happen. It didn't happen with me.

Smallville. I'll tell you that much. What was the Smallville edition like? Long story short, I didn't want to go in because I thought it was the WB or something. I was like, this is going to be cheesy. I don't want to do this. Like, just go in. So I had nothing to lose.

No. That's when you get the job. No, no, no, no. I said, how many people have auditioned for this? And it was like 700. They've had 700 auditions. What? Yeah.

And I said, well, you asked them what 700 people are doing wrong. I love that you said that. I had nothing to lose. And they go, they want you to have a sense of danger, a sense of charisma, sense of whatever. So I circle, I'll be charming here. I'll be dark here. Three pages of dialogue. Walked in, cast and director says, oh, have a seat here.

And I go, I'm not going to sit. And they're like, well, we have to relight you then. I go, okay. So I went outside. I wasn't a dick. I was just like, this is the way I want to do it. And I read. And then two days later, they said, hey, we want him to do.

test for the studio network. And my agent called me and I, I'll never say this again. I go, no fucking way. Like, what do you mean? I'll never be as good as I was in that room. You tell them to rewind the tape. Oh my God. I love this so much.

She goes, you're going to lose this part. My agent, so you're going to lose this part. And I said, okay. And then I got a call a week later. It's yours. Never tested for the network or studio. They just showed it to him, showed him the tape. They brought it into Peter Roth's office and he goes, yep, that's our guy.

Oh my God. I never would, this would never happen again. I've never heard that story. I've never heard that story. That's the exact story. That's the exact story that happened. I was trying to still have the sides. I kept him for a long time or somewhere where I circled them.

Yeah. Those three pages. And I'm like, and I remember like, I knew exactly where I was going to be dangerous. And I, even when I was filming it. Yeah. I kept that. I was like, that's what got me cast. Do that.

But yeah, it was crazy. That's so cool. That's so balls. It's so balzy. And I, you know, don't do it. Don't do it, folks. Don't try this at home. No, you saw my, can you imagine people going in an interview?

Yeah. I don't need to meet anybody else. I'm good, thanks. Yeah. Yeah. No. But like, that's when it, that's when you get the job. Yeah.

That's when you get the job. It was like when I did the Rose Hinchot, I remember talking to my agent who was super young like me in Vancouver. Neither of us really, you know, he was probably 24. I was 16. And I said, what are these hiatus weeks that are written down here? Do I get to come home to Vancouver on these hiatus weeks? And he said, I don't know. And I said, can you find out because I'm not going to take the job if I can't?

And I remember his jaw just kind of like dropped. He was like, what do you mean you won't take the, I said, well, it's really important to me to graduate with my buddies in grade 12. So I'm going to come home on the hiatus weeks. Otherwise, I can't do it. So like. Hey, know what you want. Yeah.

Know what you're willing to do. Yeah. Don't say no. unless you really mean no. I just can't believe in hindsight that I was like, well. If you're willing to walk, honestly,

and you're not trying to get more and more and more. It's not about that. I mean, yeah, know what you want. All right, this is called shit talking with Sarah chalk. Chalky. This is rapid fire.

So you get, bam. These are my patrons. Patreon.com slash inside of you. I love these people. They give back to the show. Join us. Don G. Is there a must-

have element to the roles you choose to take? They have to be something, I think, that you have something you haven't done before that feels like a challenge, something that will ignite you. But if the money's right, and they want you to play similar to what you did. I got a family here. You know, and it's to get that go home on the hiatus weeks, then, you know. Yeah. Mike M.

What's one piece of advice you give your younger self 10 years ago? Don't just you have to travel lighter travel lighter travel lighter travel lighter like not with like baggage I mean just like metaphorically like it's I you know I feel like when I was younger there was a like the best example like this is not rapid fire at all this is a long story that's not the purpose of it's okay sometimes it happens sometimes it happens if I was doing a project in grade five on Sri Lanka and I cut every page out into the shape of an elephant is not necessary. Don't do that. Don't do that. Okay. I dig. You know what I mean? Yeah, I do.

Yeah. Gary F, if you weren't acting, what career would you be pursuing? Gary F, I always wanted to be a barista at Starbucks to the point where I dated a Todd because he worked at Starbucks and he'd let me put on the apron and make drinks. So I really enjoy having people over and making them hot beverages. And I feel like that would bring me a lot of joy. But for realsies, I actually always wanted, I thought it would be really cool to have an actual profession in medicine. but I was always curious about it, but not cut out for it. Like, I just, I can't see blood.

So that's a problem. Right. How did your life change, though, after Scrubs? In what way? Publicly. Just, you know, I remember when I finally was on a hit show, it's people noticed me for the first time of my life, which was really jarring because no one ever noticed me, ever. And so coming from that.

It was jarring and I had to get used to it and it took me time to sort of realize how important people are and connection and fans and, you know, your kid and you're, you know, you're in your 20s. I think it was 29 when it happened and it was just, it was just different. It was just like everyone wanted a piece of you and you wanted to give everybody a piece. but it drained you. And, you know, it's, but how did it affect you? I think, you know, in the same way of what you're saying of like it just, it kind of shifts

things overnight because the Rosancho was such a hit show at the time and I had done so little work. And so overnight that did happen. And I got recognized. And I was at an age where you kind of just want to fit in and you don't like that kind of attention was very uncomfortable. and and yeah, it took a bit of an adjustment to kind of understand and have a frame of reference and a context for that. And, you know, the other way that Scrubs changed my life was, I mean,

I learned everything that I know about comedy from Bill Lawrence. Like, we worked in this abandoned hospital. So the writer's room was right downstairs in one of the wings of the hospital. So it's the only show. I don't know if you've experienced. this before, but it's the only show I've worked on where the showrunner comes up for every single scene. And he'd come up and he would say, okay, try this. Here's two alts for that joke. Don't say that. Maybe try it this way. And so we all just learn so much from him. And then obviously from working with the rest of my cast who were so funny and so talented, it felt like it was the best. I just learned on the job. What's your favorite episode or arc?

Favorite episode or arc? I would say. my favorite episode is the finale in season eight. I loved it. I loved the experience of doing it. We all kind of knew that was going to be. Emotional. The end. It was super emotional than eight years of all of our lives.

Bill Lawrence had asked a ton of the guest stars from eight years to come for that last scene where Zach walks down the hallway and all these people from his path lying the hallway. And so, you know, people had flown in from all over the country. just to stand there in this hallway to say goodbye to the show. And it's because, obviously, of everyone's relationship with Bill. And it was such a cool experience because it was like the whole week felt like a saying goodbye to like my favorite job of my life. And then to have that moment and that scene where everybody was physically there from the past eight years. It was such a cool experience. Who's your favorite guest star?

Oh, my God. That is such a hard thing to even say. Who comes to mind when you think of like... Michael J. Fox. Michael J. Fox. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah.

He's a beauty. He was, I mean, I grew up idolizing him, and he was like such a comedy mentor. And so when we heard that he was coming on the show, everybody was like, oh, man, I hope I get scenes with him. Because, right, we always hear that we're getting these amazing guest stars. You always hope that you have a storyline with him. So I did, and I was so excited. And I was like, wait, my first scene with him, I'm sitting on the epiphany toilet, on the roof on my pants around my ankles. Rick and Morty season 9 returns this year

You're on two of the biggest shows I mean Rick and Morty is just like anytime you mention Rick and Morty Oh my God, that's the funniest, that's the best What's it like? It's like so much fun. Those scripts are so smart and they're so funny And I got so lucky. I mean, I was second Becky and I was third Beth.

Like I mean, I did all the Beth episodes, but there was a couple that came before me before it aired. And I remember auditioning from my cabin. My callback was with Dan Harmon and Justin Royland, and they were on the phone. I was on a landline. And there was like dogs barking and birds chirping and kids running around. And I was like, guys, guys, birds, come on. I want this job.

I really love this job. And it was just so smart and it's so witty and moving in ways that like you don't expect. Like you think what you're going to be watching is like this sci-fi. you know, grandfather, grandson adventure. And then you get these episodes. There's just like, you know, have this beautiful song and just like punch you in the gut. And are super philosophical and, you know, a commentary on life.

And so anyways, I, in terms of your question of like, what's it like? It's so fun and so liberating and so freeing to do animation. Have you done animation? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's the best. What does this season look like?

Oh, my God. Like, what can I say? We're so under lock and key. Hysterical. Yeah, it's, I mean, I think Scott Martyr, our showrunner and Dan Harmon think it's one of the best that we've done. Wow. And they've already finished writing 10 and 11. And we're finished 10, I think, are on 11.

And they said it's just like, you know, getting more and more. It's such a unique experience. I feel like being in like a four by four foot sound booth by yourself. In Vancouver probably, right? In the garage in Vancouver. And you, yeah, that was actually a gift of the pandemic. I used to fly back and forth to record and then built a sound booth during the pandemic. And it worked.

So I get to do it from up there. And as we've discussed earlier, my technological capabilities are not strong. So now they just have Ryan the engineer here. So I have a remote Ryan. named Ricky, who just takes over my computer remotely and he does all of the things. But it's so, it's just so freeing because if you want to try something different, you can. It takes no time. Whereas if you're on a set and you're like, oh, I want to do another take.

There's like 100 people waiting. Yeah. You got to move on. We got to move on. This is like you can try something 10 different ways in under a minute. And so there's something super liberating about that. Yeah. It's, it is.

It's fun. Yeah, I think that's amazing. I mean, you got the Scrubs reboot. You got Rick and Morty season nine. I mean, you've done so much other stuff, too. I mean, what's the movie? Play date? It's not new.

No. But Alan Rich and Kevin James on Amazon Prime. That had to be a trip. So Neil Goldman, who was one of like our favorite writers on Scrubs, who I know super well, because obviously we had the writer's room like right there in the hospitals. We actually, it's the one show I've been on where we've gotten to know the writers, all of them really well. And I still keep in touch with a bunch of them. And so Neil called me and he was like, hey, I'm shooting this movie in Vancouver. Do you want to play Kevin James wife? And I said,

yeah, I would love to. And so obviously it's like a buddy movie between the two of them and the scenes are really condensed into a few days of shooting. So I went and shot a scene and then I had a couple weeks off and then came back at the very end of the movie, the last two days of shooting to shoot all my scenes with Kevin. And I came down to L.A. to do a panel for Rick and Morty, and I flew back. And I was like, I'm so tired. And then the morning of shooting went to hike the dogs. I was so stuffed up. I was just like, I sounded terrible. Like, I was so congested. I thought I'm just going to do a quick COVID test because I want to be able to say to Kevin, like, I'm so sorry, I want to take quarters, but don't worry. It's not COVID. This was a couple of years ago. And it was like the most

positive COVID test you've ever seen. life. Like the lines came up like so dark, so strong, so fast. And I was like, oh my God. It was like late night with COVID O'Brien. Jesus. I was like, what do you do? I don't even know who to call. It's different when it's like your show and you're on it all the time. Like, they're going to recast me. I was like, who do I even call? Right. And so I, I had the second AD's number and I called and I was like, I have COVID. I'm so sorry because I know there's nothing they can do at this point. Don't worry about it. Kevin's got it too. Totally.

That would have been fine and we could have filmed, but he didn't. And so there was no shifting of the schedule. There's nothing they could do. So they went ahead and filmed. They were like, can you take another one? And I was like, yeah, I'll take every brand you would like me to take. And they were all very positive. And so Kevin did the scenes all by himself looking at a C-stand with a tennis ball with the script supervisor reading opposite him.

Oh, wow. And then 10 days later, they had already, you know, wrapped the movie the next day. That's so hard. So 10 days later, I'm going to go back and do. all of my scenes from the movie by myself to a tennis ball. And I thought people are going to think, like, why didn't these two have chemistry? What happened? We were not, we, there's scenes where we're on the couch where we're not actually

on the same couch in the same room. But it worked. It was actually crazy. They had playback going at the same time where, and they had special effects guys there who were watching the eye line to make sure, like, we actually looked like we were looking at each other. And so I have a good friend Brendan in Vancouver who's so funny and such a good actor. And I was like, is there any chance that you could hire my buddy to come in and read opposite me for the day?

Because I just, it would be one thing. It was like one scene, but it was all of the scenes I had to do. I was like, I can't do all of these scenes. And he did. And he did. And so we had so much fun. It was great. And with the magic of editing, you know, they made it look like Kevin and I were in the same room.

But can you imagine how horrible I felt? It's not your fault. It's not my fault, but still, you feel so terrible. And Firefly Lane with Catherine Hegel. Yeah, we saw that in Vancouver sort of on bookending the pandemic. Did you have fun with her? Oh, my God. We had such a good time.

She was cool. Oh, my God. She and I, so we were playing best friends. It was actually really important that we got along because, you know, you're like we're You can't fake those friends. Plus all of our scenes were together. Plus the storyline follows a book by Kristen Hanna, where my character dies of cancer at the end.

And it was, so yeah, it was like, you know, it was the scenes we played ourselves at 20 and at 40. And so, you know, there was all this stuff in the 80s, which was super fun to get back into all the 80s clothes. And then we're playing ourselves at 40. And it was kind of, you know, those scenes were, heavy and some days I had to cry like six times a day. So they'd be like, we're not sure if this scene will be crying or if there's too much crying.

So let's do a version, no crying, a version welling up, a version bawling. So by the end of the day, you're like, oh my God, I've cried seven times. So yeah, that was an interesting experience being 40 and playing 20 and being in the hair and makeup trailer where they're like, how do we, how are we going to make you guys look 20? It's very humbling. Lastly, you know, in this show we talk a lot about mental health and all that stuff. Do you go to therapy? Have you been through really lows and how do you get through it and facing adversity? Is there a routine you do to kind of keep your health and your mind, you know, in the right place? I love therapy and I, you know, sometimes feel like there's no bandwidth and no time for it. And I think that's obviously not the correct approach. Like it should go to the top of the list, not the bottom of the list. And I think there's times like if I had it, you know,

know, in a perfect scenario, I would just go once a week. Yeah. And that's not, I've had times in my life where I've gone, where I haven't gone at all. But I think when you find the right fit with someone, it's, there's nothing better and nothing more important. I meditate. And I took a TM course. I did too.

With the David Lynch Foundation. A couple decades ago. And that was life-changing. overnight. It was, I couldn't sleep. I had the worst insomnia. My son had Kawasaki disease when he was 15 months old. And so there's this window of time where you're kind of waiting to figure out if everything's going to be okay. And then, you know, he's a series of echo-cardiograms. And I just, I wasn't sleeping. That was the toughest time in your life, wasn't it? One of them.

Definitely one of the toughest. Yeah. The short version is you have a 10-day window to get IVIG, which is a 12-hour blood transfusion to save your kid's heart. And so it's a very time-sensitive thing. It often goes missed. And for us, unfortunately, it did. And so I was back at the doctors every day for 10 days begging to see the specialist because I was looking at my kid and he looked exactly like the kids on the Kalasaki disease website. And I kept getting turned away. And I got turned away by two ERs. I got turned away by my pediatrician every day. And finally on day 10, And I begged my way into the specialist at children's. And he said, yeah, that's what this is.

We're going to send him for the treatment. And so it was really tough. He's okay. So that's been the great part. But it was a journey. And so I just really was having a hard time sleeping. And so I did the TM course. And it was, I mean, it's 20 minutes twice a day.

And it was wild. It was a five-day course. And the next night I slept. Ryan? Start doing TM. Ryan, are you not sleeping? You just breathe. You let the thoughts come in.

It's okay to have thoughts. You just let them go. There's no judgment here. Just breathe. Say your word. Say your mantra. Shasha. That's not my word.

I was going to say you. You're not allowed to say your word. That's why I said it made up words. Yes. Thank God. It's amazing if you just do it for even a minute to you feel yourself kind of just relaxing. Mm-hmm.

Oh, another one of those that someone taught me that's amazing. Sorry about the awning people outside. They're cleaning the awnings. I didn't even notice. I feel like someone else told me another trick is tensing every piece of your body. So you start your toes and then your feet and their ankles and then your calves, your knees, your thighs. And you'd go through each body part and you clench it as hard as you can and then release. And once you do your whole body, it's crazy how relaxed.

It's like a massage. Because you can't actually be clenching. have anxiety at the same time. So that one is super effective. I'm doing it. I'm actually listening. I forget we're on the air. I'm like, yeah, keep going, keep going.

And your shoulders, clench your shoulders. Can I play some Mousy Star? You're supposed to not have music, right? No music. For this one, for T.M, maybe no, for this. I think music is great. I find the com app. Do you look like you're the calm app?

Oh, I just got a good one. There's a guy named Chibs O'Caricay. Now you hear it. Now I hear it. Now you hear that, folks. This is good that it's the end of the interview. It's good. Chibzo Carrake on the Calm app.

He does that. He does a muscle relaxation where it goes through the whole thing. It's amazing. What are the strategies do I love? I mean, the biggest one is, you know, I'm in Vancouver. And it's the outdoors. Like I go hiking every day with the dogs in the woods. And it is my biggest meditation.

Yeah. I find that it's, you know, I should go for like if I have time, an hour and hour and a half. And, you know, it's, I mean, obviously you can slip and break your finger. But other than that, it's very relaxing. I always wanted to be like to have an app or it's just my voice. It's like, just relax now. There's nothing to worry about. Okay, I like that.

It's working. It's just you and your breath. Hopefully it's not bad. See, you got some humor in there. You don't want bad breath and beyond. There you go. You should do this. You should have an app.

Right? Yeah. I should have an app. I should do it. You know, write me a message. Think if you would, you know, I won't make it funny. I'll make it real. No, I think you should have both.

People meditate with Michael and it could be. So it's a little, it's a humor, but it's relaxation. Yeah. Yeah. It's okay. But the biggest. You have an inch on your foot. It's okay. Just leave it.

It will go. Okay, scratch it. I'd listen. I feel like that's the, you know, other biggest way to release dress is laughter. So if you could combine those two. Combined TM with humor. With humor. I like it.

This has been great. So fun. I loved having you here. I love being here. Thanks a much for having me. You're such a great guest. You're so funny. You're so charming and talented.

I just, I'm so happy for the reboot of Scrubs and Ricky and Morty and all these other things you got going on. We didn't even scratch a service. We promised to come back sometime. I would love it. I would love nothing more. You have such a great podcast. Oh, thank you so much. Let's go take a picture. Let's see it. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Sarah, for coming on the podcast. You're a absolute delight. Just a reminder, if you want to join patron and support the show, more, patreon.com slash inside of you. There's so many perks. I send boxes to people every couple of months. We do zooms. We do. You get to ask questions. I give you shoutouts on the show. You could be on the show if you're in a certain tier. Patreon.com slash inside of you. And before we go, we're going to name all the top tiers.

They get their name shouted out that really give back. This is the How Deep is your love tier and the top tier. Ryan, you ready to do this? Let's do it. Nancy D. Little Lisa, Ukiko, Brian H. Nico P. Rob B. The fourth. Jason W. Raj C. Stacey L. Jamal F. Jemal F. Janelle B. Mike L. Eldon Supremo, 99 more, Santiago M. Kendrick F. Belinda N. Belinda N. Belinda N. T. T. T. T. M. David G. B. B. B. B. B. B. G. U.N. M. U.S. U.S. M.S. M.S. M. G. M. G. G. G. R. G. M. G. G. G. R. G. G. R. J. L. L. G. L. G. L. J. L. J. L. J. L. J. L. J. L. J. J. J. J. J. R. J. J. J. R. Rachel D, Nick W. Stephanie and Evan. Stephanie and A. Dany, G.

Jenny B. 76, N. G. Keith B. Heather and Greg. Grether. Ben B. J.M. N. P.R. C. Sultan of Swing. Dave T.B. T.paw. Gary F. Jackie J. R. Ritzel.

Benjamin R. Other brother, Daryl. Ivan G. John A. And Michaela L. We love you. We couldn't do the show without you. Thank you for being a supporter of this show. And I guess that's about it. Without further ado from the Hollywood Hills

in Hollywood, California. I'm Michael Rosenbaum. I'm Ryan Taylor. A little way to the camera. Thanks for including us in your journey. We'll see next week. Be good to yourself. The Musers, the podcast.

So why a podcast? Podcasting's very intimate. That's why I'm shirtless. Your weekly dose of absurdity and fun. The things in life that we put up with simply because we don't get around to fixing them. And I let be a problem for much longer than it should be a problem. because of the single problem of me.

I'm the problem at the center of my life. The Musers, the podcast. Are we podcasting now? Follow and listen on your favorite platform.