LadyGang - Jenna Fischer

Episode Date: November 14, 2017

Emmy nominated actress and Pam of "The Office" Jenna Fischer joins the Ladies in studio to promote her book "The Actor's Life: A Survival Guide" that chronicles her journey through Hollywood--from her work as an over-the-phone psychic to her awkward audition with Larry David to her lovely story about Molly Shannon. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey guys, it's your Lady Gang, Jack Vanek, Kelty Knight, and Becca Tobin. Thank you so much for subscribing on iTunes, and thanks for supporting the great sponsors who make it possible for us to have this much fun with you every single week for free. Well, what is this? Welcome to the Lady Gang. That's amazing. Say that again. The Lady Gang.

Things are about to change around here. Each week, we catch up with Hollywood's hottest girl posse, Kelty Knight, Becca Tobin, and Jack Vanek. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Lady Gang. I am Becca Tobin, actress, blogger, and podcaster. Yeah. Across from me is Kelty Knight of Entertainment Tonight. That sounds so good.

Kelty Tonight. I can't get over it. Kelty Tonight. Kelty Tonight. Very exciting. To my right, Jack Vanek, owner, CEO, clothing designer, female entrepreneur, and lady boss. And also, your boobs look incredible right now. Thank you.

What happened? It's a padded bra. They're loved. Really? Oh, you tried the padded? I haven't tried the padded yet. I'm going to try it. They look great.

I can't wait. Okay. So today, oh, wait. Yes, I did have a great question for today. Okay. I can't wait. I wrote it down. I have a terrible memory.

That's my bad week right there. Question of the week. Okay. Do you wear shoes inside of your home? Absolutely not. Are you surprised? I have a sign on my wall that says, please remove your shoes. We're one half Canadian.

in canada you don't wear your shoes in people's houses because it is so rude mostly because it's very mucky in canada because it's winter and then it's like muddy spring and then it's like a little bit muddy summer and then it's like winter again so you couldn't anyway but i find it revoltingly disgusting like there's dog crap and whatever and then it just goes on your floors and then you're just barefoot and then it's in your bed with you it's disgusting yeah um i don't but i have a pair of house slippers that i wear oh my god well because my apartment's really old so it gets dusty so it's a way for me to not get my feet all dusty yeah um see i was a no-shoe person in new york because new york is like you're walking through filth in la i'm i'm a little bit i break

the rules a little bit because if i've been hiking yes they stay downstairs they don't come up but in la i realized that i really don't walk like outside in filth like i'm in a building or i'm in my car or like maybe a parking lot to me i'm just not as i'm not as grossed out so well you should be but then i also feel like my dog doesn't take her quote shoes off when she comes in and so she doesn't she's gonna wipe her paws i mean we'll wipe them but like i can't imagine that does anything so i'm just sort of like i'm gonna pick my battles you know and that is like having the dish is done there you go yeah all right and now it's time for good week yes it is bad week oh no let's do it first i'll go jack will go it's been a while guys but i have a new term

yes and this is a good one can't wait so i mean everybody knows what ghosting is yeah obviously it's like the it's like a pop culture reference so there's a new thing that people do that's shittier than ghosting and it's called bread crumbing and from urban bread crumbing yes and from also known as hansel and greteling from urban dictionary it's when a guy or girl gives someone just enough attention to keep their hope of a relationship alive and this is like for example i went out on a great date with a guy right and it's like there's definitely gonna be a second date whatever don't hear from him again but then he comments heart eye emojis on like all my instagrams like you're just leaving filthy bread crumbs around for somebody to just be like

oh i think it asked me out again oh yeah i love it that's really good it's a good one yeah because guys do it all the time they do i hate them gross um my bad week so okay you know how like our phones basically like listen to everything that we say and then you'll you know talk about a movie and then you'll see an ad for that movie on facebook so it's gotten to like a really weird point for me we're doing like the raves remember when like all that was showing up was right yeah that's because i kept looking at raver videos oh okay well then never mind i thought that was just random okay that was just a snowball because it came up and then i'd watch one and then another one would come up because i watched it and then i just made it come up so my friend told me about

an article that another friend of ours had posted about how it's a conspiracy theory that chris cornell and chester bennington both who had committed suicide earlier this year were going to expose a child pedophile ring in hollywood right it's like the craziest they were going to expose it or they would be exposed by being in it no they're going to expose it and then they're like and then they both committed suicide and it's like maybe it was something bigger whoa so anyways he was telling me about this story this article like fake news website and then i swear to god the next 24 hours like video after video after video after article of different people trying to expose this like fake pedophile ring we're coming up on my facebook and i'm like you're

not you're not selling me a purse you're not trying to do anything it's just somehow something's listening in my phone and giving me more articles about child child sex writing that's happening hashtag pedophile yeah pretty popular but your phone's listening to you yeah i know that um okay i'll go so my good week is that i recently picked up a tip not recently probably like when was last time we were on skinny confidential a while ago i picked up a tip from lauren and i forgot about it until one day i was holding zach's phone and i was like i want to mess with him but like what should i do i can't change his wallpaper that's boring he'll see it right away no i've already done the predictive text on him he's so confused it's so good i went on his instagram and

followed about 17 baby animal amazing i'm there are so many by the way so many i know i follow like a hundred many baby animals and hours later he's sitting next to me and he's looking through and he's like oh my god this is so funny and he like it's a baby animal and he shows it to me i'm like oh that's cute what's that on he's like i don't know i think it's like a sponsored thing because you know yeah and i'm like yeah that's weird and then he's like there's there's so many of them sponsored but everything is a baby animal i'm like is it the same account and he's like no it's like so many different ones it was so enjoyable and then he i he i like started laughing and i was like hi he's like oh my god did you follow a baby animal account and he like unfollowed

the one that i thought that he thought that i had followed or the one that he thought i followed and it just kept coming and he's like i just don't understand because they're also have the same names where it's like the baby animals baby animals and he's like i unfollow i keep following them it won't let me unfollow i'm like no it's because you're following 17 so amazing it's so good thank you lauren from the skinny confidential um here's my bad week well um i was sitting uh at a restaurant i won't say which one one of my favorites and i got up to use the restroom and i go in the restroom and it's a male and a female stall like separate so men are not using this i went in the female stall and it looked like a homeless person had been living there

for months women are disgusting oh yeah what the hell is wrong with these people and you know what it came down to as i was squatting over the toilet looking around at like the sanitary napkins this wasn't even a bar so they weren't even like drunk people it was just disgusting lazy humans and it's a nice restaurant so i know that there's no like you know homeless people creeping in like it's the patrons of this restaurant and i'm sitting there and i'm like you know what this reminds me of it's what i've my mom always told me character is what you do when no one is looking and you know what we got a lot of characterless freaking women out there because i looked at the men's pristine but like had was nobody cleaning it that's also a problem well like don't leave

your tampon on the floor should anyone have to clean your dirty tampon or your sanitary napkin that's like haphazardly wrapped in toilet paper and almost in the trash bin like great it's disgusting and there's pee everywhere there's pee everywhere like what there's a rhyme about that if i pee on the floor i always wipe it out on the floor on the floor don't ask it's your it's your story it's your story women i'm sorry character is what you do when no one is looking preach thank you okay here's my character when no one's looking oh god thank you um i have a bad week so yesterday i was doing a shoot at chateau marmont which is a big famous hotel in LA. It's like a celebrity hotspot. And I was pretty early for my carpet. And so I

decided to take a walk in like my TV outfit, which was like a jumpsuit with like heels. And I didn't have any other clothes up to like the CVS on the corner to get a water. And then I was going to walk back. So I like walked a good couple of blocks there and back, which people don't walk in LA. So anyway, so I was at the crosswalk and it was a red light and I was waiting to cross And not one, not two, but three Star Tours vans rolled up right beside me. And I was like, had no sunglasses because I forgot them. I was like, this is my moment when all the Star Tours. Tell me you did a Jeremy Piven.

Did you pull a Jeremy Piven? No, I was just standing there and like I definitely turned to the left and like kind of made eye contact with a couple of people. And like looked over my shoulder like, oh, what's coming behind me? Just so they'd like see the front of my face and really recognize me. And no one did. okay you didn't see that that is if you had had a horn to honk from your convertible like jeremy pippen is that what he did what he pulled up next to a star tour and honked his horn and his convertible and all of the people looked over and he started waving like he needed to do that

but i think that's what a lot of celebrities do there's no way there's no way that a celebrity's gonna be like this michael jordan or whoever no way i think richard simmons did that and that's why he went into hiding yeah no he used to do that like no he also used to let people come to his house yeah i'm like anyway whatever this isn't about you becca or richardson's it's about so you did jeremy pivot i didn't honk she like if you had a horn she politely yeah yeah yeah okay anyways good week um so i was writing a new bio for my website with all my accolades because i'm so famous and i sent my bio to my husband i was like hey can you like just check this for me what do you think and he wrote back he's like i have a few notes and then like dot dot dot dot dot and

like down the page where the notes and here they were most beautiful super cute and sexy my one and only for all time you forgot this part in my bio isn't that so nice that's so nice do you get it jack no i'm trying to is he trying to say you should mention him in your body no he was like you forgot these like oh things about you most beautiful that's cute love him so much anyway On the podcast today, we have Pam from The Office. Jenna Fisher is here. She's freaking hilarious. Get ready.

Okay, what's going on? Now, here's the lady gang. Our guest today is a two-time SAG Award winning and Emmy nominated actress and cultural every girl for playing her iconic role of Pam on the U.S. version of The Office. Fun fact, she was actually a receptionist and administrative assistant in Los Angeles offices before her acting career took off. So she's actually Pam, guys. Also, fun fact, right before she became one of the biggest stars on television, she had an uncredited role as woman number one in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and has since starred in hit movies Blades of Glory, Walk Hard, The Dewey Cox Story, The Brother Solomon, and more. She's got a brand new movie coming out this September with Ben Stiller called Brad's Status. She's the mom of two beautiful babies, Weston and Harper, and she also has a super hot husband named Lee.

She's written a new book called The Actor's Life, a survival guide where she guides aspiring starlets on their own journey while recalling some of her own struggle, frustration, rejection, and doubt. Please welcome to Lady Gang, so excited she's here, Jenna Fisher. I can't believe you're here. Thank you. That was an amazing introduction. She's good, Adam.

She's very good. Listen, you are very fabulous. The book, so I, this was kind of last minute. You're in town and then you're traveling. You're going to be filming or on the book tour or something, right? I'm filming. I'm doing a new movie that Clint Eastwood is directing, and I get to go to Paris. That's the dream.

I've never traveled internationally for – no, that's not true. I totally take that back. I have. She's like, I'm just a regular girl. I was like, no, I did, actually. I did a television show in London, so I moved there to do that. That was after The Office. But no, yes, I'm going to Paris to film with Clint Eastwood.

How long are you there for? I'm only there for five days because I only film one day, and I have one line. They have to bring me all the way to Paris to say one line. I have a larger role in the movie, which I already shot in Atlanta. Far less glamorous, but still a great city. And so, yeah. I just can't believe Clint Eastwood is still alive. Guys, I just saw him at the Soho house.

He looks great. It's crazy. Let me tell you something about Clint Eastwood. He's still all there. He's amazing. He's very charming. He's very handsome. He's very funny.

Like, legit funny guy. I love that. Yeah, we're having a lot of fun on that movie. So I'm sure that man is still getting handed phone numbers. Oh, yeah. Right and left. Hello. I like older men.

But we're having you on because of this book. So I got to skim through and read most of the book sort of yesterday. And it's basically like this how-to Hollywood. But it's your story of moving here from your small town and having a crappy apartment and, like, busting your ass to get your big break, which happened all of these years later. So how many years did it take you of, like, the horribleness before stardom? Well, there's different phases to an acting career. So, like, the success of – it took me five years to get my first speaking role on a television show. It was three lines and I played a waitress.

no one noticed um it was um oh my gosh it was charlie sheen did the show after michael j fox why can't i think of the name of it oh don't shoot me just shoot me no it's the one it's fine um we loved it so much such a big hit you guys you guys because i'm a mom and i didn't sleep good last i have no excuse we have no excuse it's in my book everyone you can read there you go okay that was five years but you were so stoked you're like mom i'm gonna be on tv tonight this was before like email blasts so i actually printed a flyer and snail mailed it to every member of my family telling them to tune in that's the cutest thing i've ever heard with like a cartoon drawing of myself on it that i made i made it okay i did so um so that took

five years to get my first speaking role on a television show three lines and then it was about So very quickly from there, things started to snowball. And by like year six and seven, I was making my living just from acting and I was able to quit my day job. But it took six or seven years before I could quit my day job. But the problem with that was that like I'd earn a big chunk of money. Like I do a pilot and you could get paid like $20,000 to do a pilot and then make no money for eight months and then get paid $6,000 to do a guest spot on a show.

So it was like it was very hard to manage your money, but I was doing it and I didn't have to have another job and then it was eight years in when i finally landed the role in the office so those are kind of the milestones so it was five years of just absolute sadness and grief and struggle like an additional three years of like i got three major frustration and like yeah until i did a show that got picked up wow but then i think and becca and i and we've all talked about this before becca was on glee and there's like this after the big show thing that happens too like you're on the biggest show in the world and then no one wants you because you're pam and you're kitty and then there's that whole thing right afterwards yeah i mean the struggle never

ends in fact i considered naming the book um the actor's life struggle work repeat oh shit but i think it should be called like struggle work cry cry cry i think you should give up repeat yes i I think you should give up, should be in there. Yeah. You know, work and repeat. Then you get a job and you're like, no, I mean, I love it. Yeah. This is why I do it.

And then it starts all over again. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So all of those stories. This stresses me out. It's so stressful. I know, right?

It's so sad. It's so sad. But also, The Office was very slow growing. So they ordered, our first season was six episodes long. Wow. So, and then our second season was a 12 episode order. and then they only ordered like four more and then four more and it wasn't until season three right where we finally got our we'll order one where you could buy a house exactly like save

every penny you're like i'm at the seg awards and i'm wearing from tj maxx because i'm not sure if we're gonna have more well that's a real thing because it's also because when the show becomes a hit it's before your salary reflects it so your salary is still that of a very unknown actress there's a great story that i couldn't fit in my book but that's amazing that renee zellweger when she was shooting jerry mcguire she like had nothing and tom cruise gave her like this state of the art sound system stereo for her apartment and she was like it was like literally the most expensive thing i own i was so she was so poor but she was starring in a movie with tom cruise but it hadn't come out yet nobody so it's like you're poor but you're getting there so it's like

she wasn't really making the bank until like two years after the movie jerry mcguire right because that's when she started like getting the money that's why when everyone talks about would you rather be poor and famous or rich and anonymous like rich and anonymous is like there's nothing hands down but some people would take the fame like there are there are people who would take the fame i probably take the fame i'm not gonna lie i love attention um one of the things that really stuck out to me in the book was you talked about how important it is to create your own work and so the story behind lady gang is that we were all sort of like hollywood let's create something that's for us that we can never get fired from that no one's

going to tell us what to do or how to wear eyebrows or hair or whatever. And so we created this. And I think that what you talked about is that you had created a digital series that you could get SAG cards and all these different things. So tell me a little bit about that. Yeah, I think here's the thing. People think that all you have to do is come to Hollywood and get an agent and then these jobs are coming. It does not work like that. Even after you get an agent, you still have to hustle for your own work constantly. I can't tell you the number of times like i write a personal email to a director after i've read a script and then that's the thing that gets the attention or the hustle never ends and um but then likewise the people who i know who

are the most successful are the ones who are generating their own things um you know look at amy poehler she created an entire improv community you know with upright citizens brigade and she still does it. She still goes and does improv on stage. And that's the other part of this whole thing is that you're doing it because you love it. And if you love it, then you're compelled to make it no matter what. And most of my biggest successes came out of that formula. So for example, I did a crazy experimental theater production in downtown Los Angeles in a very scary part of town very scary like for sure i can't believe i'm alive today just on skid row doing it just we driving through skid row to get there skid row playhouse basically and um

it was like a we wore kabuki makeup we did commedia dell'arte we were doing a musical version of the film nosferatu could this sound any more like sounds like i wouldn't see my husband in it correct right um so but i did it because i loved the group of people and i was willing to do literally anything and i wasn't doing it because i thought anyone would notice but just because i needed to be working all the time and also by the way we everybody got paid five dollars to do it and we would just put the money in a basket and buy beer for the end of the night like it was just like a beer fund because like we had like there was some rule like some stage where you had to get money yeah so we would just donate it back and then get beer but um so then lo and behold

one night as i'm leaving the box office manager i mean that sounds fancy it was like who knows who that was it was hank from around the corner yeah some guy he was also making five dollars um said that um an agent left a card at the box office and of course who what agent comes to skid row to see a play so i'm not having high hopes right turns out it was this really kind of big deal agent at a medium-sized sag accredited agency who saw me in this crazy kabuki makeup singing poorly and just i don't know he just liked it he said he had been brought there on some crazy blind date and he was having a horrible time or something or brought there on a date forced to go there and he was so pleased to have met me and um so i went in and i met with everyone

at his agency and vetted it and he became my first really great agent and he was like instrumental in building my career but you know damn that's how it works right like you don't get your first great agent because you went to the right party and you schmooze the right person and it doesn't work like that and that's part of what i try to explain in the book is the difference between what you hear it's like and what it's really like yeah i want to get to a couple stories from the book but first we need to talk about steve carell's glow up this year he got so hot what happened we always knew he was that you did i did not did you think he's hot now he's hot now yeah but he has like the facial hair and stuff now doesn't he yeah but he's like got the round glasses and he's got like kind

of like cute he must have gotten a stylist i don't know do you think he's hot i always thought he was hot always it was like a talent crush you know what i mean like someone's way now he's like physically attractive yeah yeah silver fox hot yeah he's always had like a very good physique oh you're like we all knew he's always been in really good shape really well after what when he started the office he was like a little pudgy and then when he got 40 year old virgin he thought for the character it would be like really really funny since the guy's a virgin like and he doesn't have any like thing to do in his life except kind of like work out obsessively that it was like a character thing and then he got in really great shape and then he stayed in really great shape

because who gets in really great shape and is like you know what i'm gonna go back this sucks so i think he kind of did it for the movie and then he loved it and he looked great he looks great but we dressed him horribly on that show right that's the thing you couldn't you didn't I didn't see him in a nicely tailored suit. I mean, everyone was dressed poorly. Your clothes were also horrible. Yeah, they were pretty bad. Did you always wear the same outfits over and over again?

Like, she only had certain clothes? Yeah, I had a closet, and the closet was size for me, and there was, like, a row of, you know, that sort of palette of colors, the sort of, like, minty greens and peachies and pinks colors for Pam, and skirts, and, of course, pantyhose. Guys, I wore pantyhose for nine years. Oh, my God. I just want to say. That's impressive.

Nine years. Oh, my God. That's just hell. And then you're like, when you go to the bathroom, you have to get fully naked so you can pee. Like when you're bloated. Oh, God. And back nine years ago, they also didn't have the crotchless one. So you had the full seam up the front when you're bloated, right?

Yes, that's true. That's horrible. Because now they do the ones that are made on some 3D printer that don't have any seams. Wow. Fancy. Anyway, I'm just saying. I've not worn them. I'm just... No, it was crazy.

Candy House had a glow-up, too, guys. But I didn't... It's a glow-up episode. I didn't wear them all the time. Like, if I was seated at the desk and I didn't have to stand up, I would wear sweatpants. I was just dressed from the top up. I love that. That was, like, the most popular question after rehearsal.

I would say, are you going to see the bottom of me? And then, like, they would joke about it. Okay. Yeah. So these girls here are in a constant fight to be the love interest of Larry David. Yes. Oh, they love him. Except for one of us is married and one of us is single.

One of us is available. It's Jack. And I don't know if I really want to be in a romantic relationship. I'd be in a romantic relationship with him, but I don't know about the sexual. How are you making this difference? like what tell me what's happening in your romantic are you just like cuddling a lot just be scared to have sex with him would you spoon uh i guess make out yeah blow job okay that's where it's off so okay so you're cuddling making out and he's like making you

laugh and you guys are just making each other feel loved yeah holding your hands i'd have to see what it was what you're working with yeah and then i could be i could be sweet either way also does he have old man smell yet that's a thing see that's what it is yeah yeah like they start as you get older you start like dying on the inside first i know exactly what the smell is though yes you do yeah i know and i'm scared i'm gonna smell it it's like they could have freshly brushed teeth but there's something it's musky it's old skin just decaying old fillings i don't know i don't know do women get that i hope yes but i think it happens to men earlier okay all right i feel like women can cover it up too yeah so many nice okay anyways there was a purpose

to this yeah welcome jenna um you have a great larry david story yes i do in my chapter about auditioning i just want people to know that i've had some really tragic auditions and one of my most tragic was when i auditioned for larry david personally for for curb your enthusiasm oh my god everything so um there's so many good stories in the book so i'm only having you share two okay i don't want to give away everything you guys have to read the book it's like an ongoing joke so this is important to us so here was the audition so something that people may or may not know is that kirby enthusiasm is mostly improvised so um you get like an outline that you have to follow so that everyone stays on story point and the auditions are the same way

So they give you just a general outline of what your little scene is, and then you have to improvise it. So I went in for a pre-read with the casting director, and they liked me, so they brought me in for a callback, which is the next step of auditioning. But at this callback, at callbacks in general, you usually audition for maybe the director or producer, like someone a little bit higher up the food chain. and in this case i would be auditioning for larry david because he was the producer of the show but also with larry david because the scene was with him in the show shit was this for like a big character on the show or no for like a for like a one just a guest spot yeah exactly not a regular role and this was after the office i believe that i i now i can't exactly remember the timeline i feel like it was that maybe i had been on the office like a year but maybe the office hadn't

even come out yet or something right that's better because allison jones the casting director cast the office and she also cast curb your enthusiasm and so i think she was like this girl she's you know it's gonna come out and then you know yeah so i went in and i auditioned with him and they told me all right you're in like a store whatever store you want maybe a pet store and you run into larry and he hasn't rsvp'd to your son's birthday and you're gonna give him shit about it so you know go and i'm like got it got it i'm on it so there's larry david and by the way there's jeff garland is in the room as well who's that he's like he plays his agent oh yeah yeah okay okay yeah or right his manager or his manager yeah okay his wikipedia of larry

David here is like, well, actually, I just saw Jeff Garland and Larry David do like a standup thing together. And it was like the funniest thing I've ever seen. They're amazing. Right. So I'm in the room with them and they're like, okay, go. Well, I just freeze. All I do is do exactly what they told me, which is be like, Larry, you didn't RSVP to

my son's birthday. And I just kept repeating that over and over like a broken record. But Larry, I didn't get your RSVP. I mean, I didn't get it. i didn't get your rsvp and it was awful it was just like a very obvious just what was he responding back was he saying anything he was saying things but i wasn't going anywhere with it i was just i mean all that was going through my brain was i'm standing in front of larry david and i'm not thinking of anything interesting i'm standing in front of larry david nothing

interesting is coming out of my mouth um so i was just like in a tailspin and it was very sad but it gets better or worse however you want to look at it worse at the time better for this purposes of the story um as i'm getting ready to leave and they're like thank you very much for coming in um i misinterpreted a gesture from larry which i took to mean he wanted to hug me goodbye which i thought was odd but also people hug a lot in hollywood but i'm like for him in particularly doesn't seem like a hugger but he's clearly opened his arms so i start to walk toward him and as soon as i realize that he doesn't want to hug me that he was just gesturing toward the door it's too late and i'm hugging larry davis did he hug you back not really i'm sure he was like

what's up with crazy town actress who bombed this audition and is now hugging me goodbye the best story it was awful and i went home and cried and then the same thing happened with jerry seinfeld and kesha like oh my gosh no kidding right i was you and i'm larry david's kesha it's amazing i just want does he does he know the story yet like now that your book i ran into jeff garland and years later and i was like jeff hi i'm sure you remember me i'm the crazy girl who hugged larry david and he was like i don't know what you're talking about and i was like okay so it didn't register on anyone's like master list of crazy things that have happened to them good okay this is what i'm saying though if this was pre or post

office is because those bad things can happen before you get on like a hit show and people know who you are because it's like in a sea of actresses you can do like you can run the gamut for crazy and as long as you're not like someone that they really know it does sort of leave their brain like they don't they can't place it as like the girl from the office who hugged me at an audition so it's like those embarrassing things are so much better before you get any fame because then after that it's like that story would be all over town now it's going to be glad you wrote the book now it will be i can't wait but she's recovered no totally you it's fine flinders wood you're doing fine you'd be like larry i moved up i glowed up um okay the last story i want to

talk to you about before we um get to our game is how molly shannon changed your life molly shannon this is the craziest story i have goosebumps and i haven't even started speaking oh my god get ready get glowed in girls okay so it's year one i've been out here uh i have a horrible job as a transcriber for the um tca television critics association event and if you don't know what that is every fall it's hell i was literally there today i took jordan and we can attest it is hell in a hotel it is so yes they take this gorgeous hotel in pasadena and they rent it out for three or four days and the stars and like creators of every television show come and give press conferences to the press and it was my job to sit in on the press conferences create shorthand

notes and then along with a taped audio recording of it go transcribe these events and then you hand it off to the journalists and then so that happens all day and then all night there are parties in quotes um where all of the stars and the creators and the journalists mingle and there's like appetizers and drinks and it looks like a party but it's not really a party because the journalists are trying to get the actors or the creators to give them some special scoop that's better than what they heard at the standard press conference that I transcribed for you earlier. Have you hugged Larry David lately? Exactly. Any cool story. So I was working this event as a transcriber. And if we got done early or on time, we could go to the parties at night

for free, which was awesome, mostly because I was poor and I wanted free food and free alcohol, but also because you could just see all the celebrities and just be in the room with them and just feel like maybe I'm kind of close to it, you know, like it might happen. And there was this one party that I really, really wanted to go to, and it was the Saturday Night Live party. And it was just because comedy was my thing, and I just wanted to be around all these greats, but I didn't really know, like, what to expect.

So in order to go and to keep the story a little short and also to make you buy the book, I'm not going to tell you the part about how I lied to get out of work in order to go, but it's quite wonderful. um it's it's actually really great so i told this elaborate lie so that i could get out of work to go to the saturday night live party hoping to just meet anyone and while i was there i met i i saw molly shannon and she was talking to a group of reporters who all had little tape recorders in her face and i kind of like sashayed up and inserted myself into her conversation and to

get noticed i started making like these awful jokes and people were giving me the evil eye and it was really awkward and i wasn't really supposed to be there and and i was like i might get kicked out and um when this sort of thing happened anyway anyway so i'm i'm doing that and then the the reporters kind of move away and molly shannon is there and i seize the moment and i just say molly i i i'm sorry i'm not really supposed to be here but i'm an aspiring actress and if there's just like i don't know do you have any advice or anything because i admire you so much now most people should say you're a looney tune who has broken into this party you know good luck or what like just giving me like whatever but um she didn't brush me off instead she went

one step further and was incredibly generous. And I'm going to cry thinking about it because it was still so pivotal and meaning to me. She just grabbed me by the shoulders and she looked me in the eye and she said, sweetheart, my advice is don't give up. Just never give up. You can do it. It took me 10 years of no one knowing who I was before I got on SNL. And after I got on SNL, everything changed so you just keep at it okay just don't give up and then she like walked away and I was isn't that crazy changed my life and I went home and I called my mom and I was like Molly Shannon said do not give up she said it took her 10 years because I'd been out here one year and I had no agent and I wasn't in the union and none of it was happening the way it was supposed to

or the way I thought it would I thought I must have been doing it all wrong how why how was I failing. But then here was this legend who told me it took her 10 years. She's such a talent, right? To get noticed. And so it just stayed in my head. I was just like 10 years, 10 years, Molly Shannon said 10 years. And every time I would have a bad moment, I would say Molly Shannon told me 10 years. So 10 years later, I'm at the premiere of Walk Hard, my first leading role in a major studio film and who do i see at the party is molly shannon who has come out to help support like i know who came out to support like some snl cast members who had been in the movie and i like i walked up to her and i was like molly shannon i have to tell you a story

oh my god i love 10 years ago you said these words to me and here we are now and then um she was like oh honey i i told you i told she's the sweetest person in the whole world and then we grabbed a photographer and he took a picture oh my god i love it amazing right that's amazing that's the best full circle craziest right i know amazing story just incredible synchronicity and but also like i have to say part of this book is born from that generosity of that moment with molly shannon because I saw how few cheerleaders aspiring actors have and just how most people just roll their eyes and they're like, you know, thanks for contributing to the traffic problems. When are you going to go home? Um, and so, but she took that moment to encourage another artist

and I thought, I want to be that. I want to be that to other artists. And, um, and if I ever get the chance then i'm gonna do it and so that is was part of the inspiration behind the book was to to molly shannon it forward damn i love it it's amazing and so if you're interested in like moving to new york moving to hollywood and being an actor actress musician someone in the business this book is amazing if you just love like a personal memoir of like a how i made it story inspiration and you are literally like a school teacher in idaho and never want to come to hollywood it is still a great read because there's like incredible stories like david's story i might impede myself okay so we're gonna take a quick break when we come back we are going

to play the last worst job game now back to the lady gang we're back so we're sliding close together because we already know the answers because the answers are from her book oh okay got it got it okay so we're gonna have you guys guess just a couple not all can i borrow your pen stop stealing my pen thank you um can i borrow my pen back okay so first of all i want to know know your last worst job i think i know yours before you had your company have you ever had a job other than your own company i worked at old navy for three weeks thank you and then you didn't show up right and then i got fired because i went on spring break was it a good trip it was i went to denver did you wear old baby some culottes god i hated that three-week job i still

love old navy me too um are my last my last worst job i have so i have so many but i'll say um the mystic spray tanning that i did gotham tan in new york city was pretty much up there i want you to go back into spray tanning yeah that'd be so good it's a really good one because mine never listen i was not good i was not passionate jenna what was your last worst job oh well my worst job was when i worked as a telephone psychic you're telling me those are bullshit it's true when i was an aspiring actor i signed up to be a telephone site how do they train you for that they don't want me to give you the training yeah hi do you feel naturally intuitive oh for sure do you read tarot cards or know anything about astrology kind of great so uh

we're gonna route the calls to your house uh you can sign in anytime and keep the people on the phone for longer than five minutes because you only get paid after the first five minutes congratulations you're a telephone psychic can we do that now that's amazing probably we should start um no i never accepted my paycheck because it was super depressing that that was what was wrong about being a telephone psychic like i'd rather have nothing there's a lot of super sad people who call you and i felt really bad to talk yeah who just need company or it's like kids who you know are gonna get in trouble when their parents get the phone bill and then i just felt bad for them too yeah intuition is telling me you're like an asshole we need to have five

minutes of silence to call in the spirits and then i can start that's what i would do yeah exactly so just light a candle and wait with me okay two hours now if you i'm going to give you each one guess on these if you can get any of them correct yes you will get a hall pass in the Kelty Knight, anal retentive, I-need-everything-nows of the Lady Gang. Yeah, right. That's a lie. Okay. I'll give you a whole pass where you can be like, I'm putting in my get-out-of-this-Kelty-hell-free card.

I feel like I'm going to take it back, but yeah. Okay. All right. So I'm going to say the star, and then you're going to say a clue, maybe. Of what their last worst job before they became a star. Okay. Okay. George Clooney.

It has to do with your feet. shoe model close incorrect shoe salesman correct ah damn i'm sorry okay that one was easy that was a warm-up i gave a pretty easy clue becca i was a one point that was my other bad job i was a shoe model i was a shoe model too now my feet got bigger me too i was a perfect six now i'm seven what the hell happened to be a six version six yeah that's very annoying okay which one should we do next you pick um jim carrey okay jim carrey improv with larry david here we go exactly jim carrey um this person might have creeped you out in grade school uh janitor oh my god yes jim carrey was my first crush okay becca one point jack one point and i also didn't

get it wrong the first choice so well you should you bet you should have been faster ding ding where's the bell gotta go after what you want girl okay i like this one yeah tom cruise tom cruise you want to give the clue sure um he had a great costume clown um incorrect uh costume like his uniform at work was great uh cop that's what i was gonna say fireman you're all wrong bellhop oh that's cute kind of sexy though yeah okay one more this is the tiebreaker are you guys ready yeah we definitely have to do this one yeah okay you give the clue brad pitt brad pitt had this job i don't know how to give a clue about this but it involves food and a costume uh and a costume was he like a server did he work at a ballpark with like

popcorn or hot dogs catering company a costume costume uh i'm gonna give you one more it's a chain restaurant oh um tj friday's no damn it that's a good costume they wear a costume they you just wear a flare? Chuck E. Cheese? No, you're incorrect. A costume at a restaurant? McDonald's? What's he wrong? Is it a fast food restaurant? You're getting closer. You're getting close.

You're on the right track now. It's an American brand. Oh, they skate around? No, no, no. Oh, are you talking about Ed DeBevics? Wait, what? Ed DeBevics? I don't even know what that means. Ed DeBevics is like a famous restaurant.

I think it's in Chicago and other places where the waiters roller skate around and they're really mean to you on purpose? Oh, I've heard of that. Okay. I want to go there. It's not Shakey's? No.

Should we give them the restaurant? Yeah. Okay. Brad Pitt danced outside a restaurant, El Pollo Loco, in this costume. Chicken? Yes. Tie.

Tie. He did? He did. That's amazing. So the next time you see one of those chickens, there might be Brad Pitt. It could be the next Brad Pitt. You should swoop him up.

Dang. So you should make out with him. Jack. And just don't take off the chicken suit. I'm just going to pretend it is Brad Pitt. I'm into it. Jack loves a costume character on Hollywood Boulevard. Her boyfriend used to be one.

That was not my boyfriend. Slight date. Okay. Well, so I think he thought you was your boyfriend. Maybe. Okay. Okay. We're done.

Anyway, when we come back, Jenna's going to help you lady gang her life because she has climbed the mountain of Larry David and... Live to tell. ask the lady gang and we're back we're back before we start ask the lady gang if you guys want 30 off of jackvanek.com use my code ladies first i think that's right if it's not let me know um okay so for this part of our podcast we have girls write in their questions about life and love and whatever and we give them a questionable advice so you ready ready i was a psychic so do you want to tell me what the first question is then since you know does it have to do with love

uh no oh but kind of no which is kind of this question's weird it could it could i'm getting feeling it's about things it's about things okay it comes from emma and emma says i moved to new york at the end of the summer to start my master's and i'm loving it so far i'm still working to build my network of dude friends but i find it so hard to meet adult men looking for girls to just be their friends i don't know why you cannot find girlfriends but okay um she says i've been on a few dates with this one guy and we get along very well the conversation flows and he seems like somebody i could really be friends with the problem is i know he's into me romantically and i'm totally not we kissed a few times and i just go along with it to see if

it can get me anywhere but i'm just so not excited about it my friends tell me to just ghost or stop talking to him but the problem is i actually think he's a really nice guy and i don't want it to end like that please help I don't really understand the question I get it okay so here's the thing you know like when you're in high school and you think everything's like a super big deal and it's going to stay with you forever and then you you like remember it forever it feels really big and then you get older and you get sort of a an adult life and then you realize like those were just like anxieties of a big feeling teenager not at all like to say that they're not important because they are and they're real and they're your problems but this is sort of like a perspective

thing which is like the thing that like i would say is to like just you just have to cut the guy loose you just have to say tell him the truth you just have to say listen i want to be your friend but if that's not realistic i totally get it but that's an easy thing to say because like you don't want to hurt someone's feelings right but then you also don't think about yourself would you want someone to drag you along no and be wishy-washy no and we're someone said to me once when i was dating they were like you know what we're all adults we get our hearts broken and we break hearts and then we find the right person and then we don't have to do it anymore right and so it's i guess i think she just has to be honest you gotta stop kissing him though yeah no it's mixed

messages girl you're leading him on yeah you don't have to ghost him well no but that's what i mean like you just have to say like be honest just like say i don't want to do it like this anymore My vagina's dry I'm just like confused because it's like okay You either met him off of a dating app Which is for dating or you met him And he asked you on a date so he was like obviously romantically Interested in you

So the continue to go on dates And make out thing is odd Becca does not think guys and girls Can be friends though I don't either I agree Especially not after you've gone on a bunch of dates Well not now

Especially not after you've kissed them yeah no no so you'll never be friends with them is that the answer to our question yeah yeah cool next question next question comes from isabel isabel says hey ladies i'm 16 years old and buckling down on picking a college and deciding where i really want to go with all the opportunities out there that i have my dream is new york but i'm open to other cities is there any advice you can give on choosing a college city living and how to manage city dreams on a budget oh my advice about college is don't go into too much debt because it'll just weigh you down for the rest of your life so i think you have to like be a little pragmatic that would be my advice but

i also think that you know you can pick a school in new york and go to new york and not end up in massive debt as well but i would just say when you pick a college manager long-term debt from the beginning if you can i would agree i went to college in new york but the other thing is if your dream is new york to like to eventually live there i did say i do have to say that going to college there really gave me a leg up on like becoming an adult in the city because i was kind of like the kid in the city that was still had my schedule of classes and my dorm room and so it was kind of like this like preschool for New York City where I have other friends who planned on going to New York but didn't go to school in New York who planned on ending up in New York who didn't go

to college in New York who by the time they graduated college it was already too scary like the thought of getting out there so I don't think I would have ended up there had I not gone to school there I don't know I think that's really smart advice actually like it felt like a nice transition yeah it's a safe way to get accustomed to the city yeah because it's scary I do have to say though well obviously new york is like the most expensive place to live so if you are like super concerned about being on a budget i would apply everywhere and apply for scholarships because you never know what you could find somewhere else that could end up being free also get used to having horrible jobs if you want to live to a city like when i first lived new york and i was broke i

used to spray people with calvin klein eternity perfume in penn station and like one time what was the ck1 and then ckb remembers the black bottle and i had to stand outside the prince street subway station in the middle of winter it was horrible and spray people be like have you tried and then like on my resume i put calvin klein model amazing i was like literally in a puffy jacket that's a calvin klein on it anyway okay get used to being poor fun okay our last question comes from dina dina says i'm 36 and i've been married to my husband who is 41 since i was 18 we had our first child when i was 15 we have four children and having children so early we both decided on our careers very early on placing income and stability over any dreams

i thought we were on the same page but my husband wants to quit his job and pursue his dream as a photographer he spends thousands of dollars on cameras and equipment and spends lots of time away from home to take photos and when he is home he's editing when we fight he whines that it's his dream and that i'm not supportive for me this is not what i signed up for and this would completely changed my life plan what do you guys think wow i have so much compassion for everyone in this situation um i don't know what do you guys think well what's he photographing is he getting paid like is he going on model mayhem and like doing bikini shots or like is he a wildlife photographer is he a commercial photographer photography is a fantastic hobby it's not a great career it's even

like my neighbor used to be one of like the top photographers and did the kardashians and stuff and like even he was like when's my next job like it's so unstable it's very unstable dina i have a plan i was recently in a similar ish situation and we decided that we would both equally take care of our roles pre-job change like he would still continue to contribute the exact same amount of money whether that means he saves up a bunch and then decides to go into his passion job and quit the other one or he takes on like a side job like bartending or waiting tables or whatever it is so that you don't feel the effects of the um job change and as far as like the amount of time he's spending if he's if he's passionate about it and if he's like happier then aren't doesn't

that make you kind of happy that like your husband's doing something he's enjoying and And as long as you don't feel like he's totally neglecting the family, like, I think sometimes you have to suck it up and, like, be happy that your partner is happy. I think it's nice that he's, like, modeling the idea of going after your passion in life. Again, we don't really know the circumstances of how exactly this is contributing to, like, the family's stability, how the children feel about it. But it is a nice lesson for your kids to be like, listen, it's never too late. don't let life go by without really trying the thing you want to do it that's the thing we tell all our kids right you can go after whatever you want even when you're in your 40s and and so that is a nice thing for the kids to be seeing and then i think you also want to model supporting that

as much as you can but i i can see it does sound like well this is a big change it's not what they kind of agreed on it does sound like a shift in values here yeah and i i totally feel her pain where it's like well then because you're doing that can i do that too and then i want to be a nigger ability yeah synchronized swimming he's 41 it's a midlife crisis would you rather him have photography or hookers yeah you know what i'm saying girl to get like a dragon tattoo on his arm right or why doesn't he send up a weekend photography place and he could do family photos or something on saturdays i think it's just like yeah there needs to be some kind of balance of what's happening anyway don't take our advice it's horrible jenna's usually was

okay i don't know it's overly serious and like it sounds like it's your own mother telling you how to run your life but i can't help it because now i'm a mom and i can't i can't get out of it so now you can do that she's stuck you guys you can check out jenna ms jenna fisher on instagram you have a great instagram by the way i know it's really cute it's like right behind the scenes i'm glad you like it and please go on over to your bookstore or pre-order or this is actually airing the book's out today oh so congratulations yay launch the baby head on over to amazon or wherever your books are sold get the actor's life a survival guide it is such a good read whether you are in the hollywood world or you just love you know the behind the scenes of

hollywood life it's fantastically written there's even a couple really embarrassing pictures of you like the infideler on the roof which is yeah awesome i included every awful photo of me that i could find that there's one section i'm not gonna give it away but she goes through like her 10 years of headshots and walks them through and there's a story there that is just so awesome. You guys have to check it out.

So we love the book and we loved having you on. Thank you so much for coming. And you can also check out us on social media at The Lady Gang at Becca at Jack Vanek

at Kelty Knight. Make sure you sign up for our newsletter on theladygang.com and check out theladygang.com for all of our other fun stuff. And that's it.

See you next Tuesday. See you next Tuesday. See you next Tuesday. And see you next Tuesday. See you next Tuesday. Yay! Woo! Yay!

Woo! Join the Lady Gang every Tuesday at iTunes and at PodcastOne.com. That's PodcastONE.com. Thanks for listening.