LadyGang - LG QUICKIE: Alex Newell

Episode Date: April 22, 2021

From Glee to Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Becca takes a trip down memory lane with co-star, Alex Newell. Their broadway banter and wardrobe mishaps will leave you singing along! Check out our amazing sponsors!!! Total Wireless: Do amazing with your phone plan at TotalWireless.com  Brooklinen: Go to Brooklinen.com and use promo code [ladies] to get $25 off, with a minimum purchase of $100 Hello Fresh: Go to HelloFresh.com/ladygang12 and use code ladygang12 for 12 free meals, including free shipping! Rothy's: Check out all the amazing shoes, bags and masks available right now at Rothys.com/ladygang See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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That's why we love Total Wireless. Do amazing with Total Wireless. Get an unlimited talk, text, and data plan for $25 per month, one gig at high speed, then 2G. total wireless do amazing one month equals 30 days terms and conditions at total wireless.com podcast one presents the lady gang the hollywood girl posse with lady gang quickie here's kelty knight becca tobin and jack vanik let's make this quick reunited and it feels so good i'm not gonna sing that because i'm with the best singer i've ever

met in my whole life and I cannot humiliate myself. So our guest today is a Grammy award nominated singer, songwriter, actor, activist. I didn't know this by the way. Okay. Grammy nominated no big deal. Slade TV, Broadway pop music with DJ Cassidy and clean bandit. I don't even know who those people are. Cause I'm so not cool. I'm so not cool. And the knocks. Yeah. Okay. we're gonna get back to this and stole our hearts in the cast of glee now starring in zoe's extraordinary playlist and shooting right down the street from me in vancouver but my friend is so much more than credits in a bio a fierce non-conforming inspiration to us all welcome to the lady gang alex newell that was the best intro i've ever had in my life for real yeah i'm gonna

ask you to do this when i win a tony okay great oh speaking of oh i forgot to say that he's also starred on broadway yeah the show won a tony i did not bullshit that's bullshit all right so i think that to kick it off we will discuss that we met hold your hold on to your hats nine years ago no i refuse to say nine years i'm still 20 something i don't know what the age that was that. No. Can you believe that I started a decade ago with Glee? Like a decade ago. I'm only 28. So that means I was 18 at the time. Is that real? Yeah, that's real, real. That's real, real. Oh, like the, not to be confused with the consignment designer consignment website. Um, I would like to be associated with. All right, let's dive into, so I've known you for

such a long time uh i don't remember like the day the moment the whatever that i did meet you i heard about you i heard about you before i laid eyes on you because we were already into the season and you did we were doing the britney episode and i think that was your first episode yeah i think so when you guys were dancing in the sun for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours so that's what i remember i heard that you were dancing your fucking toot off and we were supposed to beware because we finally had a dancer on the show that wasn't heather morris well i to this day i'm embarrassed that anybody would ever even put me in the same category as heather morris like with dance it's kind of like when people say oh you sang on glee and so did alex it's kind of

like, technically those are facts, but it is not in the same realm. Facts are facts, America. You sang right along with me. All right. So there's obviously a ton I want to talk to you about, but before we get started, I asked you before we recorded, if it was okay for you to give us a schooling on pronouns and gender identity. And I just want to say, thank you. First of all, you identify as gender non-conforming. Can you explain to everybody what it means to be non-conforming? You know, non-conforming, I don't subscribe to gender politics. I think that they're archaic and they don't serve a purpose anymore. Um, your expression is your expression, how you feel, what clothes mean to you. You should be able to wear whatever you want and act however you want

and not live under this stigma of what you should be doing. I love that. Uh, pronouns. what is your chose what is your preference do you have one i've never had a preference it's it's super strange for me because since i was a kid i've always gotten her and my mother and i could go to dinner and like how are you ladies doing i'd be like okay but it's my chosen pronouns are all of them i don't like to subscribe to just one because in one day i'm in a shaved head with sweats on living my best life no makeup and the next day i'm beat down and then most days i'm in between wearing a lovely tinted moisturizer and let me tell you the skin is glowing like glowing what is this what is this tinted moisturizer oh i think it's milk their new oil one it's lovely

good good good sitting next to you with baby skin across from me it's it's actually unfair i have to keep up with you you're 28 and i'm 48 so there we go do amazing with total wireless because when you move to total wireless you can get an unlimited plan with incredible devices now with nationwide 5g available in 2700 plus cities capable device and sim required get our best deal ever with an unlimited talk text and data plan for 25 per month per line for four lines with 100 gigs of shared high speed data and then 2g which means you can listen to a lot of lady gang podcast which can save you up to 1200 when compared to comparable four line post paid plans from leading carriers all of this on america's largest and most dependable network

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nicer than like explaining it 10 years ago on the carpets being like, you're trans. And I'm just like, no, I'm not. I'm just me. Can I just be me for two seconds? Yeah. And I think for a lot of the girls listening, it's mostly girls because we're basic bitches. Now the best way to approach this conversation is, do you ask someone, what are your pronouns? You do. I mean, your preferred pronouns. I think there is a line of respect when you do ask that question. Now, if you f**k up, do you, if you catch yourself a little bit later, do you address it? Do you send a text message later? Do you, or do you, and obviously this is like so generalized and everybody feels differently, Um, but in my mind, I feel like addressing it and just saying, I just caught myself using

the wrong pronouns and I'm sorry. I think I would address it as well because even me being, I feel like I'm the grandma of everything of like this entire thing. It's like, I get caught up sometimes and I'll use a dead name or I'll use a past pronoun or I'll use the wrong pronoun and I'll have to catch myself and ask one, ask for forgiveness and be like, I'm so sorry. I do actually know better. what is a dead name a dead name is you know when you transition your former name it's your dead

name okay got it all right well there you go from the quote grandma the non-conforming fantastic grandma um i just i okay so i want to say i've known that alex was a fucking star from the moment you were singing in a porta potty i hate my life there's an episode of glee i have no idea what it was what it's called whatever all i remember is i know exactly what the episode was called because i literally read the script i was like what the does this mean it was the end of twerk and there i am singing in front of a portage the end of twerk yes i hate you i think in that episode i me myself was chosen to teach the glee club how to twerk yes no nothing seemed more inappropriate a whole master class

i thought that it was actually brilliant a full master class from kitty wild aka pussy wild Oh my God. Pussy wild. That's what you and Jacob called me every day, every day. Okay. So I knew you were talented in front of that portage on, but I remember, and tell me if you remember this memory, this is a memory I have of you. So we're working late hours. It was like hour 20 and we're doing some, some dance numbers, some bullshit. And you're in sky high heels, like really high heels, platform unit, whatever. And I just remember being so guilty that day. And I was in such a bad mood. And I remember you kept taking your shoes off between takes. And I'm like, we're having to wait every time for you to put your shoes back on because your feet hurt. And I'm, I wanted to kill

you. I wanted to kill you. And I remember you were like in one of those moods where we all got in one of these moods where we were like, I just don't want to be here anymore. I mean, it gets to a point hour to 75 of the week. And you're just like, I don't want to be here. I want to go home. Someone call my mom, get me out of here. How I'm 18, 19 at the time, then I'm a teenager. What are we doing and i did snap at jacob and i said if you if you have a problem you wear them that was the moment and then and then you were like i don't want to be here and i go well where do you want to be and you go i want to be on broadway and i go oh well that's not any not any easier than this good luck cut to becca tobin always eating her words you name it if i talk shit it will come

back and slap me in the face oh cut to however many years later and alex is starring in this broadway show and the only thing i can hear of from all my friends in new york and all the people in the theater community being like oh my god alex newell slays so i'm here to say i'm gonna eat crow and i'm gonna say i was wrong i'm sorry for yelling at you for taking your shoes off it's fine i do it to this day i literally take my shoes off every take and now i'm better at it Because now I look at a DP, I look at a director, and they just know if I look at you. But the question is, are my feet in the shot? Because an Apple box suffices.

I hate you. An Apple box does wonders. Because we got little short men on the show. And sometimes it's kinder for me not to wear shoes in the scene. That's really nice of you to put it that way. Okay, so surprise, surprise, surprise. Alex and I are on another show together, but never in the same scene. So it's almost like we didn't work together again.

But I'm on Zoe's Extraordinary Playlist. I think we're both morons and trying to figure out when the episode airs. I don't understand why you asked me to do math. I know. I'm so sorry. We're both just pretty and not. I'm an alcoholic. Oh, we're drinking Vuv from Mary Steenburgen.

Is that how you say her name? Mary Steenburgen. She has an Oscar. Yeah, she called me during the Critics' Choice to be like, you deserve it. And then literally looked at me one day and said, can I hand you an award one day? Like, I want to be the one to give you like your Oscar or your Emmy or your Golden Globe. Like, I just want to do that for you. I mean, yes, please.

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because we have your number get them right now head to rothys.com slash lady gang today the lady gang um okay april 25th people check me out being mediocre and check alex out being so good that there was you're in the episode am i 11 i don't know what happens there might i'm probably there okay well anyways it was very fun to work on the show but i will say now i get it you've not had a break from this singing and dancing madness. No, I just like to torture myself doing musicals on television. I think that that is my purpose in life. It's what God really called me to do,

to quite literally just sing, dance, and act on a series. 22 or 13. I'm not counting. Well, I'm sorry to break it to you, but that's what happens when you're talented. I mean, I've seen many of untalented people do the same thing. name names i won't i'm not rude all right now i want to talk about the critics choice they came and they went uh the winners were not accurate i mean and if you ask me it wasn't accurate i mean

some people deserve their awards others you know it's a courtesy to give them a award at the end of their television series but it's fine who won who won in your category dan levy won in my category oh well that is like kind of not fair I mean no no I'm not I mean he deserved it I think the show was amazing all the things that I'm supposed to say but yeah I you know I don't do it for the awards I do it for the rewards of having a long illustrious career I hate you did your publicist write that down oh god well sweetheart i feel that it's kind for me to always look perfect and you do although you no one can dish it out quite like you i have no i or recollection of anything that

you mean by that statement. I love you. Okay. So, oh, so your look that night was everything. It was something, the ins and outs of it. It was, no one should get a custom bespoke suit tailor-made to your body in the midst of a pandemic. The designers in Paris, the stylists in LA, my publicist in New York, and I'm in Vancouver. What could possibly ever go wrong? I literally got it in my trailer in a box opened it tried on the pants they didn't fit like at all and when I tried on the blazer it didn't fit at all I run to the seamstress on our show and she's just like well good luck well whatever uh duct tape staples that you used you look amazing eight ribs just to fit in it but I found them they just put them back yesterday

good good good all right so um you know we do good week bad week on this where we're like this was a good week this was the best part of my week this is the worst part of my week I want to hear the best part of of your journey in the business and the worst part of the journey in the business for you I think the best part it's always the same of like seeing a little fan just being so ecstatic and living their own true authentic life but to me itself I think the Tony performance of Once on this Island which they did my number and it finally being over and I didn't have anything to prove anymore I didn't have to like try as hard I still gave a phenomenal performance after but I didn't put all that weight on myself after that which and I thought that was the high

the worst I mean there's so many there's always so many but I think probably hearing that you're too fat to play a role and i heard that for kinky boots not once but three times excuse me for the for the lead role the lead role in the musical yeah what was your reaction i mean well the first time my my manager called me and said well they think that you're too big and i said of a name i mean i'm just on glee i think that should always be the answer i mean i'm not that famous i'm not that famous i'm like i can't be too big of a name it's like about her being beyonce he was like no your size they think that they don't think that you'll make it through the like the run and i was like wait what i'm 18 sis i have energy for days well they're very upset

right now maybe their show would have still been running if you had done the role it did it ran its course and it set up a lot of people for their own success i know how to be very diplomatic i don't know if you know this this is a side of you that i have i am i'm impressed by uh this is you're very different from the 18 year old that i met i would hope so god damn it shit there there you are there you are okay well um anything else we want to discuss i don't know anything you want to discuss that i don't know i feel like i am very grateful to have met you. I'm very grateful that our paths have crossed again. And I'm very grateful that you have kind of shown everyone, um, in your life that you are better than all of them.

Yes. Okay. Well, um, we weren't here for a long time, but we are here for a good time. And if we think of other things, we're just sitting in my apartment in Vancouver drinking champagne. So we might pop back on and say some other things that we feel like we don't want to talk about, but we'll probably turn this off and talk a lot of shit that we're not allowed to air. I love talking about people. I mean, shit. Thanks for listening. The Lady Gang is produced by Alex Ingber, Will Sterling, Steve Delameter, and Jared Monaco. Make sure you subscribe, rate, and review our podcast. And if you love it, share it with your friends on social media. Like, oh my God, I just listened to Lady

Gang. This episode's so great. Swipe up to listen. And if you really want to, which we know you do, please follow us on social at kelty at becca at jack vanek and at the lady gang sign up for our newsletter at the lady gang.com and join our secret facebook group it's super fun see you next tuesday come on sing us a little something what do you want me to sing oh my god i can see i hate you i can see miranda sings was that the impression no that's some of our other cast members before the editing angly yeah it was me wasn't it no whatever didn't know it wasn't you i mean i had a little help um i also had a little help no you didn't think those runs just came out magically yes but you know sometimes i'm sharp sometimes i'm flat i did diamonds are a girl's

best friend with a full on fever. Oh my God. I was like asleep. You were on death's door, death's door. It was so, oh my God. And we were in those pink corseted dresses and in a bathroom. Oh, maybe we'll use those photos to promote this episode. Cause that was a time just me on death's door trying to figure out if you say action or cut, or if I had lines to be honest and i i think i was just there they sent me home that day they felt pity on me and sent me home wow yeah you can be taken down good to know did you ever call out of your broadway show yes a hell of a lot i remember i tried to do the show with bronchitis like full-on bronchitis i did the show with the stomach flu bronchitis um a uh torn um ligament

somewhere in my ankle it was a lot but i called out a lot mid-show and didn't care for a 90 minute musical yeah like 90 minutes and i found a way to call out mid-show because she's a star honey bonafide bonafide motherfucking star hoe on that note i love you guys i love you alex thank you for being here and tune in to zoe's extraordinary playlist hopefully my stuff didn't get cut bye