The Delta Flyers - Terry Farrell

Episode Date: October 2, 2023

The Delta Flyers is a weekly podcast hosted by Garrett Wang & Robert Duncan McNeill. This week’s episode is an interview with Terry Farrell.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Executive producers Megan Elise & Rebecca McNeillAnd a special thanks to our Ambassadors, the guests who keep coming back, giving their time and energy into making this podcast better and better with their thoughts, input, and inside knowledge: Lisa Klink, Martha Hackett, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Robert Beltran, Tim Russ, Roxann Dawson, Kate Mulgrew, Brannon Braga, Bryan Fuller, John Espinosa, & Ariana DelbarAdditionally we could not make this podcast available without our Co-Executive Producers: Stephanie Baker, Liz Scott, Eve England, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Jason M Okun, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Kris Hansen, Chris Knapp, Janet K Harlow, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Courtney Lucas, Matthew Gravens, Brian Barrow, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Heidi Mclellan, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, John Espinosa, E, Deike Hoffmann, Mike Gu, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Vikki Williams, Jenna Appleton, Lee Lisle, Sarah Thompson, Samantha Hunter, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Ashley Stokey, Lori Tharpe, Mary Burch, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Dominique Weidle, Lisa Robinson, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Alex Mednis, Elizabeth Stanton, Kayla Knilans, Tim Beach, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, Holly Schmitt, James H. Morrow, Christopher Arzeberger, Tae Phoenix, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Roxane Ray, Daniel O’Brien, Bronwen Duffield, Andrew Duncan, David Buck, Danie Crofoot, Ian Ramsey, Feroza Mehta, Michael Dismuke, Jonathan Brooks, Gemma Laidler, Rob Traverse, Penny Liu, Matt Norris, Stephanie Lee, David Smith, & Matt BurchAnd our Producers:Philipp Havrilla, James Amey, Patrick Carlin, Richard Banaski, Ann Harding, Ann Marie Segal, Samantha Weddle, Chloe E, Nikita Jane, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Jocelyn Pina, Mike Schaible, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, Claire Deans, Maxine Soloway, Barbara Beck, Species 2571, Mary O'Neal, Dat Cao, Scott Lakes, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Tara Polen, Cindy Ring, Alicia Kulp, Kelly Brown, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Amber Nighbor, Jamason Isenburg, Mark G Hamilton, Rob Johnson, Maria Rosell, Heather Choe, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Jennifer Jelf, Justin Weir, Mike Chow, Kevin Hooker, Aaron Ogitis, Ryan Benoit, Megan Chowning, Rachel Shapiro, Captain Jak Greymoon, Clark Ochikubo, David J Manske, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, E.G. Galano, Cindy Holland, Will Forg, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Russell Nemhauser, Lawrence Green, Christian Koch, Lisa Gunn, Lauren Rivers, Shane Pike, Jennifer B, Dean Chew, Akash Patel, Jennifer Vaughn, Cameron Wilkins, Michael Butler, Ken McCleskey, Walkerius Logos, Abby Chavez, Preston Meyer, Amanda Faville, Lisa Hill, Cerise Robinson, Benjamin Bulfer, & Mary JenkinsThank you for your support!“Our creations are protected by copyright, trademark and trade secret laws. Some examples of our creations are the text we use, artwork we create, audio, and video we produce and post. You may not use, reproduce, distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail].”Our Sponsors:* Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/TDFSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

All right, everyone, yes. Welcome to the Delta Flyers. We are so excited to have the one and only Terry Farrell. Terry, welcome. I love you guys. I'm so happy to be here. It's like an appetizer. It's like an appetizer because, you know,

they get to have a little bit of Terry now and then more Terry later in the future. Yes. We're very happy to have you. I'm happy to be an appetizer. Yeah. All right. So starting from the beginning, you were born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, correct? Cedar Rapids, Iowa, yeah. Cedar Rapids is northern Iowa?

Is it like closer to Chicago or is it closer to Missouri or where is it? It's southeast, Iowa. Southeast, okay. So Chicago is like a four-hour drive. Okay. Yeah, Iowa City is where you fly in to go to Cedar Rapids, which is really close. But Iowa City is where the Hawkeyes are. Oh, all right.

So we were a Hawkeye fan. Of course, as you should be. And why were you guys in Iowa at the time? Why were your parents there? What did they do? What did they do back then? My mom was a hairdresser when I was a kid. Oh.

She moved from Minnesota. my birth father, I don't know the history of why his family was in Iowa, or I don't remember it. He left when I was four. But my stepdad, who adopted me when I asked him to adopt me when I was 19, was a data systems analyst for hospitals. And he wrote computer programs when computers were the size of buildings, right? I mean, they were gigantic or they took up whole rooms, right? Yeah, massive.

So that's what he did. That's funny. Your stepfather worked in computers around the same time my father worked in computers for General Electric Company. He did data sales and customer service. All the companies that would use GE computers for their data processing and things. He would deal with them and figure out what they needed and then talk to the techs about how to make that work.

But yeah. Look at the parallels. Yeah. That is so cool. Old computers. with like these big stacks of that computer paper. And he would never make a big deal about anything. He's such a, he's such a humble man.

I mean, he's 85 now. He's amazing. He plays tennis and everything. Oh, that's awesome. But I can't, well, I didn't get his jeans up here, but he's very smart man. Did he bring, did he ever have those teletypes, those computers like that look like a suitcase. My father would bring him home. And it was as big as a suitcase and it had a hard shell. You'd take the top off. And then he'd go to our phone on the wall and dial a number and stick the

phone in to the side of this teletype it was called. And then he could work from home. Did your stepfather have that? I don't remember that. Wow. But I do remember those. Yeah. I don't remember him doing that. But I do remember those. Yeah. My father would bring it home occasionally. It wasn't. an everyday thing, but he'd bring it home if he had a project or had to make an impact on you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the cards.

The cards. Yes, all those computer cards. Boxes of cards. Like, whoa. Funny that you and I had a lot of that in our lives growing up. Yeah. Those old school computers. Yeah.

What was it like growing up in Iowa? Well, we didn't have very much money. So most of our trips or vacations were car trips. Yeah. Same. And I remember. my first stepfather used to not my dad would take us in the car to chase storms oh wow i remember him holding me and my sister under his arms to put us in the car so we must have been like three and four

i was four and chris was three and driving to my grandparents house like on sundays for dinner and when we would drive home and this is one of the things i love about where i live right now in new Mexico, there are no street lambs. But I remember driving home before there were highway light. Wow. And I'd stare at the stars, the whole way, the whole hour and a half going back, right? And I loved it so much. Not going there, but I love staring at the way home. That's so funny. It brings up a memory for me. We had a Pontiac when I was young. And it had a very long sloping rear window. And I would climb up in. into the back, where the speakers, like the stereo speakers, because that long sloping window

and I could lay under. Yeah, yeah. Clearly, my parents didn't care about seatbelts or anything like that. Nobody did at the time. Nobody did. My dad, now he had a tornado, and I was skinny enough that I was the one that could fit in the very back there. Yeah.

I had four sisters, so. You know, but you would lay and you would watch. the stars because we'd take trips to see family. And I remember those drives home at late at night looking at the stars through the, oh. Yeah. And we both went to the stars. We both ended up on spaceships. Look at the parallels here. This is crazy. It really is. Okay. Let's talk about your, did you do school? Did you do school anything? Anything like that? When did the acting bug hit you? Did any of that happen in primary school, middle school, or high school at all? I think maybe this has to do with being a kid from the 60s or maybe it's just, you know,

kind of part of being a kid. But I always kind of performing, like, I don't know what it was. Like in front of your parents, that kind of stuff and with your sisters maybe. Yeah. What would you perform? Would you perform songs or plays? Terry and I did, step-sister Terry and I did. a whole dance to crocodile rock and made up plays and oh evil caneval was big and i remember having this

oh i think i was probably like maybe five or six and i thought i had this um purple bike with a banana seat and I was going to jump off of it and onto the sidewalk. Well, I missed and I landed in a gravel pit. No. Terry, I can't believe. Stuff like that. You had the banana seat bike and loved evil can evil. I was the same.

Me and my friends, I had the Schwinn Stingray, which was the stingray, that had the banana seed and the big handlebars. And we built ramp. and we would do evil caneval kind of like reenactments and we'd jump and see who and we'd mark it with like chalk on the street oh yeah i remember that yeah i just did this in my head yeah i had no ramp i just and then you ended up in a gravel pit i yeah i ate a lot of rocks and like everyone's so excited to see you like do it it's dangerous you're doing your own stunts basically and then the look on their faces when I at the blood everywhere just yeah that's oh no I do a lot of things where I

don't think them all the way through ah okay very insightful so you did this growing up with your family and your and friends just performing and things when is the first time you took it to the next level of like formal like a was it a school play was it a was it was it was it modeling is that sort of in junior high did a lot of musicals oh you did you did in high school yeah in high school i read for a play but we had to it was one of those where they had to sing happy birthday who can sing happy birthday right in the auditorium and i was so nervous and so embarrassed and the auditorium was so huge compared to our junior high that it was too scary and i i never auditioned for a play again but I went to a modeling school and they told me that they thought I was photogenic so I took pictures

and one of these women Linda Anderson was her name and she at the time she thought I should mail my pictures into the agencies and at the time Cosmopolitan had a book of all the agencies you could buy oh wow Manhattan Handbook is what it was called right Right. So I got that with my babysitting money and I had all the addresses for all the modeling agents. And I sent my pictures out and the first batch came back told me, remember two in the 70s, women, we plucked our eyebrows like this big thing in the front. And then it was like a pencil line. Yeah. Let your eyebrows grow out or you're too tall. You got your too tall? Literally. Come on. Well, the average model was five. I did not know that. But even when they make a big thing about tall, tall models, six feet tall, it's not an easy models that are five, eight, they're going to make the most amount of money because they

fits. It's like a last for a shoe. How they design the clothes is to fit on someone who's between, you know, five feet and five eight. Right. Not six feet, six three or anything like that. And at the time. time. I was really tall. It wasn't, I mean, being six feet tall in a woman in born in

1963 was like, what? I was the tallest. I wasn't tallest in school until high school. What about your sisters, though? Were they also as tall as you? Are they as tall as? My sister, Chris, we have the same mom and dad. No, Chris is shorter than me. I don't remember. I think she's like five, six. Oh, my goodness. That's a big difference. And my stepsisters were not biologically related so right okay one agency did respond and say we love you yes so second set of pictures my eyebrows are grown out but i just did three headshots and i sent them out an elite model management a lady named gara morris called me and it was the like august before my junior year of high school and said we have your pictures and we're going to

go on a scouting mission and we'd like to come see you and if you look like your pictures we'd like to sign you wow well i knew i looked like my pictures right and so they came and they signed me and i from that at the beginning of my junior year i took every credit i could yeah and i didn't spend a dollar i saved all my money to um from babysitting and i worked as a an art assistant at a recreation center for a potter and that was one of my favorite jobs ever was working with the artist. She was really cool. And so I saved all my money from that.

And we drove out from Cedar Rapids to New York City and stayed at the model's apartment. What was a span of time between when you got the okay from them and then you were saving all that money to actually drive out? Like, what was that time? Okay, so this is August. Yeah. The beginning of the school year, before school starts, they came out. Right.

Then we're talking Christmas time. With the next time I had a break and my parents could take time and that kind of thing. Yeah. So it was August, September, October, November, just that four months. Yeah. So I needed to go to New York City to get pest shots done. Correct. Like real.

Professional photographers. And you don't get paid for this. So I know a little. bit about modeling, but I'll tell you what I know and then you can correct me. So when young girls get signed from out of New York City, these agencies keep apartments for young people coming in and they kind of help set you up with a place to stay and they have all these photographers that will take pictures of you for free. The photographers own those images technically. But you can get copies of it for your portfolio, which helps you get paying jobs.

I would just correct that I had to pay for my rent in the apartment. Your house. Oh, you do? Yes, it's not free. They set you up with the opportunity to stay there, right? But you have to pay. So I still have to pay rent. Yeah.

So you're sharing a room? Four girls in a room. What part of town was that apartment? 87th and third. Oh, that's not a bad. neighborhood that's not too bad and it wasn't bad and i moved there june 81 oh yeah i was in new york at the end of my junior year so i remember new york in those days is that upper west or upper east side what she just said where is that that's upper east side okay yeah and um what happened was we did

the test shots and um i'm there with my mom and my aunt in new york city on 87th and third third avenue So it's East Side. And we went and saw a couple of plays that we didn't have very much money. So you go to Ticketmaster. And it was before the whole world knew about Ticketmaster, right? So you go the day of. And it was a long line. But now it's like chaos, right?

Yeah. Insanity. And what's really weird is we saw this Tommy Tune, what was it bringing up baby or babies? Sugar babies. Oh, my one and only. I saw sugar babies and my one and only, and I think Nana was in one of those. I did no Nana then. Wow.

No way. That's crazy. Yeah. And so my sister and my dad went ahead and drove to New Hampshire, which is where my aunt lives. My aunt has her car with us. And so when I'm done with my test shots, my aunt is driving me and my new agent from Elite in the car. and my mom were going to drop her off in Boston

and go the west of the way to New Hampshire and on the way, she's looking at the pictures of me and she went, oh my God, you're going to be a cover girl. And I was like, I had goosebumps all over my body. Oh, wow. And the weirdest thing is that's exactly what happened. Wow.

I mean, it really was. How quickly did that success with the modeling happened and what were your first, What was your first kind of big breaks that happened for you there? The first day I was there, I got a job to do a beauty campaign for Mademoiselle magazine. And I got the job and I was going to shoot the next week. But the very day before I was going to shoot it, I got punched in the face by a bicycle delivery person. Just drove by me and punched me right in the face.

And I was right down the street, right downstairs from the agency. I went running upstairs. of course there's blood once again the rocks in my mouth now i get punched in the face i know i know it's like i'm a target right it's just what the heck so um i get punched in the face i go up and i'm crushed because i'm thinking we're not obviously going to do the beauty shoot anymore and mademoiselle was like nope we still want her we're going to figure it out she has a fat my lip was sticking out so what they did was they got a baby pool and then we had me do a whole thing on shampoos and i had bubbles and uh so i'm sitting in a baby pool but it looks like i'm in a

shower and they're holding like a handheld shower head above me yeah so it's not on me but it's in front of me right so you can't really see that i have a fat lip it's distorting the lip basically that's crazy wow wow and then i signed an exclusivity with them after i got my first cover with them after six weeks but i'd already booked the cover of the new york times fashion of the times and the cover of the washington post fashion of the post so i was successful like mad crazy right away what year is this that you got there okay summer of 81 all right so robbie when did you get there you got there 80 I got their summer of 82, so a year later. A year later, Robbie was there.

So you probably saw her on the cover of these, you know, you possibly did. Picked it up. Well, you would too. They were a nation. Well, those two would have been finite because they are like gone in a month, right? Right, right. Fashioned the Post and the Times were parts of the newspaper. But they were a big deal in the industry that I had to cover of both of them.

And it was like the best, they didn't let me go to Europe. usually a model goes to Europe first. Yeah. So you didn't go to Italy or anything. Okay. They just said we're going to do everything here. They're going to make too much money on me staying in America. Yeah.

That's incredible. That's incredible. You kind of bypassed what every other model does and going to Europe and finding success there and kind of cutting their teeth in Europe. But you didn't do any of that. You already went straight to the big camp. No, which actually was safer. I had people looking out for me because I was 17 and because. You know, I'm me.

I was, well, a much softer, just, you know, naive and wide-eyed. And I think people just went, oh, my God, do we have to protect her? She's like, I'm six feet tall, but I'm like a little, you know, Maltese inside a great Dane body. But I was really like a little bit of, you're a little Iowa Maltese, little Maltese, a little Maltese from Iowa. Funny analogy. Okay, thank you. That's incredible that that happens so fast, so unusual. Yeah.

And then how, take me to how did the acting, when did you go from modeling? How did that transition happen? Oh, the first time I met my agent, Davian Littlefield, was the agent representing Jay Michael Bloom at the time in our modeling agency because the models were doing commercials. Right. so we right and they wanted them to become actors and so she said would you like to act and I said okay because I'm not going to say no to anything right no I need to do and she said nothing and she got me into an acting class and at first that was a little too scary because I was not

ready for I was not this angry seasoned person yet I dealt with my anger way later in my life Do you remember the teacher's name? Della Adler or no? Yeah, I did go to Stella Adler. But that wasn't the class she put you in, though, right? No, because Stella was in, I don't know where she was at the time. I don't remember my very first class. I also took a Sonic class, Shakespeare Sonic class, which I love.

Oh, cool. And I don't remember the name of that teacher either. But I studied with Kate McGregor Stewart for a long time, which is where we did do some Sandy Meisner stuff and a lot of improv stuff. And then we did scene study too. So there were two classes when I finally got into like really enjoying it. Yeah. So I was 18 and I read for this TV movie.

What network was this? It was ABC. ABC TV movie. Okay. So what I wasn't ready for the TV movie, Lynn Stallmaster was, I don't know if he did the TV movie, but I was just reading for the executive at ABC. So they put me on hold for a year. I don't I can't remember what they paid to have me be on hold but it wasn't like you know I was I was already modeling so it wasn't like I wasn't making money having a job they weren't holding me back very quickly explain to our audience what being on hold means in case someone doesn't doesn't understand that just in layman's terms in layman's terms I you get a check for them to have the first right of refusal to you.

you really. So first right of refusal is like any other legal document. They have the first choice to use you as an actor before anybody else. So someone else could come and ask you if you could do a film or another TV show. We have to go back to that original producer or network and ask their permission for me to get out of the contract or get a, what's it called like a writer? Anyway, this is getting kind of, but there are people who are like, oh, that's really interesting. Now, this is a long time ago. I would imagine there's some things that we're probably fighting for, and for our contracts now. The world is so different.

Well, it's funny you say that. I hadn't thought of it in those terms ever, but it's funny you say that because an overall deal or a holding deal like you would have gotten from ABC back in the 80. yeah usually they paid you know a token amount of money it wasn't a ton of money in the time period was it a year guys was it a year usually a year one year time to have you a year yeah where they can use you for any of their projects first and foremost over any other production company or network correct so yeah exactly you're right terry i think one of the big issues right now is these these new shows these streaming shows when they're so short the seasons, eight episodes, six, six or eight episodes that an actor will get paid for,

but then their contract holds them exclusively for that streaming show. Yeah. They can't do another show. Right. Without being reimbursed. They are not reimbursed for that hold time either. They're not reimbursed for the hold. And so they could sit.

I mean, I know the show that I produce. How many episodes a year do you do? We've done different amounts every year. We started, we started this series. I started working in 2009. and we have only aired two seasons so far. Our third season has finished shooting, but we haven't been able to air it

because of the strikes kind of stopped everything. But I do know that our lead actor got a job he really wanted to do and during a hiatus and they wouldn't let him do it. They said, oh, no, it competes with our sci-fi show. And he was really upset about it. I don't blame him. It's like what you're talking about,

that holding deal you had at least you got paid okay for a year ABC's got my attention and i was modeling they didn't stop me from modeling they didn't want to stop me from being a cover girl because that's what the whole show is about right right right but now they don't pay actors that are signed for shows they don't pay any holding fees no to hold them for sometimes a year or or two before the show finally gets on streaming. And so that is one of the things we're fighting for. I love that you brought that up because I had never thought about it before. You're right. Thank you. Always happy when something parlays and falls into place. So nicely. Yeah. So nicely. Continue your story. So anyway. A year later, TV movie has been filmed. It stars Daryl Hannah and

Alexander Paul. Neither of one of them want to do a series. Now ABC wants to do a series. Now ABC wants to do series. So I auditioned for it. At the time, I did not know. I mean, they read everybody, but they had their finger on me the whole time. Oh, wow. You find these out later, right? Yeah. But at the time, I couldn't move my neck. I was so nervous. I was so excited. And Alexander Paul and I are also another duo that maybe not now that my face has aged more, but when we were younger and more kind of like i don't know there's something about when your face is young you look more kind of round and we looked more similar we certainly look like sisters what a kind kind woman she is when i did the pilot i got a message at my agency's office from her about what a

fine job i had done and it was just yeah very sweet isn't that sweet what a sweet person so the tv movie did really well. Neither Daryl Hannah nor Alexander Paul wanted to do the TV series. Obviously, it was offered to them first. Then I read for it with Lynn Stallmaster. It was a big casting director in the 80s. Huge. Yeah. Huge. So nice. I auditioned for it. The crazy thing was, is I had been working in Europe. So I took the Concord home because I had a job the very next day. And then at the end of that day, I had to read for Lynn Stallmaster. like I'm not even listening to Stallmaster the audition

all I have in my mind is that you were on the Concord I've never got a chance to ride on the Concord before they decommissioned all of them how was that? Was that like amazing? I did it more than twice more than three times. You lucky dog.

Oh my gosh. And I was on it when you could smoke on it. You were never a smoker though, were you? Garrett. I was. You weren't you, Robby? You were too. I smoked for it.

Okay, this is so bad. But the cutest little packs of cigarettes, they come through. It was like, oh, yes, please. Can you believe we could smoke on that? On the concord of all. You're like in this tube. You're in a missile, basically, and you're smoking. Oh, my gosh.

Did you feel it when you were flying in it? Could you feel the speed difference or no? No. What I remember, there was something physical. like the sonic boom or something like a little but there was nothing dramatic like you could get up and walk to the washroom

and you know do your business and you're not whoa like I mean it was just smooth right just a smooth and you look out the window and it was like seeing that the curvature of the earth right oh gosh because your elevation is even higher you guys are flying higher than you have because you're breaking

the sound barrier which is fast and high because you don't want to hit anyone either. No, you don't. No, no. And the last time I went, I was 36. Paris to L.A. or Paris to New York? Or what were you doing? What leg was that? Yeah, it was Paris because I hadn't been to England yet. Or it was working, I think, in Germany and I had to take a flight from Germany to Paris to it. Anyway, who's going to remember? This is not the part of the story that's fun. It's not. I want to continue. I was working in Europe. Had to take that Concord over to work in

America. At any rate, imagine how tired I am. And I think it's like, anything when you're when you're yeah my life was really glamorous especially looking back on it but when you're living it and you're exhausted yeah it's i just remember days when i'd have those nine and a half hour turn around like the first year yeah i needed them i wanted the money i needed it i felt like i was depleted but after a while you're like can i just give you the money because i really need sleep yeah sleep it would be my friend and yours because i would remember my lines if i got to sleep. Exactly.

Imagine that. My friend and yours. And yours. So I'm doing it at the audition and I can't get my lines right. I was so retired and I so wanted it so badly. I was so stressed out. But the funny thing was is everything about me doing how I did it, I was absolutely in character.

I was naive. I was so insecure. and so sorry that I wasn't getting it right. And I was younger than my years in how I was coming across. Right. And just naive anyway, because I'd only been out of Iowa two years. You don't suddenly become this, like, you know, hit person coming from where I came from. Right.

So your anxiety and flusteredness, it worked. It worked for the character and for the audition. Yeah. You got lucky on that one. I got really lucky on that one. Yeah. The other naive thing was I thought, because it took place in New York, I would be still living in New York.

No. So they filmed in Los Angeles for New York. Yeah, so I relocated in it only went 13 episodes. Oh, wait a minute. Okay, so you moved? That was really upsetting. Move my whole world to Los Angeles, which I was not excited about 1984. What neighborhood did you stay in when you first moved there?

Of course, not a good one. Gower and Sunset. I was thinking of a friend of a friend's house because they were out of the country. And so I was, and there were raccoons in the walls. I was so terrified. I was such an apartment person. It was like, no. Just like anybody could break into the house. There's no dog. I didn't know what to do. It was crazy. That's funny. The first time I went to L.A. was around 1984 to do an episode of a TV show. And instead of staying at the hotel that the network was going to put me up at, I had a friend from New York, a Broadway theater person, friend of mine who said, Groverdale and Anita Morris, Groverdale was a big Broadway choreographer. And they have a house in Laurel Canyon and they've got a guest house. and they'll just go stay at Grover and Anita's house. So I go up to the guest house. Oh, good.

In Laurel Canyon, coming from New York City, like you're describing. And I feel like I'm in the middle of like nowhere. It's terrifying. It was terrifying. And I'm staying in this like shack, basically. It was barely a guest house. And then at night I hear the coyotes. Oh, yeah.

The coyotes in Laurel Canyon are loud. And that seemed like they were right outside the walls, these paper-thin walls of guesthouse. They were. I'm sure they were. I was terrified. I want to get back to New York City so bad. So bad. Yeah. Oh, my God. That's funny. Hey, Garrett, have you been traveling this summer? Oh, my gosh. So much already. I don't always travel, but this summer's been insane. Trip after trip. You've been doing your impersonation of me.

Yes. You know what doesn't belong in everyone's epic summer plans, though? What? getting burned by your old wireless bill. So while you're planning your beach trips and your barbecues and your three-day weekends, your wireless bill should be the last thing holding you back. Well, that is why I made the switch to Mint Mobile. The coverage and speed are the same as I'm used to, but the savings, that is the difference. The savings are incredible.

And now I'm saving all kinds of money for when my stepdaughter wants to go back to school shopping. She's currently at the mall right now as we speak. Well, all the Mint Mobile plans come with high-speed data, unlimited talking tax, and they deliver the nation's largest 5G network. So this year, skip breaking a sweat and breaking the bank. Get this new customer offer and your three-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com slash TDF. That's mintmobile.com slash TDF. Up front payment of $45 required, equivalent to $15 a month.

Limited time new customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Yeah, I kept going, I kept trying to get back to New York. And every time I would just get settled in New York, I would end up getting a job and have to go back to L.A. Wow. So they also got into Uda Hogan's acting class. It was like, Oudahoggins.

Oh, my God. That's a big deal. Yeah. And auditioning was so scary. But then I couldn't go to class because we weren't filming in New York. Oh, that's right. You know, like Woody Allen, dream come true. I'm going to work in New York, study in New York, eventually I'll be on stage.

You were accepted into Utahoggins class, and you could not take the class because you weren't in the city. So, oh, that sucks. What did you do when you made this transition to acting? So you'd been, you know, super successful very quickly, just, you know, off the plane from Iowa. And then two years later, you're starting to do all the. this acting. How did you, what did you start to do like for your creative process? What kinds of things were you studying? Like if you couldn't get into Uda's class or couldn't make that work out, were you, was there other coaches or people that you were studying with?

Oh, yeah. I was, I was studying with Kate McGregor Stewart. And I think at that time in New York City, she probably did every scene I could do with her until I had to move to L.A. And then when I lived in L.A. A couple of friends in mine, and I, this is before I left for L.A., went to see Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn. I was the name of that play. Slab Boys, I know the play. Yes. Slab boys.

I saw it. Yes. We went and so made friends. I mean, I'm not, I just shook Kevin Bacon's hand. I have that six degrees. Six degrees of Kevin Bacon, yes. But I don't know him. But Sean Penn, when I got to L.A., his dad directed a few episodes,

and he recommended I go to Bill Traylor and Peggy Fury's acting classes, where Laura Dern was in those classes. And so was Eric Stolt. He used to tease me relentlessly. When you did make the move to Los Angeles, at that point did you completely severed ties. with modeling, or was modeling still kind of a backup until you, you know, found something even more secure? No, because at that time, that's a really good question. At that time in the world,

if you were doing both, you couldn't do both, really. It was like you weren't, you weren't respected, or you had this, anyway, you had this idea that you wouldn't be respected, right? Okay. And on top of it, the agent at the time, he's no longer with us, but they wanted 20%. and my agent was making 10% my acting it. So you can't you can't take 30%. And he wasn't having anything to do with that. So we had a terrible severing of our relationship, which is really funny too at the time when you think about how they talk to you

when you're a teenager as if they're dealing with another adult. Right. I was 19. A 50 year old man's talking to me like I'm a 30 year old woman. I'm 19. I've only lived in New York City for a minute. I'm not spoiled. I just don't understand how all of these things work.

So people need to sit you down and have a calm conversation about what's happening. Not these dramatic fights. It's just, oh, my gosh. It says a lot about where a lot of us come from, from drama. And it just parlays into it instead of people taking it down. I feel like the culture of Hollywood or modeling or show business, all of it, I think back to the early 80s when I first got to New York and you were certainly much more successful than I was in those years. But I do remember some of the stuff happening in the 80s and the culture was very, it was bullying. There was a lot of bullying and shaming.

I don't know. Shaming and fear and body shaming. Oh, you'll, it'll ruin your career. It was like, oh, I can't ruin my career. It's like, I don't even know what that. I'm from a normal place. Yes. I don't know what a show business career is.

What does that mean? I think that's a lot of what, like, I know that SAG AFRA is really not just some of the things that the strike is about is not just about money, but it's about workplace conditions. and safety and respect in the workplace and all those things. Oh, yes. And me too, brought a lot of it to the head. But people still get away with a lot of stuff. It's like most things. When it's immediate and in the news and the headlines and it's brand new,

people are really scared. And then when time goes by and people just sort of sneak back into their old behavior. Rob, you said your first time out in L.A. was 84. Is it what you said? I think it was 84. I think so. 84, 85. When Olympics happening?

Maybe it was the year after that then. Might have been 85. No. I don't know. It was one of, I can't remember. It was in the mid-80s. It was the mid-80s. For you, for you, for you, it was 84 that you were there on sunset and Gower, staying in that area, 84, summer of 84, correct?

Wow. So, check it out. If Robbie was then there at 84, that's the same. year that you got there and for me that's when I was in my freshman year of college orientation was summer of 84 before I was a freshman at college at UCLA yes so I graduated yeah so I was in LA when you guys educated I was in LA when you guys were there too the same time that's amazing yeah but it was a much smaller town back there yes yeah wasn't it and there was rush hour there were rush hours.

Yeah. Like if you, like, if you made an appointment for 11, you wouldn't be crushed with traffic. Yeah. Yeah. You definitely wouldn't be crushed first thing in the morning. Like, you know, 9.30, it'd be like, oh, yay. Did you guys go to that nightclub vertigo?

That was like the big nightclub back in the 80s, mid 80s. I don't know if it's bringing a bell. I remember going there, but you couldn't do anything because you get carded. You can't drink until you're 21. Where was vertigo? Where was it? True. So we're in Hollywood.

Under the Beverly Center? Under the Beverly Center? Oh, no. Oh, I remember that club. What's that one? That was down below the Beverly Center. Yeah. Just off Sam and Sente.

I remember that one. That's the one I remember. But I do remember. Oh, wait, Vertigo. It was on Las Sienega. I think that sounds right. Yeah, a little bit later. Oh, my gosh.

Yeah. Garrett was a club guy. I was not a club guy. No, no. I was not during college. Not until I was on the show that I turned into a club guy. That's when I was going to Vegas. Yeah.

That was the fun part. Dancing is great. So different projects coming along. How did you feel creatively that your confidence in acting and being a performer like that grew or changed from modeling in your very first pilot in series into the other projects you started doing? Like when did you start to feel like, oh, yeah, I know what I'm doing or how did you get to that place? I think one of the things that helped is modeling in a sense, the structure of your life is very similar when you're doing guest stars. And that you go on a trip, you're with like 10 people. They're the same people, 10 people for 10 days.

And then the next trip, a whole new set of people. So you just get used to working with new people. And you have to, you get used to like, there's that, well, let's make it to Friday. And if they're still nice by Friday. right right um so try not to get too excited the first couple of days so there's the rhythm of all of that but i don't i don't know i think it was just working with uh being in class probably gave me more confidence than anything yeah and then really what makes it difficult even thinking about it now is when there's time big chunks of time when you aren't working yeah then it feels

really nerve-wracking or when someone's smiling, a producer's smiling to your face but you hear from your agent, they're not happy. Then it's sort of like, shit, what do I do? I don't know how to fix it. And I think that's when it gets difficult, but the joy of trusting it to a certain degree and watching other people fail too

and think, well, we're all learning in front of campus, camera where it's on the job training really because it's nothing like acting class it really isn't it's it's no different yeah you get so much more time in acting class yeah i mean i think it's important to do you need to get up and fail in front of people yeah i say that uh sometimes to actors that i work with that they sort of bring in a mindset like oh well we have the time or the ability to experiment or try things. I'm like, this is an acting class. I literally had to say that. Like, we're not in class right now. This is what the writer intended. And sure, there's a million possibilities in acting class, but not here. Not here. We're actually telling a story that's very

specific. And so we need to tell it this way and we need to do it quickly. Like we have a lot of shots. I mean, I hate to be the bad, the tough guy. But sometimes I've had to literally say that. that's for acting class and that's a great place to go and stretch and try things. But this is not that. This is delivering. This is your professional actors. Absolutely. I do want to say one thing, too, about modeling.

I was lucky enough to work for the magazines a lot. And when you work on the magazines, you're creating a picture. So obviously, they control, they are controlling the bigger vision. but you're part of the artistry of that. So in a sense, it is an acting lesson when you're doing that. And, you know, certainly on a minor, just even, you know, you could be sick and you're still looking good, posing, doing your thing. There are still little elements of getting used to big element, the camera.

There are a lot of actors to get freaked out about the camera. And once you've modeled, the only thing that you have to remember is to not look in it. yeah it's like just don't look at the camera okay it's not like every modeling job I always look right into the camera yeah yeah you're right I've never thought of it that way but as a model there's a there's an element of performance you know no matter how you feel you've got to bring a certain performance and there's a story to the shot you're telling too there's a story of absolutely whatever this whatever that story is that without words you've got to create a story and the clothes are creating that too and you're so you're

in a costume and you're you can take it apart or you can make it add to your uh experience it's interesting you bring up modeling and clothes and kind of using the clothes to tell a story did you find as an actress that you were more aware than maybe other actors about the clothes and how they told the story because of coming from a modeling background i don't know i couldn't talk about I think that's such an element of acting to have the clothes talk about your character. I wouldn't think that I could compare whether you, the three of us, we'd have to say, who cares more about or is more aware of the clothes. Yeah.

Personally, for me, I never thought about the clothes. Like, I never, it just wasn't something. And I'm not saying that that's better or worse. It's just I probably should have thought more. but I was like okay what do you want me to wear sure I'll wear that like I you know how do you want to do my hair I didn't think about those things as much and I probably should have like like you said that maybe that has something to do with why you enjoy directing so much yeah maybe you know you're like delegating that I think about it as a director more like no that's you know as I'm looking at other people I'm very aware is that telling the right story is there a way that we can dress them that enhances their experience as a character. I think about that a lot. But as an actor, I didn't.

You didn't think about that at all, basically. I think I used to worry about things looking authentic or inauthentic in clothes. Yeah. But also, one of the things I really didn't like was how they kind of overdue my hair. And it's like, how are these actors, actresses, having their hair look like normal hair? and you've got hot rollers in my hair and I look like I have a helmet on. How hard is it to just have somebody let me have my hair? Regular hair, not all done up.

Yeah. Like, did they do that when you were modeling? Did they do work your hair as much as when you were acting? Oh, because, yes, because the hairdresser is also, it's, it's his shot too. So there's a tear sheet. Every person that contributes, it's not unlike. acting jobs that everybody who contributes wants to take that film whether it be a photograph or moving pictures and use it as part of their um see this is my experience and i was a part of this

and these are my choices that help contribute to the story or the picture or whatever right for their portfolio for their portfolio yeah yeah and we all want to have part of that tell our story and how our artistry gives you know so but the hair thing would drive me mad and makeup too like way too much makeup on and it's like oh come on did you talk about Ivana Chubbock at all

did you get into that story no no okay okay here's the thing when I started they didn't really know what they wanted me to do and I on the show that we can't really talk about and them not being happy with me in particular. I think they really wanted me to be more stoic. And I just couldn't really understand how somebody who was 350 years old and had been a man and a woman in many lifetimes to me would not be a stoic person

in that sort of shut down emotionally very, not like an unlike jerry's character right very non-emotional to me i thought well i can't wrap my brain around being anything but massively curious yeah now if i'm alive that long yeah and i'm still curious about beings whatever they are i have to i'm the oldest person here i've been where you are at one lifetime or another at one point my development my development development or another. So I have compassion and empathy for every single one of you. So I would have to kind of laugh at humanity and get a chuckle out of, you know,

like having kids. Your kids do silly things. And sometimes it hurts their feelings that you're laughing at them. And you're like, oh, my gosh, you have no idea how cute you are right now. And you're trying so hard as a parent to just put a lid on it. So there's that element to it. So when I, they sent me to go meet, um, Ivana Chubbik. Yeah.

Actually, the director, um, who I can't think of and I, it's because I have a mind block because he was not kind to me at all. But the kindness he did give me was introducing me to Ivana. So we're working on the script together and she's, let's just read this. So we did. And she said, you have no problem with your acting. Uh, here's what they want.

They don't want you to be all of my sense of humor. They want it eradicated. She said, but I don't think that's a strong choice. I don't think that's a good choice because I think you do really well at making that turn in

in the dialogue. You're finding that, you're finding what's underneath the lines. So she said, what I really see is that you need someone to run lines and I'm happy to take their money. So why don't we meet? I love it.

She coached me their stuff and like she taught me how she teaches, which was really helpful to me because I was obviously not being able to bring the build trailer and Peggy Fury were method actors. They were from Stella. I also took from Stella, but this is way after. Yeah. So Ivana really helped me a lot. And in my confidence, too, if it's not you, you're not crazy. You're not doing it. They're asking something that doesn't work really.

and it's flat without you being comic relief as well. And I wasn't being crazy comic relief. It was... No, it was your interpretation of the character. If your character's been around that long, you would be amused by all the silliness of humanity. Why would you be this stoic, detached person in the background? It didn't agree with how you saw the character, it sounds like.

Right, exactly. Yeah, it's so funny that you say that. I remember, and I've talked about this with Garrett before, but we had a lunch before we launched our series, our sci-fi series. And we were explicitly told that because there's rubber on people's faces and everything's so larger than life, we were explicitly told no acting.

Just we want things almost military, we want it dry. Yeah. Like the more acting, the more feelings that you have, the more silly this whole world feels. So you need to bring it down. You're explicitly told that. I remember that in thinking, yeah. So I think they had in.

Well, when I do techno babble, it made sense. I'm not making a joke out of techno babble, not when I'm doing my job. Right. Yeah, you were not going to joke about that. But there's just this sense of this rye dryness you want to have. Sure. There's, we're human beings. It's also funny.

if you watch the new sci-fi series shows that are out the style of acting is very different than we were kind of in the 90s yes we were in a very tightly controlled style of acting and now these new shows have all kinds of human experiences there's so much more loosey-goosey than we were back in the 90s. It's closer to the original. Yeah. Yeah. I wish we could have all of us.

It's just closer to real life. That's it. You know, it'd be nice if we could have done that for sure. I think you're on the right track is my point. You had it right. You didn't need Ivana Chubbik. You could have did it on your own.

You know what? But I did need her because she helped build my confidence. Yes. That's right. That's right. She taught me how to break down a script in a way that I hadn't learned before. Oh, can you share that with us? I'd like to know that.

I'm just curious. I didn't, I never studied with her. It just made it taking my personal life, what's happening right now today and interjecting it into, it's kind of like method in that I'm taking a real life thing. Yes. That works for me. Yeah.

Yeah. So using a real frustration. Yeah. But not kind of doing it a long thing about it. It would be like I am pretending I'm talking to this one person in my life that I'm really angry with. And I'm angry with your character. So you're not really there for me. I'm using this other person as to drive my emotion.

Just like when I was saving. if I was saving somebody and it was life or death and it was really something that I was on edge about. I would use my sister and my nieces and nephews as my, that's who my goal was to protect them. Yeah. That was my substitution. Right. But it wasn't like method where I thought about it a great deal or anything like that.

It felt more like Sir Lawrence Olivier say, how about you just try acting? Okay. but I use that. So you came. But I'm using them to plug in there because you have to have something going on in your brain. Yeah. You can't just or you're not interesting to why. Okay.

Am I right to say this, Terry? You're using your real life as a spark plug that you think about for a split second and it gets you into the scene and that's it. You don't keep thinking about it. Like standard typical old school method is you stay in that character. You stay in that circumstance no matter what happens, even when they stop rolling the cameras, you're still that character

and you're still living that substitution forever. You can't. So you're quickly in it and then out is what Chubbeck would teach you. Okay. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, and would write those substitutions in. She also helped me with some TV movies that I did too.

When the dialogue and everything made more sense and it was easier for me to memorize, then it felt like I could be a little more indulgent on sticking with my substitution or just really it's whatever works in that moment, isn't it? I mean, that's what it is. If a sense, memory, like listening to a certain song makes you really sad and you have to be crying in a scene and you listen to that song before.

Or if you need menthol in your eyes, I used to have so much pride. No, no, no. I have to get there myself. And then there's a point where you're just like, oh, fuck it. We write it up here. Let's write it here. Give me a little basilian or a little. you know, fixed maple rub and all right.

You know, it just, there's a point where we just don't have time to get all fussy with it. Yeah. Let's tell the story. Yeah. I mean, there's more than one way to get to the final destination. So, and, you know, we use what we can use, what we need to use to get there. I get it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I mean, if we all had a lot of money, like, did you see, oh, never mind. I'd have to say too many things that would not be okay. Well, tell us off record. What was it?

Okay. Just secure. I'm just curious. I saw Brendan Frazier interviewed about the whale. Did you see that interview? And he talked about he couldn't get to the place he wanted to be. And the director, they shot it the next day. But he talked about how as an actor,

sometimes you just can't get to the place that you want to be at for whatever reason. You're tired. You didn't eat right or whatever this array of things are. It was just an off day. And they were blessed with being able. to have another day. We did not have that, and TV actors don't have that indulgence. It's to have, or that creative freedom, or that kind of money to have the creative freedom

to take another day. So you need to sometimes write it down. Yeah. One last question for me about your creativity. It's a collaboration question. You know, how does collaboration work, whether it's with other. actors or with directors or writers like are you do you do you talk about scenes with other actors like the detail of how or do you just kind of wait and see how it's going to go or how's that process

you know worked for you collaborating with people i think it kind of depends on who you're with or the situation you're in because if it's with people that like to rehearse then it's great then it's fun to talk about it all or you know and try to get all the juice out of it and I feel like if you have the opportunity to, it's always better if you can rehearse it to the point where you just know it. And then you can relax and just listen and just be in it and see where that takes you. Right. Because you've done that homework.

But we both, we all three know they're doing the shows we've done. That's a luxury to get to do that. Yeah. But I mean, if you can have the luxury, I would give my own time to do the rehearsal, you know. But then again, that's probably something in our striking. It gets sticky because people want to get paid for their time.

Yeah. But I think the product looks better if you, it's not like what's your, you know, I think Rodney said to Keith Gordon, like, what is your face looking like when I say such and such? It's like, it's not like that. It's more like, well, let me see your character so I can listen to you and feel like, who are we in this together? Because you're creating it together, right? Yeah.

Yeah. So I like to talk about it. I think it's interesting and fun. Yeah. It sounds like you were in the sci-fi world that we were all part of. It sounds like you were very thoughtful, you know, working with acting co-exam. And it sounds like you really put a lot of thought and a lot of, a lot of creativity and passion into the work.

So thank you. I do miss that part. I miss that part. I miss the camaraderie. All right. Well, we just want to say thank you so much to Terry Farrow for joining us for our weekly Delta Flyers podcast. Thank you once again, Terry.

And thank Terry again because she's going to hang out with us for a little bit longer for all of you, Patreon patrons. please stay tuned for your bonus material where you will get a little more Terry Farrow, which is always a good thing. Yes. All right. Thanks, Terry. Once again.

Thanks, Terry. Thank you guys. I am so excited and I love hanging out with you. Yay. That's really fun. Thank you. And I look forward to meeting all of you guys on the other end of this. Right?

That's right. So, I'm going to be B. B. B. B.

B. B. B Bhop B, B B I'm going to be able to be.