Ep 5 Peri Gilpin - Video

yes I'm still here Hollywood and coming up on today's episode I get addicted to um Housewives I mean you know uh Beverly yeah Beverly Hills housewives I get addicted because they get to be many of them are friends and many of them are people I've known or been acquainted with over the years and several are but you just get it you just get like you're like wonder what's happening over there today like you really do you bring up a back bag of money every night and I'm like give me that because I d

on't know how much we're going to I think you have to pay cash to leave this hotel and I don't know what they're going to I don't know I don't know what anything costs doesn't say anything anywhere I got hacked at my own I did it somebody called me and get asked me for a code and I gave it to them don't no apple no one will ever call you and ask you for any of this information do not give anybody information on the phone strong independent women in TV comedies have always been a Hallmark of the

genre dishing out laughs while soling in problems with wise cags is comedy gold for 11 Seasons starting in 1993 there was one woman on NBC who perfectly sliced and diced the punchlines with her sharp tongue delivery this is still here Hollywood I'm Steve kco join me in today's guest from Frasier Perry Gilpin hi Perry hi Steve it's so nice to see you thank you how are you doing today I'm good uh um I watched I just caught this morning on Roku thanks to Roku the most recent episode of The Frasier

reboot you weren't in it enough was my a that's impression I wish you were in it longer although you had the best first line I think so you look like crap yeah right um do you miss playing Ras all the time um I did miss I do yeah I it was a great character and I loved her uh I loved how um you know what like how adventurous she was at in the beginning and then it was such a huge change when she had a baby Alice and yeah Alice and so I really missed the um I don't want to say the word Freedom onl

y because but the the freedom of just doing whatever you want to do be pre kids and I always knew that but once I even had a I didn't you know my sister-in-laws were all having babies while I was fake pregnant and I would talk about my pregnancy and that would have to be reminded that I wasn't really but some but because my character was there were some things that I experienced before I ever had children that I you know gave me pause gave me stuff to think about and not pause I wanted kids but

I just wow life really does change um how how close were you to Raz in terms of who you are and who she was uh pretty close I think in a lot of ways I was I I I had my wild years earlier once I moved to LA I was kind of like most people here kind of in a bedroom community kind of early to bed early to rise healthy eating and you know not not well my if anyone hears that they'll laugh their ass off but I was not like her at the time I had been more adventuresome in my personal life and so I don't

but I didn't know anyone that wrote on the show at that time so I don't know where they got their information if it was based on me but I think really what she was based on was I think she was what uh everyone in there she was a a creation of that fabulous writer room you know and and particularly the women in the writer room I think she was Saucy yeah and and uh good at what she did really good and she really was self-reliant and she you know felt confident about her work and about who she was

which I just loved playing because that's the opposite of me and she knew how to keep Frasier in line yeah and that was part of the job was to you know she was saddled with was this guy that didn't know what he was doing but was actually really good once he got going you know we just had to get him like you know just the technical part of it and um and I think that was I love where we came into the story in the pilot which was you know a few weeks in so they were used to each other's uh idiosyn

crasies at that time but she was still dealing with his you know his greenness do you ever watch old episodes I hadn't for a long time but I I when watching these you know they they'll kind of roll right into to them and um and I we start we W my husband and I and kids have watched a couple and they're they just are amazingly good I think and I know I'm on the crowded side of the room in this regard I think it's one of the best sitcoms ever in the history of Television it's right up there the wr

iting the acting the casting was perfect yeah um was it easy to get right back into it when you did this most recent reboot I was worried I was really scared like what am how am I going to do this but I walked on the set and it was a different Sound Stage but it was um but it was on the same you know at Paramount and you know I just sort of walked in and Kelsey was in just in the middle of it all he was uh he directed it he directed that episode and I love I always loved working with him as a di

rector he's a great director and um it just I don't know and the cast was so friendly and there were several people I'd worked with for all those years and kept in touch with so there were a lot of people around to just enjoy it and lap it up and you know really just make the most of it so it was I was scared but once we started and he did a great thing at when the door opened and he responded so hugely you know it kind of gave the audience permission to do that too where I don't know queued the

m to do it I want to say but it was very sweet and I felt very thrilled to be there and it was thrilling to hear them respond that way and it was thrilling just to be on the stage with Kelsey again you know there's uh one episode in particular that I watch whenever I'm in a bad mood or when whenever I want to see something that makes me feel comfortable uh there's the episode of ham radio which I thought was so hysterical where you do this um radio play a mystery uh that is just so very funny an

d the timing and everything was so great and I and you had had dental work Raz had had dental work and she's trying to do her part and uh and that one line that always cracks me up is I can't believe one of my my guest could be a multiple M so funny um and you know who wrote that was David Lloyd who wrote you know Chuckles the Clown he was on Mary Teller Moore and he had written for dick cavid and Johnny Carson and he was our uh Consulting producer and his son Chris Lloyd ran the show and um and

you know of course we had just the most amazing creators of the show were David Lee Peter Casey and David Angel and um besides that fabulous bunch of writers there was a whole writer room and we just we just had the most I mean we just had the most amazing writers that's just all there is to it yeah it was it was a a classic Landmark series but he but what I was going to say is David Lloyd phonetically wrote out mbba mbas like so yeah he knew like he didn't just leave it up to me which he and h

e was always such a so kind he would have been been fine if I wanted to do it myself but I was like oh my God you went into all this trouble this is perfect I know just what to do like then also you're not just trying to do it over and over again and do you know you you can actually do it the same because you've phonetically done it but it was so great in the script and another time they did that to John they put like he was supposed to be talking about a town in Korea when he was in the Korean

War I guess and so they they put they put it in the script and he went and did his homework and so he pronounced it perfectly at the table read and they all went whoa and he got you know he got an ovation you know and then not a standing you know you got a clap they clap for him but then after that for the rest of the week that town got name got longer and longer and you know John you know John kept and it was just very funny because they you know the writers and the actors on that show just rea

lly had a great time together does it seem like it was that long ago that you actually uh began work on Frasier it's like what 30 years or so isn't it yeah does it seem that long yeah oh it does time doesn't fly when you're having fun well no I mean you know I think about all the time and those those are marked pretty clearly on in social media you know it's been 22 days and three you know 22 years since Fraser like you see it all the time I wouldn't have thought about it if it weren't for socia

l media but they do kind of Mark that and um and so you know you think about it you it makes you think about it and you and I think that's good I think it's good to remember how long it's been why well because I I think La the time sort of sneaks up on you a little bit there's no season you know there there are there are seasons but there's no really marked seasons and uh you can I think we are all because we're all you all you do the same thing your whole life you know what I mean like you so i

t's sort of oh you're like am I um I'm doing what I did at 20 now and that is is that what I had planned is that what I wanted to do and it is but but yeah but it but it's also like wow I've been doing this a long time and a lot of times you'll have the exact same discussions with your colleagues you know about this or that and it's funny because there's NE it all comes down to the role of the dies you know yeah it does in this town doesn't it it does are you glad you came here are you glad you

do what you do yeah I am I am very glad I have no I I have no regrets I have always I grew up in a family of actors sag I was on sag insurance as a child my f my whole my mom but local actors in Dallas you know people that did commercials and things like that and so we everyone's always lived kind of audition to audition or job to job and um you know you have to you're freelance so you are prepared for the downtime and you try to stay prepared for the downtime and I think sometimes you don't you

know I always say if you if if you want to get a great job that you can't turn down or that you have you know you can't even argue with buy a non you know refundable ticket somewhere you you're dying to go you know it's just always like you're always tied to this place and I wish I wish I would have had a few more Adventures but I will and I think also the pandemic is making me feel that way and the uh that time we all spent indoors I just really I I enjoyed it at the time but now I really want

it back but there it's tough tough what was the best decision you ever made regarding your career um auditioning well I uh the I think the best decision I ever made was I produced a play a friend of mine came to me here in La who was dating a guy I don't know what happened to her the last time I've ran to her at a coffee shop so at that time she was working on Survivor she was on the production team for survivors I don't know what's happened since so if but she was dating somebody here and she

lived in Chicago and I think she had a whole other life in Chicago but she was dating somebody here and she wanted to she she she met me through him and she said I'm going to give you $65,000 to produce a play and all I asked is that you put him in it so I was like are you sure you want to do that you know and I and she said I am and so I partnered up with a guy that's still a great friend who'd gone to Yale drama school and I spent a lot of time at Williamstown theater Festival and knew them an

d I spent a lot of time in New York I live lived in New York and I knew those I knew this kind of group of people and um so he and I started looking for a play and we would invite we'd find a play we'd invite all of our friends over to you know we'd rent out like a dance studio or something invite everybody over to listen to the play and about four times people would go don't don't no do not spend that money on this this isn't worth it and finally we found this great play written by Richard Gree

nberg while he was at Yale and it's about a of yeles and um and Neil knew him and it was his first play and it was called the moderati and um we loved this play it was hilarious and we got Ron link who was fabulous comedic director to direct us and we did it at the Tiffany theater and I had always kind of had a little bit of a of a of a snobbery because I came from theater and I came from I went to school you know and studied a lot at theater before I got here and I was like everyone on stage in

this town looks like they're auditioning for a TV show like why don't just you know but then also you know they wouldn't have good props you know like walls would go like this I remember somebody like trying to answer a pay phone you know and the whole phone came down and I'm like oh my God you know because everyone's just trying to get to TV or film right so but I'm like but you know use your stagecraft you know it would it would bother me so I wanted to do this play and we did this play and J

eff Greenberg came to see it and he said I he let waited for me and he goes I want you to come uh I want you to can I want you to come audition for this pilot that I'm working on and um and I did and I got it and it was for Jimmy Burrows I audition for Jimmy buroughs it was called flesh and blood and um I was just so first of all I he saw me there and based that decision based on my work which I was so thrilled about so I auditioned for television in my theater thing but also I was so um warm yo

u know I was not Rusty I was like ready to go I was a well oiled machine and anything that was asked of me in the audition I felt like I could do and I felt like I could do it well and I just felt so good and I got it and I wound up doing that and I wound up doing another show for Jimmy and then I wound up doing Frasier and I think that producing that play was probably the best decision I ever made thanks for asking you're welcome never thought about that before it was a long answer sorry no tha

t's okay this is a long show uh was your uh career since you came from a family of actors and auditioners and was it predestined that you would become an actor probably but I didn't look at it that way my mom was a school teacher when I was born and she was I was born while she was actually in at Baylor in college studying to be a teacher but and she'd married a she they married very young my she married a guy that was was trying to be a pastor and I was born 9 months to the day and it was like

I was really born nine months to the day I mean there was nothing so they were very very sheltered and she was you know in her finals I was born May 27 she was in her finals of her sophomore year and so I am I grew up with my mom and I wanted to be a school teacher all the years she wanted to be a school teacher and um um then after about six or seven years of being a school teacher she would team teach with this other young teacher and they had both taught special ed classes and in their studen

t teaching days and once that's on your resume you you can't not do that anymore and it's just she just burned out they they team taught 60 kids they had 30 a piece that they combined and that's just no one can do that for very long and so then she went to her first love which is why she went to Baylor to begin with was to study with Paul Baker and she and and she remarried my stepdad and he said be an actress if that's what you want to do so saw her in a play I saw her in picnic she was playing

mge she was on the stage and the lights lowered on her she was dreamily looking up you know thinking about I can't think of the name of the guy of the character but she was you know her sister the guy was in love with her sister so she was feeling to it'll never happen for me you know and she was a little sad and the lights dimmed and my sister went Mama it was and my mom I just saw as the lights went out my mom went you know and I was like that looks like fun that is fun that's what I want to

do now so I did it it's so funny that you should mention born being born nine months to the day uh my father was a Baptist Minister and um my mother was more strict than he was in terms of religion and I remember when my sister got married she had uh my first niece their first granddaughter nine months to the day after they got married and was like she made certain everybody knew sounds like you had kind of the same background totally my dad was W wanting to be a a Baptist preacher he was at Bay

lor he played um football at Baylor and he was second string and I think the coach put in a third string guy and he got upset and he left left school left Seminary he wasn't really in seminar in school he hadn't gone to Seminary yet and became a DJ left the ministry behind yeah and he was a and he went all over the country as a DJ and in fact one of our writers on Frasier Ken Levine finally put it together he goes I interviewed your dad when I was in college he ran the station here in LA and so

he always sends me air checks so he was he wound up in Philadelphia and then he was a Weatherman in Philadelphia he was like the first uh Action News Channel 6 in Philly the weatherman and he he'd make it really funny cuz he wasn't a meteorologist and he was like why are you making me the metor I don't know how to I don't I can't I don't haven't studied this so he made it funny and everyone loved it and I hear story he died in a parachuting accident in 1983 but I hear stories about him once a mo

nth somebody you know tells me something hilarious that they thought was hilarious that he did on air but my favorite one is that they were interviewing some woman in a towel like it was the local you know wpbi they're interviewing a woman in a towel and when they CA and for some reason she was in a towel and they came back to the weather he was standing there in a towel just to take just to make it funny and I think that's so funny but anyway so he was you know he was a young guy he was parachu

ting and he he left us but they were both raised in churches in Dallas in in Houston actually in very very you know they were very religious that's why they were at Baylor and and um but honestly for both of them and I'm telling something a little bit out of school but I think it's okay um they both were adult they were children of alcoholic fathers and um and they there there they both the dad both of their dads were married to women that didn't know no one knew it was a disease no one knew tha

t it was something that they could they could do something about get treatment for get treatment for and um one of my grandfathers had come from world just basically back from World War II like that and the other one was didn't that wasn't the situation but they were both severe alcoholics and they so their their children were terrified and they found church and they got really really really really involved in church and it was all about church so they really followed those rules and in Texas it

's no drinking and you know no gambling no movies a lot of people were upset with my mom later when we all started doing movies and stuff and as time went on you know my mom went to my Pastor's house one day and he poured her a glass of wine and she was like Bruce you know she enjoyed it but that but that was a big deal but he's like it's not that's okay you can have a glass of wine but it was a big deal it was in my in my family my father was a Baptist Minister his brother was a Baptist Ministe

r wow but his brother was in U Phoenix he ended up in Phoenix and my father was in Cleveland and in Cleveland you're much um you I don't know at the time you stuck closer to the rules there was I remember in our household growing up no drinking no dancing no smoking no playing cards no cards yeah yeah uh yeah and and uh his brother on the other hand uh would enjoy a glass of wine now and again and my mother's eyebrow would go up and she'd develop a tick but uh uh it's funny how those um good beh

aviors I don't know how else to describe it but uh it's it's a a different kind of an upbringing it really is I mean I mean it really I was raised to think that um you know drinking was such a taboo and then and then you know it's that's like a you know that's like a Romeo to Juliet I mean that's like that's like make it even more interesting why don't you right well I've been through rehab so I'm in a y um congratulations thank you very much I celebrated eight years recently you did yeah I had

gone 10 years and then moved back to Chicago and was triggered uh but I'm back uh and feeling really good well one of the most amazing experiences I ever had was at re at my sister was in rehab at um Sierra Tucson and I'm I'm sure I'm not supposed to but my sister has passed away but she uh we were at family week and she had a son who was about 6 years old and um we were doing the Circle and there was this we'd been divided up into groups and there was about a maybe a 65y old man in this group w

ith us and I really wasn't sure why he was he was completely alone there was a lot of us but in our family there and he was part of our group and um was a very sweet guy so he did the circle and he didn't have anyone there he had no family to do the circle with so they said you know you can just do it to sit in the chair and we'll guide you through it and you can talk to whoever you wish was here or want to be here so he did this thing with his mom and it was all about you know it was kind of ab

out an incident that had happened that had really really scarred him and he needed to talk with her about it and kind of forgive her it was incredibly powerful it's the most dramatic thing I've ever seen on film in a stage anything it was really powerful and beautiful him talking to his mom and I realized that's why we're in he's we're all in the same group because my sister needs to hear her little boy needs to hear what her little boy might be feeling when he gets to be 65 it's like sort of li

ke the cycle of life and it was really really powerful and it was helpful to all of us I was in a place in Tucson also oh really yeah yeah it was a really good EXP experience to be removed from your normal setting and we had the same kind of family situations um role playing uh and none of my family could be there either um but uh they had other people in the in the U program uh who would sit and and role play to help you out uh and my sister who who was also in AA came down to visit me there uh

finally but she was going through cancer she had cancer at the time and uh it was the first time I'd seen her in ages and she came down and she'd been getting chemotherapy and she was bald I had and I I to see her like that uh and she was my big sister and she's since passed away but um it's funny the thing life things that life throws throws your way uh um that's a memory you know I was going to share a memory with you that you brought up earlier that ham radio that that episode my mother had

had cancer for 15 years and she'd been living with me for about six months and she passed away that week and Kelsey called me I David Lee one of the produced one of my great friends he you know he called and goes okay what what do you need and I go what do I do now you know and he gave me the name of he knew what to do then and then um and then my uh we were do my my stepfather and sister were at that taping and Kelsey called me that day of course when she passed away she passed away on Friday a

nd we would always shoot on Tuesdays and he goes you don't have to do this we can we can go down for a week if you need to and I was like no no no I I need to do this I need to be there with you guys and um and so David made me do that multiple members thing about 500 times I swear we did it a hundred takes of that and the audience would just laugh and we'd all laugh and it was the best medicine truly is um what's the best piece of advice you've gotten since you were in your career or who made t

he big biggest impact on you I think Jeff Greenberg said to me once he goes you're really strong you don't have to play strong I don't know why that makes me laugh but he's it it it really you know and I unfortunately told my husband that so I hear that a lot you're really strong you know like a strong character you don't have to come in the door like you don't have to add that in as a something to play it's already there which about that was pretty good advice do you think that's true uh I don'

t know I think it's true in acting I don't I'm not sure if it's true in real life um do you like living out here yeah I do like living out here I love California if you hadn't been an actor what would you what would you be doing well you know I grew up in Texas and Texans have a very very strong sense of being a Texan at least we did my family did and I was very proud I'm the kind of person who really takes that on too like I really love being a Texan I don't always love being a Texan these days

but I do want to say that there are a lot of fabulous wonderful Texans and um I don't think their voices are being heard right now necessarily and that's I don't live there anymore I don't live there now so I don't it's I don't I'm not trying to take that on as we all have our things we need to decide how much of our time we're going to give you know to help make it the way we think it should be but um I do love Texas and um and so I feel so guilty saying how much I love California but I do lov

e California and I love the US I love being in the being American but I love to travel too why do you keep asking me that where where do you want to be do you like being in Chicago not this time of the year yeah yesterday when I was sitting on a plane waiting for the wings to be deced yeah you know I wasn't too happy about it then and with my Uber driver being an hour late and I was afraid I wasn't going to make it and you know it's a lot whole bunch of anxiety I tell people uh you know when I w

hen I first moved back after having lived in California for 30 years um a lot of people would say h what are you g to do about winter well I grew up in Chicago so you know I was used to Winter I had forgotten what it was like and and the first uh I remember the first few times I went out driving my car in Winter and getting stuck because I didn't have snow tires and I had front-wheel drive or rear wheel drive whichever but I would you know wave money outside out the window of my car to young men

who were passing by to push me out of whatever snow drift I was in of course some parts of the country could get arrested for that but nevertheless uh it it seemed to work um oh that's nice that's nice to think I I can't can't even imagine that that that wouldn't work work everywhere we'll be back for more in a moment Kelsey called me that day of course when she passed away she passed away on Friday and we would always shoot on Tuesdays and he goes you don't have to do this we can we can go dow

n for a week if you need to and I was like no no no I I need to do this I need to be there with you guys I always think of that song The Best Is Yet To Come I always think of that I mean La is a place where you can slip so easily into agism and feeling you know feeling um uh what is the word victimized by growing older but you know my mom died at 55 my dad died at 43 and my mom used to say old people are the survivors those are the people that got to do it you know so they get to do it because s

he was terminal for a long long time so I don't I I I had that experience in that I think that really helped me um try not to get to down I also have 19 year olds I I had kids later in life you know so I I was older than most of the moms around not all of them there were a lot of there were a few my age but that was really funny like there was this one mom who would like she'd say well there there they're off a you know they're in the golf cart on PCH and I'm like what what you know and then I r

ealized she's 33 years old you know she's a kid or she doesn't know can you call me for you know like oh my God but it was I'm like she's just living her life yeah well you know I'm on I go on sites now that are like um dating for seniors oh God don't do that too late don't go on those sites and you and you look at the pictures and you think oh my God these are old people I don't want to date an old person exactly is that how screwed up is my thinking all right yeah I and and I I have regrets ab

out that too I made some bad choices and left some people behind that I shouldn't have in retrospect uh but you had a good reason at the time and you proably they still probably be the sameon I don't know I second gu guess everything I do yeah I can tell not good huh well well I mean but but but didy really I I said this the other day I was regretting something and this person said to me don't are your reasons still good and I go absolutely like well that nothing's changed about that no so then

I wouldn't there I only regret that I it didn't go a different way I don't regret what I did why am I I'm like um I'm preaching to you well I appreciate it we're the children of preachers yes yeah um and I I was talking to you the other day on the phone about uh I think the first time I met you was at at the can film festival when you were there to host that uh um charity auction and uh and I remember you being uh somewhat nervous about what to do what am I you know what do I do here I didn't kn

ow okay so I lovely Lily tarov who I adore and I read an article about her when I first not in the my early years here I remember getting LA Times and feeling like an adult that I was reading the paper of course all I ever read was calendar and there was this big you know she was married to Brandon tacov and they were the golden couple and it was all about her years as a dancer and how what she wanted to do while she was here on this Earth was work for people with breast cancer and she was reall

y involved and um I just remember absorbing this article and thinking what an awesome person this is so I say this with I Revere her but I hadn't seen her for a long time her hus Brandon had died and we all went I I'd gotten involved with the National Breast Cancer Coalition after my mother died she died of a a very rare form of saroma but but I got my friend Arlene sorin got me involved with the National Breast Cancer Coalition so we were going to a luncheon where Dr Susan love was speaking and

um I walked in with Jane leaves and Maggie Randall are my our producer and um our line producer Maggie and we were signing in and I look over and Lily's signing in and I go and she I don't think her husband had been gone a month and I'm like what are you doing here she goes I Can't Get Enough like this is I'm like oh my God it was just so sweet that that's what she did for comfort you know was to go listen to someone speak about helping people get better and um and how to deal with it psycholog

ically so she asked us all if as a cast we would go to can and Host this party for it was for a breast cancer event and everyone I guess said no I got the last phone call and she goes you have to because everyone else has said no and I'm like but I I'm getting married this Summer and I'm now throwing my my my my brother's wedding you know in June and I'm getting married at the end of July and well you'll just still have to go anyway we get there my husband goes another couple went with us turned

out to be the most she I think she gave us our room our room was the most beautiful room at the hotel Decap which is you know just a fantasy and I think she I don't know how we got that room but anyway we my husband and Chris went to what's the name of the fabulous um you know like it's where James Bond was you know it's where they all the casino there in can right Carlton's I think they all went there every night and um and ate these hamburgers they were called the American they hamburgers wit

h french fries in them I just never forget the French Fri were in the hamburger it was genius and um and he would just was doing well he'd bring up a bag of money every night I'm like give me that because I don't know how much we're going to I think you have to pay cash to leave this hotel and I don't know what they're going to I don't know I don't know what anything costs doesn't say anything anywhere I'm scared to death to ask you know so we go downstairs and we um we we we've got our cash and

there so there'll be no charge Miss Gilpin and I'm like so relieved so relieved but also that's she was just so generous okay so but she was so generous but every morning I had to get up and get my hair done and go do stuff something and my makeup and all that and you can you have seen for yourself what an ordeal that is and so then uh what so then I go to this party okay so the party was Calvin Klein and isach Mori am I saying his name right had given all of the stuff to QVC to auction off abo

ut the beach like beach towels tanning stuff sunglasses bathing suits all this stuff and the party was going to last until all that got auctioned off so I'm like what that could be hours you know and um and I don't really know they're all movie stars that I don't know it's not t it's not the emys you know it's not TV I don't mean it that way it's not the television Academy it's the it's a group that I don't know very well and um and so I start walking around my husband's behind me at one point a

nd he's doing that thing where you know you act like you're walking down the stairs and then you act like you're walking because he just just because we we don't know what to do anymore and that and what was brilliant was it all sold out in like 45 minutes so I didn't have to do it very long but I had on a million dollars worth of jewelry i' never had anything like that and then and I was I just my makeup and hair and my dress I mean she just treated me like a princess but so I really wanted to

do a good job but what was really cool was I was interviewing people like Jeff Goldblum and I and and people knew so much and I ran into Salah hyek and so I just I'm like will you talk to me for a minute she went of course I will and I said you know the National Breast Cancer col shows and she just started rattling off more information than even anyone at the organization knew she was a complete Advocate she was really there for that reason you know and she gave so much information and it was an

opportunity to talk about breast cancer with people that obviously really cared about it but um and you know knew a lot and it was just I was so nervous going in it turned out to be a blast yeah I remember we were you could tell I didn't know how to finish that story I could see that you could tell I was trying to wrap it up no no no no no I I just the thing that I remember so clearly is that uh we were talking just about what you were doing there and what you were going to be doing and you kno

w the whole setting is so spectacular and uh at one point you remarked that there was a guy who looked like Greg lugus I said it is Greg lugus he's here with me oh yes that's that was the real oh that's right like oh I I knew that you know oh you guys oh at the time yes yeah oh I see I forgot about that I did forget about that uh it was just such a good time he said you keep in touch right yeah yeah I just I watching yoga classes with him in malib I used to do y classes with him in malib do you

know Scott Henderson no I don't Scott is was I think the Olympic he's a um ice skater and I think he was at the Olympics with him that year whatever and they're good friends but I I I those Olympians hang out together they do why wouldn't you I don't know you know I played the mom of an Olympic athlete on a show called Make It or Break It uhhuh and and it and it was all about Elite athletes and how they basically it was for ABC it was for uh ABC family so it was really it was about teenagers but

it's also one thing that we really delved into was how those kids really don't have a childhood no they don't Greg uh I remember went to live with his coach at a very young age um but he was so gifted that uh it it worked out well for him four gold medals one silver one silver I remember the first time I went to his house he had a 12 foot deep swimming pool in his backyard and had the Olympic rings on the bottom of the pool and uh me being a smartass said uh well don't just stand there dive som

ething so he he went from a seated position on the platform he he went into a handstand wow no trouble at all and so I'm I know that he was probably f fabulous at at your yoga class too because he was the most flexible person I've ever seen but he went into a handstand and then you know did a pike and right into the pool and it's like oh my God you are gregl games aren't you yeah he really did bring a lot of um great good positive attention to that sport yeah he did I just uh saw on the news las

t night he was honored by Orange County into some uh Hall of Fame there beginning for athletes or noted Orange County residents former residents I was going to drop him a note you should I will I'll send him I have his email address and we're Facebook friends and we'll be right back I get addicted to um Housewives I mean you know uh Beverly yeah Beverly Hills housewives I get addicted because they get to be many of them are friends and many of them are people I've known are been acquainted with

over the years and several are but you just get in you just get like you're like I wonder what's happening over there today like you really do how much time do you spend on social media do you like it I really got in I was doing a little independent movie with a bunch of friends and I was saying what's Twitter you know what's Twitter and they're like come here I'm signing you up you're going to love it you know and so I really really got way like into the rabbit hole of Twitter and then somebody

I got hacked at my own I did it somebody called me and get asked me for a code and I gave it to them don't no apple no one will ever call you and ask you for any of this information do not give anybody information on the phone but anyway the one only thing they did was hack my Twitter account they changed the password and I couldn't get in and I thought okay that's a sign stop it and then also Elon Musk was taking it over and I just have such a problem with how he's handling everything who does

n't he's a Madman but anyway so I I do believe that he's right about free speech I think we I believe in free speech but you have to be uh you know you have to be ready for the consequences and if you're inciting violence then there should be consequences mhm and how can you do that it's free speech right uh I'm biting my tongue you are yes why do you it's your show you can say whatever you want thank you what do you watch I'm not telling you I watched The Amazing Race I've liked that for a long

time that's great I want my daughter and husband to do that I think they'd be a actually either daughter and their dad it would be great both I think that's a great show it is is I enjoy it it keeps me involved I get addicted to um Housewives I mean you know uh Beverly yeah Beverly Hills housewives I get addicted because they get to be many of them are friends and many of them are people I've known or been acquainted with over the years and several are but you just get in you just get like you'

re like I wonder what's happening over there today like you really do doesn't it seem sometimes though when you're looking at social media that a lot of the stuff that appears on it uh are are people showing off or saying look at me look at me uh which is says the guy who's on television or was um well I what I think is well I I mean I of course it's it's fun to get into let's see what is it I guess what it is is it sort of like it's made me listen to the news I I listen to it several times a da

y on NPR like the five minute news and then and then NPR politics is gorgeous it's just an amazing show but it f it made me realize that there's it's so easy to get the wrong information if that's where you're getting it but I think I had a sense of that maybe because of my age or maybe because of just growing up in a different time I always had a sense of who's saying this you know what's the source but I do think social media Twitter and Instagram has sort of scrambled that up a little bit so

people think they don't look I my husband will show me a headline I'll go where's it from you know what I mean because that's sounds uh like a little bit of propaganda yeah you know and then the other thing I think the social media has sort of been weaponized in a big way and I think that recent recent things that have happened have shown me that so I want to know what my friends are doing I want to know what people I don't know that I admire are doing I do I'm curious and I I get into it but I

think you have to like and especially with AI and all the different ways that things can be misrepresented and you think you're just you think it's somebody telling you something you know there was this great there was a Avenue queue but then there there was this great uh video that my husband bought at an art show and it was all about it was kind giving sending up Sesame Street like if someone talks to you like this with a puppet they can tell you just about anything right it's like that you ha

ve to be careful what you should have done the podcast like that yeah yeah what haven't you done that you'd like to do before the career is over or before you hang it up I would love it's almost a cliche and it's like and my friends in the business that will laugh at me but I would still I would would love to do Broadway I would love to do a play on Broadway not a musical that would not be possible but that's not in the realm of reality but I would love to do a play on Broadway put it out there

yeah yeah let the universe take over he said thank you Perry I've really enjoyed this me too I could go longer but I'm afraid what will happen What will go into yeah we've already we've already probably well we've talked about a lot lot of stuff I I I lost uh two sisters uh at an early age I had a sister who was out here visiting me and uh I came home from work one day to find she drowned in my swimming pool oh my God yeah that was a that was a rough one uh and I you know I I I was saying earlie

r today I just feel as though there's um the older I get the more and more people I'm losing well I've lost all my siblings my have you my little my brother just passed away over the summer from AO blastoma and he was the third I think I read that and um my sister Patty died during pandemic of the same sarcoma that my our mom had and my other little sister died a few years ago and she she was 47 years old and had a heart attack and I I think there was a lot of smoking involved so that's um a rea

lly awful place to be I'm the oldest and to have lost all three of my siblings is heartbreaking yeah I I had uh three sisters my brother and then there there were three girls and they all passed away um the youngest was 13 I was 10 when she died uh she was um profoundly I hate to use the word but I I don't know what the word to use she had severe disabilities and uh that was I remember that was hard and my other two sisters the one who drowned I you know what it's what it's like having to pick u

p the phone and call your parents and say no no no no no Becky's dead oh my gosh that was hard and and she had two daughters and you know she'd come out to visit me like she did every year and she had an asthma attack in the pool they determined so the best that is traumatic the best the best um memory I have of her is she came out one year and she was a big Barbara strand fan and I was invited to a screening of the movie Sweetheart's dance was the name of the movie and it starred Don Johnson at

the time Barbara was dating John and or Don and it was a a charity benefit screening and I asked my sister would you like to go Barbara strand's going to be there and sure enough after the screening there was a little reception and U her publicist came over and said would would you like to meet Barbara my sister was just in seventh she my my nieces would say did you have to do that that's all she talks about meeting Barbara strand uh and of course Barbara was was very sweet and it was a wonderf

ul memory that I have uh you know I yeah you were able to you were able to to do that yeah you know I always think about um the good stuff like I just I actually just wrote an email to a friend about and sort of like summarized the last year or so that all of some really insane things have happened this past year but it's like you it makes you it puts a spotlight on all the good stuff it really does for me because I you know am a poana Baptist girl from Texas but you know I I love seeing David H

yde Pierce and here we are it's a great great show in New York I saw him in Hello Dolly he was wonderful wasn't he great yes he was and um I got to do a little play this past summer with a right after my brother died I went and did this reading for a friend of mine she was she was um stepping down after 33 years as an artistic director at a theater in newers Jersey it's called the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey and she was starting this classical reading program for kids because she said afte

r the pandemic she goes they're not coming back I mean people are terrified to go into a closed space like that so she felt like her what she could do for her theater was really intensely do Outreach towards children to get kids back in the theater you know so that they grow up and and want to come and so she did The Little Prince and I have never understood that book I tried to read it to my kid it's the most read and the most sold book in the world of all time I tried to read it to my kids cou

ldn't couldn't understand it I just really didn't get it but but performing it and and being directed and understanding what the other characters were doing I finally understood the it's heartbreaking it's actually about losing a sibling the whole book is but this little boy that played The Little Prince was such a fabulous young actor he's about 8 years old old maybe 10 and it reminded me so much of my little brother who was an actor a child actor and it was within two weeks of his death and he

left behind two boys in high school which is so depressing and sad but they were so loving to him they they were with him every second so it was his wife they just circled the wagons they just created a a a warm loving place for him and that I mean that's a lot a lot of families can't or aren't able to do that they don't get the opportunity as you know but this having this experience was so cathartic because I got to work with this young little boy actor and I just kept seeing my little brother

and him and I'm like this what a gift this is you know to be able to I just sit off stage and think about this is a good place for me this business is a good place for me because it feels safe so I think you're I think it feels safe for you too so I think you're doing the right thing thanks thank you I need to hear that I think we're done Jim Jim is such a good producer he shakes his head well yeah no I I agree you totally you know we got this all worked out in a couple of emails and texts one

of the backtrack just a second we Al we also need to do like a real Goodbye Oh okay okay uh well it was great talking to you thank you Perry I really enjoyed having you here thanks for saying yes you know we're feeling our way through this I've never done a podcast before and so this is all new to me well I think it's the same thing you've always done right well kind of talking with people yeah yep big names famous people big name big Eric McCormack's pretty great you're right up there with Bett

y Davis and oh wow Marino Hera some of my favorites oh my God we used to live in a when I first moved to LA I lived in this apartment building on Miller Drive like right above Sunset Miller's like if you go up lasena and you cross Sunset that's Miller and we live in this old Spanish apartment building like it was like melo's place melo's place was on when we lived there but it was also had been a hotel at one time and Betty Davis had lived there and there was and all kinds of people V vill Madri

d Villa Madrid I've seen pictures of it yeah I'm sure I've driven past it too yeah yeah well anyone that came over and it was the man that the guy that managed the building it other than us you had to have some kind of a statue so there was like Donna mney and her Tony were in there and um you know all everyone had uh some kind of award I'm just trying Michael Jeter was there stalker Channing was there like every it was as he had taken over the building he you can only get in if you were in a wa

r winning performer which was so funny and and you know very La very La so Hollywood well and they were all wonderful people yeah and on the people that already lived there were wonderful too they they they enjoyed they enjoyed the people coming in well I think a lot of the people who come out here is because of the history and you want to be feel like you're a part of it somehow a another friend of mine I told you has a podcast called from beneath the Hollywood sign and he is is um it's so funn

y because he wrote this blog for years he's just obset when he was at University of Tennessee an Rutherford came to do a play and befriended him and she said you should come out come out to LA so he did and they were like the best of friends and he tells these great stories of she'd take him through Beverly Hills through the alleys because that's where people throw out all their stuff and they'd go you know dumpster diving and at one point they were picking up something out of the alley to put h

er car and they saw through the window there was an actress that used to be married to Howard Hughes who was well known at the time I don't know her name now but they saw her through the window and she was just sort of stopped in time sort of staring and he wrote this whole blog about it and it was it was a beautiful it was he he loves these people and so now he's got this great podcast called from beneath the Hollywood sign and he tells these stories and um but he'll do groups like this week he

's doing um female character actors but he won't doesn't talk about the ones you know he goes I love thma Ritter I love love lover but we all know her let me tell you about this other person you know and they'll get into something and it's just like it's so much fun I I think there's room for anything you want to do in that world you know RZ had a little felmer Ritter in her yeah yeah yeah for sure for sure for sure yes I met Anne Rutherford once we were doing a whole bunch of things on uh the w

as it the 50th anniversary of Gone With The Wind in 1989 but I met her and Evelyn I can't remember Evelyn's last name well he got to know this guy named Hal I want to say Hal Morley Al Morley Al Morley was the man's name and I don't know what he had done earlier in his life but he would throw this dinner part instead of giving sending a Christmas card or doing anything for the holidays he would just throw this big dinner party at the Magnolia that piano bar and I mean I literally walked in there

once and Paige Paige Paige buan like this fabulous 90-year-old piano player and that you know they had a mirror on the keyboard and he was just and then he was Downing champagne they're like Paige stop it they were to get him just stop and and Marsha hunt do you know who Marsha hunt yeah she was a great friend of Al's and of Steve cubin and they one night we all went somewhere together and I said she lived really close to me and I said I'm going to bring my twin over to see you someday and she

goes call first she didn't she she didn't want to meet my twin babies that was she actually just passed away at like 104 years old but you know she was blacklisted and then she went well she went with that whole gang to Washington DC Humphrey Bogart and all of them and then they all kind of got turned when they got there and she was the one that didn't turn and she was just completely blacklisted but later it later she I was there at um I think they held it at the DGA because it was the biggest

place but sag the DGA the wga equity all the unions apologized to the few that were left do you remember that it was like 20 years ago and one of them died on the way to the luncheon in a car accident you know one of the big WR the writers bad timing he wrote Spartacus it was I notton Trumble yeah well it was the other one Dalton Trumble was there and then it was the other one so maybe I had but it was the so he was on stage thanking everybody we got to hear him give us you know thank you for Th

anking us and thank you for this and then the next day he was driving to a luncheon and died in a car accident on the way to the luncheon isn't that the crazy yeah did you know Ronnie Chason at all she was a publicist out here bigname publicist for a long time she was going home from a party uh for burlesque and she was shot and killed in her in her mercedesbenz in Beverly Hills on her way home what did they ever yeah it was well you know I don't know the guy uh offed himself eventually but he w

as in a flea bag Hotel downtown and lots of people said not very kind things about him but you know it was just such a shock shock I do remember waking up that morning to that well thank you so much I'm so glad you did this welcome I me too still here Hollywood is a production of the still here Network all things technical run by Justin zangerle theme music by Brian sanin and executive producer is Jim lonstein