Speaker 1: (00:00)
What was it like, especially in, there were certain scenes where YouTube got to go toe to toe, and it was so crazy emotional and but what was that like going toe to toe with somebody where you’re like, Whoa, this is like heavyweight. This is like,
Speaker 2: (00:15)
it was so much fun. I felt a little nervous the first time we did it cause there was a lot of pressure cause people were like crowding around the monitor. Like it was a major fight. Like it was Vegas. I know about your little secret. Are you threatening me?
Speaker 2: (00:33)
I just think once we got started it felt so good to be in a scene with a scene partner who’s so talented and adapt and courageous in the work. I mean she’s, you know, she’s a phenom. So it was really fun. I feel like it was such a good, cause it was such an equal match. We really went toe to toe, and we both had these fierce ideologies that our characters were so, um, really dug in about. So we really came from a point of view. Like, sometimes we’d just be having a conversation about the thing. She’d be like, well that’s not Hamelin Mia, thanks. And I’d be like, Oh well that’s not what Elena would do. So yeah, we were really invested and also we would, we would shoot the scene a couple of different ways cause we also knew like when we get in the edit we’re going to want to have options. So finding where we could have options in play but still feel true to our character was really fun. What is it that you do? I’m an artist, and then you ask her to come work in our house. It is a beautiful thing to know that your actions can affect another person’s life. All mothers struggle money Heights.
Speaker 1: (01:39)
Is it interesting now because you’re both our executive producers, you know how it should look, the feel from the beginning to the end? So now you are, the way you are shooting things is very different. The way you produce things is very, is it changed a lot because you are running things from the beginning to the end. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: (01:54)
It’s a completely different set of responsibilities that we, we both share a lot of, um, tips and we try to really encourage each other as businesswomen and producers. I have always had the best intentions. Someone burned down your house with you inside.
Speaker 3: (02:12)
[inaudible]
Speaker 2: (02:16)
Elena, do you know anyone that would do this? It was incredible to be able to partner with Carrie and her team to bring this to screen because she brings world-class, um, people to the table who I had no idea about. And hopefully if say vice versa to really, you know, the everything is the work and how people feel while they’re doing the work. And we really were very aligned in that.
Speaker 1: (02:40)
Did making this scare you to death about your children? Because this, the whole time I was watching this, I was like, Oh my God, Oh my God, this could be my child going through this and this thing and that thing. And how as parents we’re really blind to what they’re going through. How much of that played into your minds as you went through and you look, especially
Speaker 2: (03:00)
in recent years, the way my character treats her children. I think it’s, I think I always think there’s a relationship you have with your younger children that is completely different than you have with teenage children. As they become adults and become individuals, you have to form different relationships, and that’s very difficult for my character. Yeah. I think in some ways the opposite happened for me where I was thinking a lot more about my mother than I was thinking about my children because we were teenagers in the 90s and so in some ways stepping into these characters was really stepping into our mother’s shoes because they were parenting us in this time period. The Premiere’s been cancelled tonight, and I know her. If she were talking about the coronavirus and all this stuff going on in the world, how have you been dealing with that? And I called Carrie, and I go, what are, what are we going to do?
Speaker 2: (03:52)
There’s a lot of counsel of people. You really trust people who are getting really good information, clear information. But it’s, I, I completely, I feel just as stressed and worried as everybody else out there. I think we share that we both have little children and we both have elderly parents. Yes. So that’s what we get. What do you call that? The sandwich generation. And I think that’s a lot on people’s minds. Yeah. Scaring you to Gary. Yeah. I just think it’s a time when we all have to strike a tricky balance between making sure that we stay informed and are getting the facts so that we can make decisions to help take care of ourselves and the people around us that we love. And also try not to panic. Right. And try to, especially at this time, elevated levels of stress impact our immune systems.
Speaker 2: (04:37)
So that level of self-care and calm is important. Not just theoretically, but really physically. That’s really well said. This is great content that is made by women and really has a female perspective. So as you sit there as a man and you’re digesting this, you’re like, what was that like for you? It was a lot. It was a lot. Cause then you start thinking, I start thinking back. It made me also think about the times where my wife was PR when she had the little ones, and she would like leave the house and say, yo, give me a minute, give me a, might take me 10 hours to buy a pacifier. Or just the things you tell your or the things you tell your children. But how important is it to tell these stories that it will so will impact men from a female perspective.
Speaker 2: (05:18)
And I think the way that stories are told, it’s really critical that we need to diversify the storytellers that we’re seeing lots of different perspectives. You walk through a story a different way when a different person tells it obviously. So we were very conscious of that with hiring directors as well. Um, you know, and, and the writer’s room was very um, diverse, female-driven and diverse. Yeah. And really represented a lot of different perspectives. Did you need a breather after this for a sec? Did you after, I mean, did you need to like go out and say, Ooh, I just need some ice. We’ll shake it off for a little bit. We both did. It was pretty intense. Yeah. That last episode, episode eight, episode eight. So no joke, no joke. It is no joke. Keep watching. It’s big. You’re doing morning show now too.
Speaker 2: (06:04)
Yes. How was it doing all this great streaming content? You know what, I have to say this is an incredible time to be a creator, be a female creator, to work with um, intersectionally with other women and really, um, cause I’ve done a lot in my own life, in my own career that I want to, to leave this business a different place than the way I found it because it wasn’t representative of enough and more people need to see themselves and have their story told. So it’s a, it’s a great time. It’s a great time. I was just thinking that because I’m filming the prom and so I’m in Ryan Murphy’s camp and he is interested in centering otherness in a slightly different way. I mean, we’re all interested in inclusivity, but his perspective, obviously as a gay white man is different from my perspective as a black woman, and to be able to lend yourself to different camps and to partner to tell stories that really allow every single person at some point to be at the center of their story, to see themselves at the center of their story. It’s just such a wonderful time for us to be able to do that with each other.