Hitting Your Stride with Jean Smart

Welcome back to Living and Learning. I'm Reba McIntyre. You know what? I am so lucky to have this show because really, I mean, it's just a good excuse for me to get to call up wonderful people. I want to have a conversation with well today's guest is one of those people she's someone I've been dying to talk to because I've been a fan forever and love her on the HBO series hacks. If you hadn't watched it tune in, watch it. You're going to love it. She's wonderful. You know, that shows incredible and I could relate to a lot of things in that show, but we'll get into that later. I'm thrilled to welcome to the show Jean Smart. Now, Jean is an Emmy-winning Tony nominated actor who's been dominating a small screen lately. She's amazing. And as I mentioned, she played Deborah Vance on hacks, as well as Helen on Maravise town. Both roles earned her Emmy nominations, by the way, and she won for her performance in hacks. In her four decade career, she starred on Broadway in film and on television, including shows such as Designing Women, Frazier, 24, Legion, Fargo, and Watchman. She has a new movie coming out next year. That's called Babylon. We're going to talk about that a little bit later too. She got to start with Brad Pitt and Margo Robbie. And she's currently filming the upcoming movie Wildflower. Can't wait for both of them. Okay. If I read any more of her incredible resume, we'll be here for hours, so she's done so much. So let's get right into it without further ado. Hey, I love her. Not as much as I love you, everybody. Oh, you're so sweet. I've been listening to a lot of your music last couple of days and just remembering why you're so fabulous. You know, I mean, first of all, you have great voice, but I just love the material you pick. You've always picked great songs. And one of the best things about country music sometimes is that their songs with a real story. It's not just kind of a lot of songs now that are popular, just sort of the same few lines repeated over and over in a different way. It's a real story. You know, oh, my God, you really got me with one yesterday. If I don't even own. Thanks. I can't even. And then what I love turned on the radio. Thank you. I love that. I love that. That reminds me of that. That one with a girl, you know, trashes the guy's car and slashes his tires and takes a takes a baseball that to his headlights. And I carry underwood. Absolutely. Well, you know, finding songs. I don't write my own songs. So I have to look. And so I will spend hours and months looking for 15 songs to go into record, but it's a lot like finding a script, right? Oh, sure. Sure. I mean, the good ones are few and far between. Yeah. And everybody's looking for those good ones. So you really have to look people must send you tons of stuff. Oh, yeah. And then I go to the publishing companies also. And I'll say, okay, I'm recording in eight months. Play me what you got. And I'll start putting stuff on hold. And if anything beats it out, I'll let it go. So somebody else can record it. But you got to beat the bushes. I love to sing and I used to have a halfway decent voice, but I've just let it get in such bad shape. And it seems to become my Achilles heel a little bit. Do you ever have trouble with your voice when you're doing long weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks of shows? Absolutely. Yeah, you got to take care of it. It's like a muscle. I have to keep it in shape. Talking hurts my voice, but the worst thing is whispering. When you lose your voice, you try to whisper and they say, that's the worst thing. And I've heard that white wine's not good either. So I'm in bad shape. So you drink red instead. Occasionally occasionally. Yeah. Well, girlfriend, thanks so much for joining me on this. And I got to say congratulations on all the success you've had with winning the Emmys. You're on fire. Thank you. I've watched all the shows. I've watched hacks. I've watched Mary of East town. So good. I got real lucky. Oh, yeah. I got amazing. But you know, you know, part of it is you just stick around long enough. You know, you finally. Hey, look at me. Look at me. I'm over here. Please quick. Well, on hacks, I do have to tell you, when we wrecks, Rex Lynn, my boyfriend, you know, very well. How many racks in he a sweetheart? Yes. You guys had fun with Walter Mathown Jack. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. So much fun. I can't believe they're both gone. So much fun. And Christian Bransky played Rex's girlfriend. Jason has played my boyfriend. And we were a couple of biker chicks to try to pick up Walter and Jack in a bar. Hey, there's a there's a picture of of y'all in his office there in Los Angeles that he adores. He just he said that was the best time getting to work with you. Love it. Absolutely. He's a hoot. Yeah. We were watching hacks. And I got really uncomfortable. Yeah, especially at them. Oh, first of all, the beginning of the pilot when it's all behind you. And the cameras following you. It was that a one take. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. That was genius. Yeah. Gorgeous. Yeah, I absolutely love that. Yeah. And so when you get home and you're sitting there by yourself with your dogs and that I told Rex, I said, I'm very uncomfortable. He said, why? I said, because I've been there. Yeah. And it's it really hit home. And I got all choked up because that's, you know, you're in the limelight. And everything's going great. And you go home alone. So that's that's that's exactly what you look for in a script is that heart. Yeah. In a song. In a song. I look for something that touches my heart. Either makes me cry or laugh. Yeah. I got a spark in emotion. Yeah. So kudos to you. Yeah. Well, thank you. And it was it was just a treat from from beginning to end. But you're right. I think anybody who performs live, you know, and they feel, you know, the love from the audience. And then if you go home to an empty house and it's a not a healthy existence. Yeah. Very, very true. And the young lady that plays your assistant. Oh, plays my writer. Yeah. Oh, my God. Is she that the best? She's great. And she's really good. Oh, my God. I was so excited when they hired her because she was definitely my first choice. Wasn't her mother on Saturday night live? Lorraine Newman. Lorraine. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. But she hadn't acted any before. No, she's just been doing stand-ups in college, which has only been like three or four years or something. Yeah. She's just a little little pressure. But no, I adore her. She's she's and she is well, she's incredibly intelligent besides being very funny and also just a real good soul. Just an old soul and a special special person. I mean, she's I mean, I've turned to her a couple of times, you know, when I needed, you know, to talk about something and, you know, she's just and, you know, she's amazing. That's what wise old soul wisdom. That's cool. I have to tell you that I was so I was so mean. We'd only been working a couple of weeks and and I came up to me and she said, I just want to thank you because I heard that you really went to bat for me with the producers. And I said, I absolutely did. I said, you were my first choice. And I said, in fact, I told them that if they didn't hire you, I wasn't going to do the show. And she said, really? No, that's. Oh, you are me. I hesitated for a split second. I thought, well, she's a standard promise you can take. So thank you. That the truth. Good Lord. That's what we were talking about the other day, how cruel our business is. You get all hopped up on you're going to do it. You're going to do it. And then they say, I know we're not going to pick you up or we're going to go another direction. That's Rex's favorite line. Oh, that's my goal. That's my. Oh, my God. I hate that. I know that. I hate that. Oh, God. Yes. He six foot four. And he says, who got the part? Well, a small Asian lady got the part. He said, OK, yeah, you are going different. Yes, we're going in the direction. Yes, that's my favorite. All right. Do you think there's some similarities between all the women you've played? Are some of them you? Are you actually playing a role? My family's like, I hope not. I think there are some similarities in some of the higher profile things I've done. I think that whatever else some of the experience. External details are about a person or their life. I think I sometimes find myself attracted to roles where the character sort of keeps their emotions very, very close, you know. Play the cards close to the best, you know, and not reveal them easily. I mean, partly it's just, I think those are interesting characters to play, but there's something about that that attracts me. - All right, so who was your favorite character you've ever portrayed or got to play in a movie or play television, whatever? Who's your favorite character? - Oh gosh, one of my favorite characters of all time was the role that started my career. It's a play called "Last Summer at Bluefish Cove" and they're thinking of doing it on Broadway next year. I did it a million years ago in New York City when I was still in my late 20s. And it was, I played a gay woman who sounds very schmalcy right now. It was considered very sort of daring back then. It was a play about seven gay women characters and takes place at a beach colony near Cape Cod. And it's a gay woman who's just dying of cancer and she meets the love of her life the summer she's dying of cancer. - Hmm, wow. - It was a great character. - So you, when did you go to New York? You grew up in Seattle, right? - I went to New York two years after I got out of college. I worked in all the professional theaters in Seattle and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. And mostly Seattle, Seattle has a lot of professionals here. And then I finally decided to save up a few shackles. I guess I'll have it in the way. - The big, try the big apple. - Well, do you think you got any advantages by growing up in Seattle and then hitting the big city? The reason I asked that is because I grew up in Oklahoma on a work in cattle ranch and learned a lot there before I headed to Nashville in '88. I was grown woman by that time. So do you think it helped you by living in the Northwest away from all of that for a while? - You know, I used to think, oh gosh, you know, why didn't I go to LA when I was younger, you know, but I really can't regret all the experience that I had, you know, which gave me an enormous amount of confidence. But once I got out of college, I never worked a civilian job. - Yeah. - Only did theater and then eventually, you know, film television. What do you like, film television or play better? - They're so different. They're almost like two-- - I know it. - It's almost like two different industries, you know? - Yeah. - Yeah. - There's nothing like having a live audience, especially if you're singing, I would imagine, or if you're doing comedy, you know, to get that kind of immediate feedback is like nothing else, as you know. But it's also nice, though, to do things on camera where you can just be very, very, very, very subtle. You don't have to play to the back row, you know. And you can also say, oh, I'm sorry, I can't do that again. (laughing) That's always nice, too. I'm like, what's my line? - Exactly. I grew up singing with my brother and sister, so we were the same man can tires. So I was up the front of the stage with them. And then when I went off on my own, I was by myself up front. And then when I finally got to do a play, my first play was "Andy Get You Good." I love the ensemble of working with everybody. It was a team. - That's right, you did that in New York. - Yeah, and you got to sing, you got to act. And then I went on to do the "Reba TV Show" in 2001, same year. So I love to get to work off people. I love a live audience, which we did. I moved to a four camera. But you're right, there is nothing like a live audience to keep you on your toes and get that immediate response. - Whether it's good or bad, you're gonna get it. - Yeah, yes, yes. The only thing that I, when I got away from doing multi-camera and it had been several years since I'd done a multi-camera show and then I went back and I did a guest spot on something I can remember what it was. And I suddenly found the audience kind of intrusive. I just wasn't used to it, it was odd because the problem is I think a lot of people go see sitcoms. If they do it often enough, they sort of get trained to act a certain way and respond a certain way. Like for instance, if somebody in the scene says something real heartfelt or emotional or I love you or something like that, the whole audience goes, "Oh." And you're thinking, "What was that?" You know what you're going from? Or God forbid somebody kisses somebody to go, "Oh, you're thinking, "Oh my God, she's done do that, please." Well, the hardest thing about "Forecamera" for me and having a live audience is when you're rehearsing, you're, everybody's just in a great timing. And then the audience comes in, you have to wait for the laugh. - Yes. - So your next words are heard. - That's hard, that's hard. That's like the weird thing too about doing a comedy in a movie because there's, you know, I remember one time a director said, "Can you pick up that cue?" And I said, "Well, I'm holding for the laugh." And she started to laugh. And I said, "Well, I'm halfway, I'm halfway serious." I mean, hoping somebody in a home is going to be laughing, you know? - Oh, yeah, very true. - But doing multi-camera after having done just theater for years was so crazy. I remember calling my agent at the time, Judy Sheen, where was she from? She had the cutest Southern accent. The first time we had a live audience and everything. And I didn't know what they meant when they said, "Who's doing the warm-up?" And I thought we were all going to get together and stretch or do vocal exercises. I felt like such a dork. And they said, "No, no, no." And they explained to me, there's going to be a stand-up comic there. And I said, "Are you serious?" I said, "What?" "Can't you imagine if you were doing a play and comedy, somebody has to go out and warm up the audience." - Yeah. - And so then they said, "Okay, everybody line up for intros." And I said, "What's that?" And they said, "Well, you know, they'll introduce us, you know, in a certain order." And you just go out for the audience and bow or wave. - Yeah. - And I said, "Before the show?" Even like a basketball team. This is nuts. And it said, "There we have it." I mean, it was just, I thought, "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore." And I called my agent the next day. And she said, "Oh, you poor baby." She goes, "You really don't know. You're asked for my apple butter, do you?" (laughing) - No, I can relate to that. When we first started doing the TV show, I would pull Chris Rich who played my ex-husband. I pulled him out of the living room into the kitchen. I said, "What?" And the thunder, "Do they mean by that?" He said, "Okay, when they say to do that, you do this and that." I said, "All right, we walk back in the living room and I do it." - Yeah. - Had no idea. - No, it's bizarre 'cause it's a weird hybrid of film and theater. The audience can see you standing, waiting to make your entrance, you know? - Yes, it's very bizarre. - So what keeps you so grounded? You're the most grounded person I know. - Oh, well, thank you. Getting back to one of your questions is that maybe because I didn't come here like right at a high school or something, or maybe because I am very impressionable and very gullible. - So I might have gotten into, you know, it's trouble if I get on my own, that's really yeah. And having been doing years of theater, you know, it gives you a lot of discipline. You know, a casting director told me one time, she said, "I can spot a theater-train actor and one who's not right away." She said, "There's just a difference. There's a physicality, there's a confidence level." And also, too, in the theater, there's no picking order, really. Everybody's kind of in the same boat. And you know how much you depend on each other, you know? And so there's no, not a lot of divas, you know? You know, you don't have some 20-year-old who thinks that they hung the moon or make everybody wait for two hours. That just made, you know, a fly and fear. - I can't take that at all. So what was harder for you? I asked my daddy this question one time 'cause he was a world champion cowboy. He won the championship three times in rodeo. - Wow, that's impressive. - Yeah, after I won my first award, I said, daddy, what was harder for you? Getting to the championship and winning it or maintaining the championship. - Hmm, oh gosh. - So I always thought the maintaining the hardest for me. - I would have thought that too. What did he say? - He said, oh, getting there by far. He said, because once I won, I was like, now what? Let's just go do it again and have fun. I like competition. I'm a very competitive person. And the older I get, it's not so much about winning. It's just that I got to collaborate with a bunch of other people and have fun. - Yeah, yeah, oh, absolutely. I mean, I think that for a long time, women didn't necessarily help other women in their industry as much as I think they do now. Because I think there was always sort of this feeling of, you know, there's only so much room at the top and I'm up here and, you know, I'm gonna stay up here, you know? And unfortunately, I think that a lot of women kind of were made to feel that way. And it's really not the case anymore. And it's I think a much better atmosphere for women in the industry. - Well, don't you think because there are so many more women in the industry and we're kind of like, all right, let's all pull together. Whereas before there weren't. And so if you didn't get that job, that other person, you know, and wood so it was kind of a more of a cutthroat type, a whole my apples right here close to me so you don't know what I'm doing type situation. I would imagine especially women who are executives in this business but who had who were trying to you know beat out through four guys to the position you know that I'm sure they felt like they had to be tough as males. Yeah. Hey I wanted to say you did a wonderful job on your acceptance speech at the Emmys. I've said there are so full of emotion my heart goes out to you. I have to acknowledge my late husband Richard Gilliland who passed away six months yesterday and I would not be here without him. How do you get through rough times like that? I've never had one like this so it's you just hang on you know I mean people say oh you're so strong I don't worry based on what where you're saying that I don't feel strong at all about that. You just have to take it one day at a time. Yeah and I you know I have a 13-year-old and you know I want everything to just stay pretty much stable you know for him stay the same and so still you know kind of get up in the morning make his pack his lunch and make him breakfast and get him to school and yeah and try to you know we try to think of the good the good times and you know mm-hmm in 1991 I lost most of my band members my tour managers and two pilots in a plane crash right oh god you know you're like how how do you go on well you just it's just it's not even one day at a time it's one minute at a time and I just never thought I'd go back on stage and God and it was but you know family and friends faith in God and it's yeah I guess the only thing that that was good out of the whole deal is hopefully my experience can help other people deal with their tragedies but well it's not fun at all now my heart really went out for you having to be in front of all the people to say what you did was it it was strong it was strong no matter what you think it is or not but to say that I was really proud of you know a heart went out to you thank you but going back to the other situation when I said how do you stay grounded motor sister Alice she's four years older than me mm-hmm if I ever get a little uppity she is there to make sure I'm not people people to ask her in the past I said Alice how does it have a such a big star as a sister Alice said ah she's not a star she's just a twinkle oh that's great that's great so when you got family to keep you a little grounded I think that's that that helps out a lot no room for ego yeah you're so lucky I lost my sister several years ago and she was two years nine months older than me so kind of a similar similar age difference you know yeah I miss her and I and I just got it especially now I could really I really yeah she would have been the person I would have really really really leaned on and you know sisters are the best of course I got a brother he's pretty good too yeah I got a couple good we were all mama had four kids and five years and nine more twins yeah and no microwave no washing machine no nothing she was always my hero wow you imagine wow no I actually I can't I can't really well think about I mean my my my two my two children are 18 years apart so I was like oh wow yeah yeah meaning for that to happen right the way it happened oh yeah well that's not something you plan is it godly you did who do you think you are television show yes did you was that not one of the most incredible things you've ever gotten to do in your life it was like I take my son it was so moving it was so moving now if y'all don't know what who do you think you are is it is a television show I got to do it in 2011 it's where they study one of your mothers or fathers background for me they did like eight months of research before they even decided on which parent they were going to go with they told me they were going to go on mama's side the brass fields so they took me on a journey and every day they would just say we're going to leave at so and so time wouldn't tell me where we're going so I had no idea what was coming up next it was absolutely wonderful you went back how many generations my eight times great grandmother only got to go back six no seven seven times and I stood where my seven times great grandfather and grandmother were buried in Chester England I love that show oh oh god I know no no see I don't know what happened to my grandma she had a very unfortunate name her name was Dorcas or oh my gosh yeah Dorcas or Dorcas or that's unusual HOAR and and although in one of the transcripts I think someone thought that was her profession because it said Dorcas comma or WHO are mama she was an unconventional gal so it was easy to accuse her of being a witch okay so she was accused of which she was convicted and sentenced to hang in Salem in 1692 did she hang no she missed it by one day she would have been she would have been the last person who'd been hanged they think that she got really clever and saw that people who confessed were buying themselves some time yeah so when she was in jail in prison she she confessed her confession got to Boston in time that they didn't include her in the last group of eight people that they hanged she would have been the next wow and then that was when the public kind of started to lose their blood lust a little bit and thought maybe maybe we're killing some innocent people just maybe wow I love that show I've learned so much about so many different people and it's it's just amazing and then after we did who do you think you are that was in 2011 in 2012 I took my sisters and mama and we started backtracking from the latest backwards but she didn't care to go to England she said I didn't know those people she just wanted to go to Mississippi and West Virginia Carolina's yeah probably during most Carolina yeah oh how funny oh Jane you would love mama she was a character oh bless her looks but somebody else Jacqueline undone Smith McIntyre wow undone so is that Scottish or Irish English oh McIntyre is McIntyre Scottish San Andrews yeah I'm almost all Scottish oh you know what part we might be related well that's a possibility what part of Scotland the Glombs for for area which is these little villages just north of Dundee yeah up in a few times yeah I love Scotland love Ireland I love all of that you've had success wonderful success have you ever had any lols in your career and how do you deal with it what did you do or did you have any lols in your career to me you haven't had any I actually had did have a definite lol and it was interesting because it was right after Fargo which was so immensely popular and you know I mean I got great you know reviews I want the Crit's Choice Award and silence absolute silence crickets yeah for well over a year if not more I mean not an audition not a meeting not an offer not a wow and I don't I still I mean I don't really know why that was because people love that character they love the show yeah I think and maybe it's just an excuse on my part but I think part of it was the way I looked because what I had done previously the big show that and previously to that the biggest one maybe before that was 24 although there were some there was definitely other things in between but that was the most hyperfoil one before that and I looked good in that and then all of a sudden I looked like this you know a plain hard bitten ranchers mobster wife you know kind of you know no makeup bad hair color bad perm you know the way women always used to do when they didn't want to fuss with their hair they just give it a poodle perm yeah just a real no nonsense person you know and a little bit scary people said I didn't think she was scary about that and I think people just thought well I don't know what to do with her I don't know she she looks so well you know I don't know I don't know but it was okay it was okay I survived Mary V. Stan was wonderful I loved her part in that yeah let's cake good work with that was oh my I adore her. Yes. I do too. I think I've never met her, but I think she's wonderful. I didn't know what to expect. All I knew was that she's incredibly talented and gorgeous and incredibly famous. So, you know, I didn't know what to expect. And she could not be more sweet and down to earth and funny and just there. She's just there. She's just all in. She's all in. Yeah. She's fantastic. That was a great show. Hey, Hacks and Maribis Town, just wonderful back-to-back smash hits. That was just luck. That was luck. The timing of them coming out at the same time was okay. Because you have to do them so far in advance, just like you've got another movie coming out next year, Babylon. And then Wildflower. Wildflower, yeah. I mean, golly, have you already filmed all of those? I finished Babylon a few weeks ago and I'm starting Wildflower next week. Oh, oh, congratulations. But Babylon is going to be something else. It is, it is wild. It's only wood in the 1920s and oh, wow, as fascinating and as extreme in every way as you can imagine. Damien Chazelle is just an amazing writer and director and one of the nicest sweetest man. It was fun. And then you get to work with Brad Pitt. And I got to work with Brad Pitt. I'll check off my bucket list. Uh-huh. I got to meet him. He was so sweet. Wow, thank you from Shawnee, Oklahoma. Yeah, he told me. I said, word, I said, we're, we're you hail from. And he said, the buckle on the Bible belt. He said, I said, does your, do your relatives all think you've landed in, you know, Sodom and Gomorrah? And he said, yeah, pretty much. He was so nice to me when I met him. I just couldn't get over how down to earth. Yeah, he is. He is. He's very sweet. My husband um, lived in Oklahoma for a while. He uh, grew up when he was a kid. He grew up in Enid for a while. Oh, Texas, Texas and then Enid and then should kind of go. Well, that's great. I asked Dolly Parton this question when we were together. Do you ever think you're going to retire? Do you look forward to retiring? Oh, me? Yeah. What that you're going to tell me what Dolly said. Oh, I'll tell you what she said after you tell me what you said. Do you think about retiring? Do you have a set age? No, I am my Betty Whites my hero. So I want to be Betty. Yeah, no, I think they're always going to need little lighties and movies and TV shows. So there you go. I asked Dolly, I said, do you think about retiring? She said, what would I do? What would I do where I can have it this much fun? Yeah, I agree 100%. I do get tired. I get you know, aggravated tired and something might go a little left when I wanted it to go right. I'm like, oh, why am I doing this? I'd much rather set on the back porch. And then if I do set on the back porch like the second day, I'm like, wonder what everybody else is doing out there. Well, I got to say, I'm like you. I think I always think that I'm going to do well not working. And I'm, you know, I'm going to just hang out because I have to say the first few months of the lockdown when the pandemic started, it just felt joyous. And I said, Jean, don't forget this feeling because you haven't been feeling this way. And so don't forget that feeling of what it was like to just stay home with your family, farm fireplace, dogs, cooking. I loved it. Yeah. I gained quite a bit of weight. Well, there's that. Yeah. Yeah, we're having to, you know, we're getting ready for our tour next year. And so before pandemic, we had fittings for the outfits. And we were in rehearsals with the band and pandemic hit and put everything on the back burner. And then now they're saying, all right, let's have our fitting again. And I'm like, good, Lord, I hope you took those outfits out about 10 pounds of COVID. I got to get off my belly, but it was worth it gaining the weight was worth it because Rex and I love to cook. I'm a throw it together and eat immediately. And he's got to put the brine and then you got to marinate it and then smoke it and then go cook it. That's great. We got to get you over the house and get together. And let's do some cooking and eating and tell Wild West stories. That sounds fun. You know, Rex, he's got plenty of them. Oh, God, he's funny. Yeah. He is a character. He's from Oklahoma too, isn't he? Yeah. He grew up in Spearman, Texas and then went over to Oklahoma City when he was 12. Oh, okay. Yeah. He loves it. They tuned after the break will be right back with more. When you were on mayor of Easttown, you played a game all the time. Oh, fruit ninja. Yeah, fruit ninja. Do you, do you like to play games in real life? No, you don't. I couldn't even forget to turn that thing. Fixed it. Fixed in it for me. No, no. So no gain. You don't like to play games at all. Anything technical as you could tell earlier. Well, what about card games, board games? Card games of board games. I like. Yes. Okay. Yes. All right. We're going to play a little game here if you don't mind. Oh, okay. I loved play games and I always play a game with my guest. So today, we're going to play this little game called are you smarter than smart? I'm going to ask you a question about some of your past roles to see how well you know the characters and the history and educate our listeners at home about your career. I don't know what the prize is going to be, but here we go. Are you ready? All right. On designing women. What famous country singer did Charlene meet in her dreams? Well, Daly Parton. Absolutely right. She was my guardian movie star, angel. So in in mayor of East town, what was the name of the game? Helen was playing on her iPad. You already said that hurt ninja. Uh-huh. In 2004, you were the voice of a character on the animated series Hey Arnold. What was your character's name? I was. I have no idea. It was Reba. Are you kidding? I didn't know it either. Her character's name was Reba. How about that? Okay. What member of the royal family have you portrayed on television? Oh, Camilla Parker Bowles. Yeah. Yeah. Do you watch the crown? I don't, but I know I would love it. I just feel sometimes when I watch TV, I feel guilty because I feel like I should be doing something else. Although I'm very, I'm very good at just vegetating. But my guilty pleasure on TV, if I really am just going to take a little bit of time, is I'll watch just about anything on HGTV. Oh, like those remodeling shows and you're like Alice, my sister. And she loves that. Yep. Who would have ever thought we'd see her and watch people fixing a broken doorway on TV and go, Oh, God, this is wonderful. What tool he was using? That's riveting. I, with you on that. Okay. Here's another one in the Tony 19 series Watchman. You played FBI agent Laurie Blake. Yes. What was the name of that character in the original 1986, '87 comic book series? Oh, God. It's, it's Polish. It's, um, I'll give you a hand. Okay. Silk. Oh, I thought you were talking about her real name silk specter. That's it. But her real name was a long Polish name. Oh, good. I wouldn't have known that me there. Okay. I'll tell you what you win. You win a meal cooked by Rex Leon. Next time we all get to LA. How about that? Oh, jean, this has been so much fun. Thank you so much for visiting with me and then we'll just continue this all next time we get together. All right. Okay. All right. Stay safe. Stay well. Thank you. You too. Thank you too, honey. Bye. All right. Thanks so much to Jean Smart for being with me today on living and learning. I love her to pieces and I learned a lot about her. I hope you did too. We'll see you next time on Ribbon Macking Tires, Living and Learning. Well, thanks for listening to Living and Learning with Ribbon Macking Tire, a Spotify original production. Our lead producer is Dylan Rupert with producer Baron Farmer. Our executive producers are Gina Delvack, Yassie Solik, Danny Trebatch, and Justin Macintosh. Editing by Cheryl Crosby, original music by Doug Seismore. Special thanks to Leah Edwards, Robert Adler, Casey Simonson, and Carla Cunero. I'm your host, Ribbon Macking Tire. Follow us only on Spotify.