AUDIO INTERVIEW
TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW ON BACK AND FORTH WITH SHAWN and LARRY ON 12th FEBRUARY 2015
Larry: What a special guest star we have Sasha Alexander, she's fantastic. Currently on TNT drama Rizzoli and Isles, plays DR Maura Isles, starring along Angie Harmon, Series 5 returns February 17th, one of the most successful shows in TNT history! Also appeared on NCIS, series regular in Dawson's Creek, guest on Friends and House. In all star cast He's Just Not That Into You! And with Jim Carrey in the funniest movie ever! Yes Man!
(Sasha laughs)
Larry: Did you crack up making that movie?
Sasha: I did, he's hilarious!
Larry: You were his wife right?
Sasha: I was not his wife, I was Bradley Cooper's wife. Yes! That was terrible really! (Laughs) we were friends of Jim's family, Bradley was helping Jim as he was getting into more and more trouble for saying Yes!
Sasha: It's so good to see you guys thank you for having me!!
Shawn: Oh I'm so excited to see you since I found out you were coming!!
Sasha: Oh you're sweet, thanks.
Shawn: We have a little history, we've met a few months back, Sasha and I met before you and Sasha met on that plane and we totally bonded!
Sasha: Yes we did! On that plane!
Larry: Let me give them a little history, they don't know what we're talking about! Sophia Loren is your Mother in Law, you're married to a Ponti?
Sasha: Yes... A Ponti (Laughs)
Larry: Sophia had her 80th Birthday hosted by Carlos Slim our partner in TV production Shawn flew down a day ahead of me in a private plane with you! I hear it was a hysterical flight!
Sasha: Shawn had us in stitches, me and my mom you're lucky my mom's not here now with some kind of, you know cooking and I don't know she was like What do you mean we're seeing Larry and Shawn? Why are we all going?
Larry: Was she telling jokes? What was she doing?
Sasha: You know Shawn you're just a special lady, first of all you have this glamazon gorgeous wife, so she naturally shows you and you're drawn to her beauty but that's not everything that's happening with you, your humour and intelligence and everything and everyone was just on the floor, hilarious!
Larry: The next day everyone was saying, your wife is Albert and Costello, your wife is hysterical, your wife is Jerry Lewis!
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Sasha: Jerry Lewis in a model bod, yeah!
Shawn: At one point we were searching we'd had a wonderful meal but we were dying for something kind of sweet!
Sasha: Yes! We got hungry, we needed snacks!
Shawn: so I started scavenging around so in honour of that today Sasha I have a little surprise for you a little gift.
Sasha: Oh yay!! Look at this, oh look at that! You know what this is great because you can keep this in your purse, blueberry flavour, I love this, this is amazing...
Larry: when did you do this Shawn? A basket full of snacks!
Shawn: I did it yesterday! They're healthy treats!
Sasha: ...that's what it was brookside because we ate all of them we took them from you and ate all of them that's so thoughtful thank you! That's so funny! Also she was brave enough to go hunting for food the rest of us were a little shy about it. Thank you this is so sweet I love it!!
Larry: What's it like being married to a Ponti?
Sasha: Well I have, well I'll tell you a little history, I don't know if I told you guys this story, so my father was in Naples, when he was a kid growing up in Naples, then he, his first job was working for a tailor who made dresses for Sophia Who was at the time, you know 19 maybe, early 20's so she was known but just starting her career and that tailor brought him to America and he ended up settling here and so forth so I knew who she was because she was part of my father's history and that's how I was familiar with her. Cut to USC film school and I meet a very sweet gentleman named Edoardo Ponti and we're both editing our movies together in editing bays all night long and you know he's fresh out of Swiss boarding school and I'm an LA gal, European as well but I was born and raised here and um so we were friends and years later we reconnected!
Larry: Nothing happened then at USC?
Sasha: Nothing happened, we didn't date then, you know I'm so glad we didn't, I would not have appreciated the man that he is you know when you're young it's kind of discovering who you are and so we reconnected and then you know it started and I went to go meet Momma! I don't get star struck I get more interested in who the person is, it's like yeah you might be excited but then it's kind of who are they? But then all of a sudden it hit me as I was driving out to their ranch, um I called my mom and went Oh My Gosh! I just got really nervous I'm hot!!! I'm hot!! My ears are hot!! And everything's hot! What do I do? What do I say? What if I have nothing to say to her!!!! And I walked in and she just gave me a big hug and she was so warm as you guys know and so funny and she loves food like I do and she is just, you know, she is just, I have another great mother in my life, she's amazing! she is a great lady!!
Larry: She was at that party.
Sasha: Yeah! And that was a tough party, and it's interesting to me as I think the selfie has become the autograph as I'm sure you guys are used to but who wants a phone in your face and I thought you're kidding, she was so patient with everyone and so gracious.
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Shawn: Absolutely and she had a million people stepping in without any regard and she had a spoon in her mouth and people step up for a selfie!!
Sasha: I know it's so not part of her you know she never lived here full time, she lives in Switzerland and it's very calm and people leave you alone, they're not that interested but here and even in Mexico and so forth it just comes on and I feel so bad I turn into a Doberman every time, elbowing people out of her way! Just let her sit down and eat something!!!!
Larry: What's life like? You're a working actress and have 2 children, how old are they?
Sasha: Leonardo is 4 and Lucia is 8.
Larry: Leonardo and Lucia.
Sasha: (Laughs) Not Italian at all!!! When I tried to name Leonardo, Henry for instance or William, Edoardo was like what do you mean an Anglo Saxon name! It makes no sense whatsoever with a Ponti he will feel totally left out of the family! Then we had to go Italian.
Larry: What does Edoardo do?
Sasha: Edoardo is a film maker and I am an actress so that works very well you know, RandI has been long, you step into shows you don't know how long they'll last it's the train that keeps on going, I'm lucky it shoots in LA and it's half the year and so we switch off a lot of writing he does can be done from home and he edits he makes sure it's in LA, so my mom is around, I have family here and that helps.
Larry/Shawn: Your mom is great! She's not subtle.
Sasha: I know, you know she is, the tequila got to her on that Mexican trip I'm like mom what's happening! Normally she's rather a reserved woman but she felt very comfortable with you and the company then so she just kind of let herself go.
Larry: So you've always wanted to be an actor?
Sasha: So I went to film school, growing up I was an ice skater, a dancer, got into theatre and I just didn't think I wanted to be an actor for life! I thought rejection and lifestyle was too unpredictable for me, it still is and yet you know but you get into it and you do your thing. I think if it's in you its not something I would let go even if I didn't do it as a business I don't know, I'd teach drama class or something, I would really love it so much I've been lucky to work on great things and people and as long as I enjoy it that's the most important thing!
Larry: Are you surprised by Bradley Cooper's success?
Sasha: No!! Not at all. As a matter of fact I had a film that I was trying to convince a director to cast him in that I was doing and they were like... And I said I'm telling you he's gonna be huge, he's intelligent, he's handsome, he's just super smart and he's a good person and he's connected!
Larry: Big hit in Broadway!
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Sasha: Yeah! And what's great is he's calving out what he wants to do, you know he's picking the roles, he's yeah absolutely he's the next George Clooney, no I'm not surprised at all, he's great!
Larry/Shawn: He's ugly right?
Sasha: (Laughs) Yeah! He's so unattractive.
Shawn: Did you have to kiss him?
Sasha: Yeah!
Larry: Marrying into that Italian atmosphere are you a good cook?
Sasha: Yes I've become a good cook, I can proudly say Edoardo thinks I've become a good cook!
Larry: My wife is a good cook but I don't appreciate it as I don't eat sauce, maybe just tomato sauce in pasta but not white sauce. I like plain food.
Sasha: That's not regular that sounds a little picky, you know we throw in the sauce and all of a sudden it's 1000 calories, you know I didn't cook at al, before we had kids and both children were born in Geneva and while we were there Sophia and Carlos had a cook that had been with them for 50 years and I thought if I don't get my butt to that kitchen and learn something then this is silly so I had some time during my pregnancies and with Sophia as well learning a lot.
Larry: Did you know your Father-in-Law?
Sasha: Yes I did he's quite a guy, reminds me of my father, I had an instant connection with him, he liked me and he wasn't warm to everybody right off the bat and we just immediately liked each other. Well he's a very strong personality, really strong instincts, so he didn't really, he wasn't someone who would go out of his way for someone, very much sat back and observed, very strong presence, string marriage, really strong couple. Edoardo is actually working on a documentary about his father that they're doing.
Larry: What got you so involved in children? On a worldwide basis other than being a mother?
Sasha: Well I feel that you know, we are not all lucky to be born in to or in a place that has you know, the amenities we need to survive and to grow and to thrive and you know I just think that children are the future, they're everything, so if we do not invest in them and raise them in a way that they will continue to do good things in the world then we are going to end up having some of the problems we currently have in the world. And I had a penpal when I was younger that I would write to and I remember she was in Ethiopia and I kind of remember just getting these letters from her and just learning about things they couldn't do and my mom, I travelled a lot with my mom all over the world, she worked in the travel industry and we went to many poverty stricken places as I was growing up and it affected me so much I came home to my bedroom and realise not everyone has a bedroom, they didn't have a lot of things and so I feel that making those connections, Girl Up is an organisation that puts high school kids here in touch with girls in other countries that are not allowed to get an education. So what they do as part of the UN Foundation they raise money for making those connections, sometimes it's just getting pencils and paper and tools they need to be able to go.
Larry: You're also an expert in the worst chemicals for children.
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Sasha: An expert - well that's a little bit of an exaggeration! (Laughs) I didn't write a book!
Larry: What chemicals are bad for children?
Sasha: Oh gosh, probably 85% of the things we, that we inhale and use, there's a great book that Healthy Child, Healthy World put out written by Christopher Gavigan and DR. Harvey Karp and it's a book about that, it lists everyday chemicals that we use in everyday society, that, household chemicals.
Larry: What are some bad chemicals?
Sasha: Off the top of my head, well I don't know... Bleach, that's pretty bad, they put things in that! Yeah! Don't drink bleach! There's a lot of alcohol related things in certain um things you're not aware of and you're putting it in counter sprays or using it to clean kids toys and then they're licking it, I mean it's just all not good it's not good for any of us, we need to all be a little bit more cautious of that.
Larry: Michael You favour the Bloomberg plan against soda? Michael Bloomberg is a strong advocate against soda, against diet soda! For children.
Sasha: Oh for children absolutely we are not a soda house, the kids drink a lot of water and a little bit of juice, if you get them used to it from the beginning they don't know the difference.
Shawn: Sometimes I sometimes need a jolt of diet coke to get me going but If I'm in a good healthy place I don't crave soda.
Sasha: I was actually just reading that you know you have a protein deficiency if you're craving sweets, I never knew that!!
Larry: As she brings you a bunch of sweets!
Sasha: Yeah that basket of yummy goodies I'm going to open up!!
Larry: That was sooo thoughtful of you Shawn. What do you make of this measles thing?
Sasha: Well I'll tell you first hand, my son is 4 and we have not given him the measles vaccination although he's been vaccinated with everything else because I've been spreading them out. Now he was going to have it in the last 6 months we were about to do it and every time I scheduled an appointment either his immune system was down, he had a little cold and I would, I was afraid to do it.
Larry: But you're not against vaccination?
Sasha: Absolutely Not. We are, I am totally pro it. I do think that, you know, I understand the concern about spreading it out, I understand the concern about not pumping it all at the same time to our child, um, that said, we can't, look what's happening, so many people I know...
Larry: Measles was wiped out until this movement started. It's insane when people put away facts and go with feelings.
Sasha: Well yes but because there was such a few put in with, look I don't understand the whole Autism growth in America and my children were born in Switzerland and they don't have any of these issues we have so I, it was
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TRANSCRIPT confusing to us so I wanted to understand what's the difference, what are they doing with the vaccinations that we aren't? We compared it and to be honest they're all pretty much the same the only difference is the pharmaceutical companies that distribute them might distribute them a little differently, but they still come in one shot and they save lives and we have to do it. In fairness my son has an appointment actually this week so we are doing it.
Shawn: I've got that little thing in my arm, you can see how old I am.
Sasha: Oh me too!! I have one!! That round thing!
Larry: I don't have that.
Shawn: When you're 81 it can ware off, take off your shirt.
Sasha: It also depends where we were. Yeah! Take off your shirt Larry we wanna see!! It's a TB shot!
Larry: How do you account for the success of Rizzoli and Isles, Mrs Isles?
Sasha: Well, people would like to say it's the chemistry between Angie and I, I would say is pretty, like, you know like any TV show you want to see characters that you return to every week! And you know, we had chemistry from the beginning and it's fun to see two women who are very different like polar opposites, you know the yin and the yang working in a very gritty, male dominated um, business of crime. And then I think it's fun it plays the opposite, you have a crime show but then it's very um funny, it's funny then all of a sudden there's these Sex and the City moments with the girls that sort of...
Larry: Oh Angie, she was great on Law and Order.
Sasha: Yeah, and she's great in our show, she gets more colours to play on our show which is fun.
Larry: You're going to guest star on Shameless.
Sasha: I am!! I am!! Have you seen Shameless?
Larry: No, What is it?
Sasha: (to Shawn) Have you seen it?
Shawn: I have! I have!
Sasha: So Shameless is a fantastic series on Showtime and Bill Macy, William Macy just won a SAG award for his performance. Emmy Rossum, wonderful actor named Jeremy White, so it's a great cast and you know, it's the polar opposite of Rizzoli and Isles so when they came to me and offered me this part I couldn't say no although there's a lot of nudity so we are not going to tell my Mother in Law about the show but hopefully it won't be airing...(Laughs)
Larry: Do you get nude?
Sasha: I do! I do!!
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Larry: What's it about?
Shawn: what's that like? Answer MY question first!!!!
Sasha: The shows about a family that lives you know, below the poverty line in Chicago and they're just crazy, it's a comedy, um but it's really just a no holds barred based on the UK series it's really wild and really fun, uh and I play a Mrs Robinson type of character who's a professor. It was definitely a different way to work because you're, you have to really connect to yourself and your body and just be real because if you're not...
Larry: Do you get totally nude?
Sasha: Close. Well not full frontal, no, yeah that's the weirdest part it's very technical I mean, and you have to say I'll show this, I won't show this or what's that look like, everything's very technical. Takes any kind of romantic vision of it away and it's very technical. Yeah but that said it's such a fun show and it was really great to work on and so I'm excited.
Larry: When's it air?
Sasha: It starts airing, my episode starts airing, its on the air now every Sunday night but my episode airs on March 15th last 4 episodes of the season.
(Side chat between Shawn & Larry.)
Sasha: You know what Larry I have a bigger issue with violence against women, violence against much more I'm not prude in that way but I do think you have to take into consideration obviously now with the Internet that where's it going to go so the big question is what the message is and what are you doing AND, you know being European I never thought as an actor, I never thought I wouldn't show my body I just didn't think I would do it after having two children, I was hoping that would be maybe something that came later.
Shawn: Your body is perfectly fine. It's gorgeous.
Sasha: Thank you Shawn.
Larry: Why did they name you Sasha?
Sasha: My real name is Suzana, it's Suzahnah but everyone says Suzana!
All sing: "Oh Suzana won't you cry for me, I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee" (laugh)
Sasha: Yeah and that really wasn't, then it was Suzie in school but my parents, my family always called me Sasha, my Godmother, um called me Sasha so it stayed.
Larry: Sasha is a Russian name?
Sasha: Um, no Serbian, I'm not Serbian but my Mom is a Serbian so yeah, no we're not Russian but the name is I guess. Well it's short for Alexander so my name is really like Bob Roberts (Laughs) that's really my name you know but if you go to Russia or Eastern Europe and you say your name is Sasha they look at you and they say well that's a boys name, I say no it's my name but it's a boys name they get very, they're not, it's only in America that girls are named Sasha and there it's very much a boys name.
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Larry: Wow! Well the things you learn on this podcast.
Sasha: What is it like, you two you know I was thinking about this it's fun to work with your spouse. I worked with Edoardo once we did a film together and despite the challenges it was THE best working experience I ever had.
Larry: Are you easy to live with Sasha?
Sasha: Yeah I am pretty easy, I think Edoardo would say I was pretty easy to live with but you know I am an actress at the end of the day so I mean to live, actually have you seen the sketch that SNL did about this if you're dating an actress there's a medicine you take if you're dating an actress you have to see this it's hysterical but really it's like guys they're tired and dealing with this emotional roller coaster constantly or the actress that they're dating is running they're lines or talking to themselves or preparing for a scene and it's really funny. So it made mea laugh because I thought Oh honey that's kind of what it's like to live with me! But for him being a director and having his mother be an actress it's like so familiar to him, it's home.
Shawn: He would have to get used to a non-actor.
Sasha: For him it would be very boring and the women he dated before me I think it was a little bit lacking all of that, he loves it and he's very comfortable with me going to do my things and so we're a good team like that. I was thinking about friends now who've hit that place in their marriages where it's kind of like they don't have things in common anymore and I think that that's the most important thing. You have to like to do simple things together, whether it's just waking up and hanging out, whatever it may be you have to sort of share that daily life.
(Side chat between Shawn & Larry.)
Larry: Sasha you're a wonderful guest, let's get together more. Thank you for coming.
Sasha: I would LOVE that thank you both for having me guys, thank you.
Shawn: Give your mom and husband and kids who I haven't met yet, give everybody a hug from me.
Sasha: Thank you, thank you for having me.
Larry: That was the wonderful Sasha Alexander.
*A huge thank you to Louise (@LulabelleHo) for putting together this transcript.
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