Aug. 13, 2026
You can bet your bottom dollar! with Julie Rottenberg & Elisa Zuritsky... (S5 E3 "Luck Be an Old Lady")
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RSS Feed Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky return to explain WHY they really didn't want Richard to cheat again. They also explain the extra padding on Cynthia's butt and legs and why the girls defending her was a perfect fit.
Plus, why the bus was crucial in the end.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:01
Speaker 1: Hi.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: I'm Kristin Davis, and I want to know are you a Charlotte?
00:00:09
Speaker 1: Hi? Everybody, welcome back to Are You a Charlotte?
00:00:12
Speaker 3: We are going to talk some more to Julie Ruttenberg and Alisa Zuritski.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: They wrote Lucky an Old Lady. So here's more of myself talking to them. I love them so much, Please enjoy. Thanks for joining us. All right, let's talk about Samantha for a second. So I have totally forgotten about this whole thing with Richard, and I feel like, haven't they already broken up once? And she puts the flyers out and now we're back, which obviously you know would saman I don't know.
00:00:41
Speaker 1: It's interesting so much.
00:00:43
Speaker 3: James Dreamer was so good and they were so good together, but we knew, we knew we were building toward the end. We really wanted it not to be that she catches them cheating again, like we really want to do that. Although I did appreciate I forgot about that last see when she's walked down the hall, which I appreciated that, But we we wanted to be I choose me like I can't, I can't live right, I'm thirty seven. After all.
00:01:16
Speaker 2: Right, it's interesting. I can't remember what's going to happen. I mean, I know that eventually Smith comes, but it's interesting. I mean, the whole Samantha thing.
00:01:27
Speaker 1: I'm like, whoa, what's happening? You know what I mean, I don't really remember.
00:01:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was that was I think that was one of the moments where we wanted to give her some growth and definitely she has a limit to what she's willing to.
00:01:44
Speaker 1: Do and like absolutely absolutely.
00:01:48
Speaker 2: I mean when she leaves the dinner with us, I was kind of like, oh, this is not good, Like who is she's turning into that She's going to get up from us having a celebratory dinner to go make make sure that her boyfriend doesn't cheat.
00:02:02
Speaker 1: Ew you know, we can't stay there. That's itck, yes, yes, you know what I mean.
00:02:08
Speaker 2: Like it's so ick, and I mean he is really good with her, but it's also like the level of like ongoing intense sexuality with them.
00:02:18
Speaker 3: My god, it was I think related to Charlotte on that.
00:02:23
Speaker 2: I'm sure I was like surprisingly polite.
00:02:33
Speaker 1: Because I was like, yuck, it's so like grow up.
00:02:37
Speaker 2: I wanted to say, you know, it's just like teenagers or.
00:02:41
Speaker 3: Whatever, and after you put on that whole thing about like I don't want to celebrate my birthday. I want presence, and then you're like, you got me a present.
00:02:48
Speaker 2: I know, I was really worried. I was like, what is in that box? What is in that box? I couldn't remember, and I was really scared. So I was relieved that it was only a pearl thong. But then, of course there's the crazy conversation. I do remember that conversation.
00:03:03
Speaker 4: I remember that too, and I remember having.
00:03:05
Speaker 1: This discussed, like what are we actually talking about? Like I did not know. I was like, wait, what it's what?
00:03:13
Speaker 5: So I heard the answer. We have the answer to the question at the center of your podcast. You are a Charlotte. You are Charlotte.
00:03:23
Speaker 2: We haven't been that confused, okay, but you know, it's interesting. I have had this thing lately and I don't know. Obviously, it's really unusual and amazing that I've gotten to play this character for so long. Obviously, but when I meet new people, they are like, oh, you're not You're.
00:03:39
Speaker 1: Not actually heard. I'm like, am I not? I don't even know anymore?
00:03:43
Speaker 2: But like, because I mean, you guys know me obviously, but you know, in some ways I'm really not right, and then I guess in some ways I am.
00:03:50
Speaker 1: It's interesting.
00:03:51
Speaker 5: You can't situation you totally. You drop a lot more f bombs than Charlotte ever would.
00:04:00
Speaker 6: To me.
00:04:01
Speaker 1: That's the line.
00:04:02
Speaker 2: Okay, that's good. That's totally comfortable with you, right, I mean around the kids. I don't, but I remember when we went back to work, I was like, I can swear.
00:04:12
Speaker 1: I mean, an adult world, fully adult world. It's wonderful. It's wonderful.
00:04:18
Speaker 2: Okay, wait, let's talk about Miranda for a minute, because I did, Julie to your point about the baby stuff. I mean, I had forgotten and I thought it was really good, but it could.
00:04:27
Speaker 1: Have been maybe better, but show it was really good.
00:04:32
Speaker 4: I mean, just.
00:04:34
Speaker 3: That idea of like her living for this escape was you could see horror and you're like, what are you doing there? Right?
00:04:46
Speaker 5: And then begging and then also the the other like uber relatable moment as a especially a new mom but like lasted a bunch of years, was just the like deep fatigue, like so that when she says in the know, like as soon as I stop, I have to just lie down, like yes, oh yeah, I'm so glad we were. We knew enough about that day.
00:05:10
Speaker 3: That was the thought of being alone in a hotel room. I remember when the kids were little.
00:05:15
Speaker 1: Yes, oh it's bonking time.
00:05:18
Speaker 3: And I had to fly to La for work. It was like, when do we get to go back to our hotel room and just.
00:05:23
Speaker 1: Totally and sleep totally totally?
00:05:27
Speaker 2: When I go on location now, I mean the first like weekend is great.
00:05:32
Speaker 1: Then it's like weird.
00:05:33
Speaker 2: But at first, like you're just sleeping and then you wake up and you don't have to get up.
00:05:38
Speaker 1: I was where totally, You're like, who am I? Where am I?
00:05:41
Speaker 2: I was with Kevin Bacon, who has kids but they're grown, and he was like, oh, yeah, I really missed my my home because he has this farm with animals and horses and everything.
00:05:49
Speaker 1: And I was like, I'm good right now, was like are you? And I said, Kevin, I.
00:05:55
Speaker 2: Never sit down. I never sit down, right. I'm so happy to just be a blob. And then it wears off, you know, then it wears a bit right and you're like, oh, are they Okay?
00:06:08
Speaker 1: Who am I? Who are they?
00:06:11
Speaker 2: But like in the beginning, you're just like, I'm so tired, right, yeah.
00:06:15
Speaker 3: Well, and also that Miranda in that moment when which one of you says she just had a baby me you excuse me? Yeah, yes, And I love that since Miranda is like, oh yeah.
00:06:31
Speaker 1: She forgotten, she forgot.
00:06:33
Speaker 2: That seems interesting because it was like so mean, and then Carrie responds right away, and then Samantha was friends. And then finally I'm like, oh my god, I hope Charlotte's going to help, and she does, but also like right, thank god, thank god. I was like, hopefully she doesn't stay on the side.
00:06:50
Speaker 3: Like rewatching these episodes and if we've never seen that, you're like.
00:06:54
Speaker 1: I know, it is interesting. I know, I know.
00:06:57
Speaker 2: But that's the joy of it, right, because how could you remember everything.
00:07:01
Speaker 1: Even if you wrote it, even if you acted it.
00:07:03
Speaker 3: I mean, that's what the beauty of it is is like talk about lucky an old lady like, I'm no, it's all hilarious.
00:07:13
Speaker 4: And so familiar.
00:07:16
Speaker 2: Vaguely, I just wanted to ask you, guys, I'm going to ask Cynthia this.
00:07:20
Speaker 1: But like we patted Cynthia up right, like.
00:07:25
Speaker 3: Her down the hallway at the door. I remember that was like it was very important because we were like, we want this to be real and not just like.
00:07:33
Speaker 1: In her head like TV.
00:07:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, but and I liked that it wasn't a thing. It wasn't a thing until somebody. Maybe it's.
00:07:47
Speaker 5: That that also came from that came from real life. What do you mean who will not no one, no one, not present company and none of the writers, but.
00:07:59
Speaker 4: Someone in our world.
00:08:01
Speaker 5: Yeah, I had had that that slur like thrown at her.
00:08:07
Speaker 1: That's awful.
00:08:08
Speaker 2: The other thing that I really loved about charlotte storyline that I had not remembered at all, and I don't think would have meant anything to me at the time. But it's part of the conversation about aging is that there are times that.
00:08:19
Speaker 1: You do feel invisible, you know.
00:08:22
Speaker 2: And it's so interesting that Charlotte's sitting there and there and Carrie's got her kind of low cut top and those are like, yeah, be my blonde, you know, and the hot one, and I'm.
00:08:32
Speaker 6: Like Charlotte's like standing right here, puranical, you know, out of it.
00:08:48
Speaker 2: But also like just the fact that you're kind of yeah, you're like glossed over, like you're just not even present. That is such an aging conversation. But I don't think we would have known that then, you know, and it's interesting the whole thing of like you kind of have to decide like do I care or do I not care?
00:09:08
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, I don't know if you guys you're younger than me, or.
00:09:12
Speaker 5: Sometimes it's yeah, of course, it's a great thing. I Sometimes it's like, oh, I'm this is a superpower. I am not part of this, like I'm.
00:09:22
Speaker 1: Right, see right, right.
00:09:24
Speaker 2: But then sometimes you're like, wait a minute, yes, my soul, like yes, here present in this moment.
00:09:33
Speaker 3: You know.
00:09:34
Speaker 1: It's interesting.
00:09:35
Speaker 3: I think many years later and sadly we all know this and have experienced loss, and it's like we're lucky to be here. Like of course I feel like, oh god, I'm getting old. It's like I'm grateful.
00:09:48
Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, we're healthy, We're healthy, you know.
00:09:52
Speaker 5: I think that's why that coming back to the lying about the age. I mean, I don't walk around advert I don't like drop it into conversation, but I do.
00:10:02
Speaker 4: I feel like that's behind not lying for me.
00:10:06
Speaker 5: Is yeah, yeah, yeah, Like this feels like an accomplishment absolutely.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: And the thing about it, because Nicole and I would often have this conversation on the set of and just like this and just like that one Nicole ri Parker exactly because when the kids would all be there, all of her kids, for her fake kids and my fake kids, something would come up where I would have to say, listen, I'm old, but blah blah blah blah blah, right, and she would say, don't say that, And I was like, why not?
00:10:36
Speaker 1: It's true, number one.
00:10:38
Speaker 2: But the other thing is that if you claim your whole experience by saying that, and you also kind of take the onus off that I feel. I mean, I kind of understand her. Was like, don't criticize yourself.
00:10:50
Speaker 4: She putting yourselves down, right, but maybe you are a little bit No.
00:10:55
Speaker 2: I felt more like, if I want to to talk to the kids about whatever I was going to try to tell them about, which I'm sure they didn't want to hear about, you have to say I am actually old, and I have already lived through all this, you know what I'm saying, Like I've already lived through so many versions of whatever it is that we're talking about, right, And like like just yesterday I posted that thing on Instagram kind of chic to blah blah blah, right, Like I don't know, if you guys are not as.
00:11:25
Speaker 4: I think I think I might.
00:11:27
Speaker 5: I think I might have seen I think I might have seen this kind of chic yes.
00:11:31
Speaker 4: Kind of she too.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: And then you get to fill it in, right, And a lot of them are very much women kind of claiming their own reality.
00:11:39
Speaker 1: Like the first one that I saw that I.
00:11:41
Speaker 2: Loved was this woman who I guess had been engaged and then broke off her her engagement and is just living life single. And her thing was like kind of chic to write your own rules, you know, kind of she to you know, vacation with your girlfriends kind of she It was all things like kind of empowering things that she had claimed, you know, solo things, right.
00:12:01
Speaker 1: So I wrote it, and I.
00:12:03
Speaker 2: Wrote, you know, I put something like kind of cheek to be loving life in my.
00:12:08
Speaker 1: Sixties because I am I'm sixty one. I mean, this is what my license tells me. I have to believe that is true.
00:12:14
Speaker 2: I don't always believe that it's true, you know, I have to be like am I you.
00:12:18
Speaker 5: Know what I mean?
00:12:18
Speaker 3: Different than it's totally.
00:12:20
Speaker 2: Different, right, And this is the joy, right, is that we can rewrite the rules for ourselves and we are like culturally we are. But in my comments, people are like, wait, how who ell hell? Had to go over to Google and make sure that Kristen is actually in her sixties.
00:12:37
Speaker 1: This is crazy. And I was like, listen, I feel you. I feel you.
00:12:41
Speaker 2: I also sometimes have to check, but in fact everyone does. It is true, right, and therefore I want to claim it, you know, because part of me goes like, oh, maybe I shouldn't remind people, But then I'm like that.
00:12:55
Speaker 1: Right, yes, like this is the reality. I've lived through so much stuff and I need to go that, you know.
00:13:02
Speaker 3: Like when we joined the show, it was her very first job. I remember, Judy told may she rest in Yes, great greatest ever.
00:13:10
Speaker 1: Judy told, yes, she just wrote the one right before this.
00:13:14
Speaker 6: Oh right, yes, yes, I think yes, I think you're right.
00:13:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, the with the post, the guy who shows up with okay anyway, the self.
00:13:26
Speaker 1: Help book one yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
00:13:30
Speaker 3: Her whole thing with us was she was like, I'm a hundred, I'm so old, you're so young. Meanwhile she was like forty.
00:13:40
Speaker 4: Wow.
00:13:41
Speaker 3: The fact that like she was calling herself one hundred and I'm so old and you're so young is I look back on that and I'm like, oh my god, Judy, Like I would kill to have Judy here.
00:13:51
Speaker 1: I know me too for sure.
00:13:52
Speaker 2: But I do think in our business at the time, if you were a forty year old writer, you were an.
00:13:59
Speaker 4: Old on your way.
00:14:01
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, which is interesting.
00:14:03
Speaker 2: But I think it's also like there's such power in that, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. And I mean whenever we do anything age related, I'm always like, wow, it's so funny because we're literally like thirty seven when we're doing it.
00:14:18
Speaker 1: And you guys are even younger.
00:14:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really funny. A thousand dollars this is so interesting. Like I was really torn, like should she play it? Like who cares?
00:14:37
Speaker 5: Right?
00:14:37
Speaker 1: But then I was like, no, that is kind of a lot of money for Kerrie, who we know doesn't have a lot of money.
00:14:42
Speaker 4: Right.
00:14:42
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, Also, who was it? Who was? Like give it to me? Who was it? Miranda?
00:14:49
Speaker 2: I think, so I don't know, or she was Miranda's betting is.
00:14:55
Speaker 3: Betting, which I liked that Miranda, Yeah and me.
00:14:57
Speaker 2: Too, given that chip, right yep, yes, yeah.
00:15:02
Speaker 3: So then it's like that's that's a lot of.
00:15:05
Speaker 2: Money, right, But Carrie's like a Julie and she's like, no, no, I'm not betting. I'm not betting this money. Like she was treating it like it was real money. Miranda was treating it like it was like you know, monopoly making fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:15:17
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:15:17
Speaker 3: By the way, that at the end Steve Buscemi's brother at the roulette wheel no way.
00:15:25
Speaker 1: He looks like him.
00:15:27
Speaker 4: And he's the one who corrected our.
00:15:29
Speaker 5: Pronunciation of the last name, because oh well, we were always.
00:15:34
Speaker 4: Saying Bmi and he's like, actually BUMI.
00:15:37
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, now we heard it here first, got it, got it on a computer.
00:15:42
Speaker 1: Tell us did he actually know how to be the Yeah?
00:15:46
Speaker 3: I think he did. I think it.
00:15:48
Speaker 1: He looks like for real.
00:15:50
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:15:52
Speaker 5: And I also remember the excitement of realizing that that Roulette matt ended at thirty six.
00:15:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, like what thing? It was like, wow, good, what are the what are the odds of that?
00:16:05
Speaker 2: Totally that was very good writing.
00:16:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely we.
00:16:10
Speaker 3: Should also mention and least maybe remember when this came. But we as a writing group all went and it was my very first time going to Vegas. But we went to Vegas together, the writers.
00:16:23
Speaker 1: We all went in for this, No, no, just for fun.
00:16:29
Speaker 3: Least was it after season. Yeah, but that's when I I that was like talk about it was still entry into gambling.
00:16:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, what it might have because I think it was. I think Liz was with us, so I think it might have been.
00:16:45
Speaker 5: It might have been the beginning of season before we started, when we were when we were leaving.
00:16:51
Speaker 3: The LA.
00:16:52
Speaker 4: The l a portion of the pre season writing. Yes, I think it was then.
00:16:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, so when everyone went, yes.
00:17:00
Speaker 4: Write just the writers.
00:17:01
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I remember we get a whole like spiritual thing with Cindy And do you remember this least we.
00:17:09
Speaker 5: Were burning our wishes a sort of Michael listen to this too.
00:17:15
Speaker 1: There was Michael Patrick on New Year's Eve.
00:17:17
Speaker 3: One time we had to like write our wishes and we burned our visions for the future thing, and I.
00:17:27
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I remember I had a crazy windfall at a slot machine, the only one I ever had, like maybe one two hundred and eighty dollars or something at a it's very at a slot machine.
00:17:40
Speaker 4: That was wild.
00:17:41
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, oh wow, Yeah, I remember.
00:17:49
Speaker 1: That was so fun.
00:17:51
Speaker 3: At the greatest massage of my life. Anyway, But I digress.
00:17:57
Speaker 1: I remember one time, and I can't remember what year it was. I feel like the show was over.
00:18:02
Speaker 2: And it was Michael Patrick's old house, you know, like the one that had been like some.
00:18:07
Speaker 1: Famous actress's house in the forties or.
00:18:09
Speaker 2: Whatever, and we had he had a whole plan for New Year's Eve, and part of the plan was that in his office with a fireplace, that you would go in one at a time and write your wishes on the desk on this special paper and write what you wanted to be done with. And I think that we cooked what we wanted to be done with and like poured it on plants or something, and then we burned the wishes like it was a whole procession where like each of us did it.
00:18:35
Speaker 1: It was a mystical cool It was very mystical.
00:18:38
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I'm down for some new agey stuff. So I was like, sure, it's funny that they were all into this.
00:18:46
Speaker 3: It's funny.
00:18:47
Speaker 1: It's very funny.
00:18:49
Speaker 3: I'll speak for myself, like I didn't do any of that night. I get it, you like, but I was down to like when in room, I mean, yeah.
00:18:58
Speaker 1: It's a great thing. Yeah it's a group thing.
00:19:01
Speaker 2: I don't really picture it happen in Vegas, but hey, why not, right if you're all together there.
00:19:05
Speaker 3: Why not? I think someone had just been heartbroken. It was a very and.
00:19:11
Speaker 4: I feel like it.
00:19:12
Speaker 5: I feel like it was it was over Valentine's weekend.
00:19:16
Speaker 4: I feel like it was Valentine's weekend or something. Wow, it's all coming back to us. We do we do have some brain cells to.
00:19:29
Speaker 1: No, you have a lot, you have a lot.
00:19:31
Speaker 2: I mean, there's a lot that I remember about this episode, but it's not it doesn't it's not it's not related to the plot. It's related to the experience of being in the very strange Atlantic city.
00:19:42
Speaker 5: Where, by the way, I we were just talking about, like does the time Mahal still exist and does my husband pointed out it is. It's like a mausoleum. It's closed, but it's still there, Like.
00:19:56
Speaker 2: So it's just like a I think that at the time we filmed there, I think it was like in like Chapter eleven or some such like. It was like struggling to keep it going. And we made some deal with that person right who remain named us.
00:20:12
Speaker 1: To go down there. And I believe he was there, do you guys.
00:20:15
Speaker 3: Remember, But he wasn't.
00:20:18
Speaker 1: I thought he was in the episode, but he was not in the episode.
00:20:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, he was in a different episode.
00:20:24
Speaker 1: Yes, I remember that.
00:20:25
Speaker 2: I thought he was also in this episode because in my mind, I think I remember him so vividly that I thought we filmed him.
00:20:31
Speaker 1: But I think it was the kind of.
00:20:32
Speaker 2: Thing like where they were like, you guys have to come here and say hi to mister Trump because he let us film here. So we did, you know, as one does.
00:20:40
Speaker 4: Yes, how fun, good time.
00:20:45
Speaker 2: I mean we were around for some trippy things, you know what I mean, some trippy things.
00:21:01
Speaker 3: The one thought I had that I made me happy about is that I feel like for all of us, we always felt the real love story was these friends and this idea of like you would never never ditch your friends in favor of a guy, whether it's a date or whatever, someone who might be interested like this, this coat of arms, of like these friendships are everything. And obviously in this case, Carrie takes it maybe too far in this in trying to hold on so tightly to like it's just going to be us. You know, that's the extreme of that beautiful idea, which I still believe was a reflection of where she was in that moment. But that idea, and I think It's why that last scene on the bus makes me so happy, is because like they're not in a fancy plane. Yeah yeah, us go in to poort authority, and that's what really matters. That's what the show really was for for me.
00:22:18
Speaker 2: Definitely, definitely yes, And I think you guys really came in and wrote that so beautifully, you know, in all of your scripts, you know. I feel like like that's one of the things about the podcast that I love is that you get to look back at things in different groupings. Because when we're in it, you're just in it, right, and you're like, oh, yeah, like my storyline here, or this is growth for Charlotte here right, you're thinking about it for.
00:22:41
Speaker 7: That awful bonnet here totally totally and that tacky dress you know whatever, right, But that when you look at it in terms of like and obviously you guys were contributing the whole time, as we all know from the way the writer's room works, but then when you did get a script, it's so interesting to look at the stuff, like there's certain stylistic things that are different with each of you, you know.
00:23:04
Speaker 2: Ins of the writing, and also in terms of like which things spoke loudest to you, you know, I think is really evident.
00:23:12
Speaker 3: Well, and also I feel like I'm learning from your podcast because having just listened to Amy's like those, which is so good, both of them. It's like we were all in the writer's room and we all spend a ton of time together every day, but what we weren't doing together is when we were alone writing scripts and wrestling with the demons that come up in them.
00:23:36
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I loved she talked about that it was interesting or.
00:23:40
Speaker 3: Dive and like I'd forgotten about that. I did remember the Samantha in the kayak in the Hudson that obviously went away that story.
00:23:48
Speaker 5: Right.
00:23:49
Speaker 3: That's what I'm appreciating about your podcast because like, yes, we were there, we were all in the writer's room. It was very collaborative, as has been talked about, and that's what made it I think, both so fun and also so much better than all of us separately. But it also was a very special relationship that each of us had to the scripts we were writing, which definitely go to my birthing analogy.
00:24:20
Speaker 4: Where we began this inspire.
00:24:27
Speaker 3: We talking about that my voice over, I couldn't help this script be an even harder labor.
00:24:39
Speaker 2: Well, let me ask you, guys one more question. I loved when Amy was talking about the process of her first assigned script, right, and that she paced a lot, and that she you know this, and then she cried and like so many interesting things that I would never never know, right, because you guys don't ever come to the set and to tell us about this, right right.
00:25:00
Speaker 1: Tell you?
00:25:01
Speaker 2: I mean it is super fascinating. Like when you two are writing together, how do you do that? In terms of like breaking down? Like does one person do one scene and one person does another? Do you do it together? Are you together when you're writing or you separate?
00:25:15
Speaker 1: What do you do?
00:25:16
Speaker 4: We? We talk?
00:25:18
Speaker 5: We we basically, once we have an outline that everybody agrees on and in this case, the whole writing staff agrees on, we will chop it in half and each go off and write one half of the script the first draft alone. Then before we've handed it in, we will pick a date before our deadline.
00:25:40
Speaker 4: We will make an internal deadline to swap halves. Then we read over.
00:25:45
Speaker 5: Each other's stuff and we have full permission from each other and understanding that we will be you know, we will be improving or changing rewriting things that we think could be a little bit better. We often tell each other in our emails to each other, you're going to make that scene better, and we try to do that with each other's stuff. We sometimes will say like, don't freak out this, I just played around with this thing. We know how to sort of like we're pretty good at predicting what each of us is going to be like attached to I will be very happy. I will write sometimes a joke and I'll think Julie will probably hate this, and if she doesn't hate.
00:26:32
Speaker 4: It, and if she actually when I get it back, when.
00:26:34
Speaker 5: I see like, oh it's there, yay, I'm like, so I'm super excited.
00:26:40
Speaker 4: I was sure you were going to kill that.
00:26:44
Speaker 5: So we have a give and take and then finally we go over everything together many times and then we hand it in and then it's basically it's our baby together.
00:26:53
Speaker 3: Wow, just such a degree that neither of us can ever remember like who started with which it's hard. It's very ingrained. I mean's amazing. Certain things like this whole run on of jokes on this page. I'll be like that was all Alisa.
00:27:14
Speaker 5: But mostly and I can do that sometimes, Yeah, I can do the same thing, but it becomes harder.
00:27:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's amazing, very like, that's impressive that you guys can be that open with each other in terms of taking critique and taking rewriting and being a collaborative like that.
00:27:32
Speaker 4: You couldn't.
00:27:33
Speaker 5: I couldn't do I don't think I could do it with anyone else, like I don't.
00:27:36
Speaker 4: I don't think it's a a.
00:27:38
Speaker 5: General like it's not like in my personality, like sure anyone can, but it's we just yeah, we we just share a sensibility and.
00:27:47
Speaker 1: Trust, yes, so much trust.
00:27:51
Speaker 3: Of working at it. It really is our marriage. Our partnership is another kind of marriage where like we have to work at it, like we will have.
00:28:02
Speaker 4: Will conflict sometimes, Yeah, of course.
00:28:05
Speaker 3: Yeah. Our general rule is whoever cares more wins, like really because like we'll get into it, and which.
00:28:15
Speaker 5: I recommend for marriage for other kinds of marriages as well.
00:28:21
Speaker 3: It's like, well but I just thought the way you wrote, and and we can really start arguing. And then at a certain point, I think now this late in our careers, we know it's like you know what I don't.
00:28:33
Speaker 4: I don't forget that you do.
00:28:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and then the person who cares more is like, okay, I'm pushing pering it there, because we do fight over punctuation.
00:28:45
Speaker 7: It's true, yes, wow, vicious.
00:28:52
Speaker 1: Wow.
00:28:53
Speaker 2: But then let me ask you this, once you turn it in, after having that exchange with each other, that whole process of each other, once you turn it in, say to Michael Matrick or the recal writer's room, are you ever is it smooth after that? Or are you shocked? Sometimes and you have to fight for things like how.
00:29:09
Speaker 1: Do you do that?
00:29:10
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, that's a whole other phase. That's a whole other phase.
00:29:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, a whole other phase. Maybe. Yeah. But for instance, along those lines, along those fights that we have, those internal fights, then if we handed into Michael and he's like, what were you thinking on in scene two, then it's up to us to be like, that was me, that was all me? All right?
00:29:34
Speaker 1: I got.
00:29:36
Speaker 3: I changed that, all right? But and then sometimes you know, sometimes yes, sometimes we argue for things that didn't land right. In fact, I remember, I'm so glad you asked this question because I remember the first round of notes we got from Michael on this draft. I remember he was like it was great, and then you got to Atlantic City and it was an oil spell and I never a spell.
00:30:05
Speaker 4: No, that's one of his favorite expressions when.
00:30:11
Speaker 3: And it was like, oh my god, First of all, how many pages were there before Atlantic City?
00:30:15
Speaker 5: Not many?
00:30:16
Speaker 1: So that should you?
00:30:17
Speaker 4: How how dear, oh dear, oh dear? Indeed, but uh but no.
00:30:23
Speaker 3: And then he gives the greatest notes and taught us everything we know because he can look at a script and even though we followed the outline, guess what, sometimes that doesn't work in the script and it was like, Okay, it work the way we thought it would, and why not? And how do we fix it? And then that's a very collaborative thing. And then we'll go back and do the rewrite some more, and then again sometimes we do that more together.
00:30:52
Speaker 1: Rightly, It depends.
00:30:54
Speaker 5: It really depends what the schedule is with a shooting schedule.
00:30:58
Speaker 4: And how much time we have.
00:31:01
Speaker 5: Sometimes in the end of the I feel like in the end of the process, we're usually just.
00:31:07
Speaker 3: Together and we're just like printing it out and marking it up, like that's the last stage. Is when we both agree with what's on the screen, we're going to print it out and then it's.
00:31:17
Speaker 4: Read it separately and then come back together. And compare notes.
00:31:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, reading on the page on the heart.
00:31:24
Speaker 1: Totally, that's so true.
00:31:27
Speaker 3: It always is different and I see things differently and that has never changed in all the technology.
00:31:34
Speaker 2: No, I agree. I feel that way as an actor as well. You read something on the page and you have your own, you know, picture of what the vibe is and what the everything is, and then it's always different. And that's part of the challenge is staying present enough so that you can bring what you want to bring to the scene, but also be open to how it's going to change when everyone else brings what they're going to bring.
00:31:56
Speaker 3: You know, that's interesting. I of course that would be true for you.
00:32:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, but sometimes I'm like wrong, you know what I mean, like fully wrong, and sometimes it turns out great. But then sometimes I might have a really strong sense of what it needs to be and I need to protect that sense, right. It depends on the way the scene goes, and like what I have to bring, like what my part is in the scene, you know what I'm saying, Like whether I should just let go.
00:32:22
Speaker 1: I have to like make that decision.
00:32:23
Speaker 2: When I'm there and also when we're together, and I just want to say this, you know, because I I I you know, I'm in the world now working with other people, which is always really fun and quite you know, an adventure.
00:32:34
Speaker 1: But I just really love working with us. I just want to say that.
00:32:39
Speaker 2: Because such you know, trust and knowledge and like we know each other so yeah history and like you know where everyone's coming from and you know that, like if you give up the thing that you want, you can trust what's happening. You know that we're all on the same page.
00:33:00
Speaker 4: This was wonderful and thank you for calling us.
00:33:03
Speaker 1: Love you, I love you to have a great time.
00:33:06
Speaker 3: Thank you.
00:33:07
Speaker 1: Kaye bye bye bye bye bye.
Speaker 1: Hi.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: I'm Kristin Davis, and I want to know are you a Charlotte?
00:00:09
Speaker 1: Hi? Everybody, welcome back to Are You a Charlotte?
00:00:12
Speaker 3: We are going to talk some more to Julie Ruttenberg and Alisa Zuritski.
00:00:17
Speaker 2: They wrote Lucky an Old Lady. So here's more of myself talking to them. I love them so much, Please enjoy. Thanks for joining us. All right, let's talk about Samantha for a second. So I have totally forgotten about this whole thing with Richard, and I feel like, haven't they already broken up once? And she puts the flyers out and now we're back, which obviously you know would saman I don't know.
00:00:41
Speaker 1: It's interesting so much.
00:00:43
Speaker 3: James Dreamer was so good and they were so good together, but we knew, we knew we were building toward the end. We really wanted it not to be that she catches them cheating again, like we really want to do that. Although I did appreciate I forgot about that last see when she's walked down the hall, which I appreciated that, But we we wanted to be I choose me like I can't, I can't live right, I'm thirty seven. After all.
00:01:16
Speaker 2: Right, it's interesting. I can't remember what's going to happen. I mean, I know that eventually Smith comes, but it's interesting. I mean, the whole Samantha thing.
00:01:27
Speaker 1: I'm like, whoa, what's happening? You know what I mean, I don't really remember.
00:01:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was that was I think that was one of the moments where we wanted to give her some growth and definitely she has a limit to what she's willing to.
00:01:44
Speaker 1: Do and like absolutely absolutely.
00:01:48
Speaker 2: I mean when she leaves the dinner with us, I was kind of like, oh, this is not good, Like who is she's turning into that She's going to get up from us having a celebratory dinner to go make make sure that her boyfriend doesn't cheat.
00:02:02
Speaker 1: Ew you know, we can't stay there. That's itck, yes, yes, you know what I mean.
00:02:08
Speaker 2: Like it's so ick, and I mean he is really good with her, but it's also like the level of like ongoing intense sexuality with them.
00:02:18
Speaker 3: My god, it was I think related to Charlotte on that.
00:02:23
Speaker 2: I'm sure I was like surprisingly polite.
00:02:33
Speaker 1: Because I was like, yuck, it's so like grow up.
00:02:37
Speaker 2: I wanted to say, you know, it's just like teenagers or.
00:02:41
Speaker 3: Whatever, and after you put on that whole thing about like I don't want to celebrate my birthday. I want presence, and then you're like, you got me a present.
00:02:48
Speaker 2: I know, I was really worried. I was like, what is in that box? What is in that box? I couldn't remember, and I was really scared. So I was relieved that it was only a pearl thong. But then, of course there's the crazy conversation. I do remember that conversation.
00:03:03
Speaker 4: I remember that too, and I remember having.
00:03:05
Speaker 1: This discussed, like what are we actually talking about? Like I did not know. I was like, wait, what it's what?
00:03:13
Speaker 5: So I heard the answer. We have the answer to the question at the center of your podcast. You are a Charlotte. You are Charlotte.
00:03:23
Speaker 2: We haven't been that confused, okay, but you know, it's interesting. I have had this thing lately and I don't know. Obviously, it's really unusual and amazing that I've gotten to play this character for so long. Obviously, but when I meet new people, they are like, oh, you're not You're.
00:03:39
Speaker 1: Not actually heard. I'm like, am I not? I don't even know anymore?
00:03:43
Speaker 2: But like, because I mean, you guys know me obviously, but you know, in some ways I'm really not right, and then I guess in some ways I am.
00:03:50
Speaker 1: It's interesting.
00:03:51
Speaker 5: You can't situation you totally. You drop a lot more f bombs than Charlotte ever would.
00:04:00
Speaker 6: To me.
00:04:01
Speaker 1: That's the line.
00:04:02
Speaker 2: Okay, that's good. That's totally comfortable with you, right, I mean around the kids. I don't, but I remember when we went back to work, I was like, I can swear.
00:04:12
Speaker 1: I mean, an adult world, fully adult world. It's wonderful. It's wonderful.
00:04:18
Speaker 2: Okay, wait, let's talk about Miranda for a minute, because I did, Julie to your point about the baby stuff. I mean, I had forgotten and I thought it was really good, but it could.
00:04:27
Speaker 1: Have been maybe better, but show it was really good.
00:04:32
Speaker 4: I mean, just.
00:04:34
Speaker 3: That idea of like her living for this escape was you could see horror and you're like, what are you doing there? Right?
00:04:46
Speaker 5: And then begging and then also the the other like uber relatable moment as a especially a new mom but like lasted a bunch of years, was just the like deep fatigue, like so that when she says in the know, like as soon as I stop, I have to just lie down, like yes, oh yeah, I'm so glad we were. We knew enough about that day.
00:05:10
Speaker 3: That was the thought of being alone in a hotel room. I remember when the kids were little.
00:05:15
Speaker 1: Yes, oh it's bonking time.
00:05:18
Speaker 3: And I had to fly to La for work. It was like, when do we get to go back to our hotel room and just.
00:05:23
Speaker 1: Totally and sleep totally totally?
00:05:27
Speaker 2: When I go on location now, I mean the first like weekend is great.
00:05:32
Speaker 1: Then it's like weird.
00:05:33
Speaker 2: But at first, like you're just sleeping and then you wake up and you don't have to get up.
00:05:38
Speaker 1: I was where totally, You're like, who am I? Where am I?
00:05:41
Speaker 2: I was with Kevin Bacon, who has kids but they're grown, and he was like, oh, yeah, I really missed my my home because he has this farm with animals and horses and everything.
00:05:49
Speaker 1: And I was like, I'm good right now, was like are you? And I said, Kevin, I.
00:05:55
Speaker 2: Never sit down. I never sit down, right. I'm so happy to just be a blob. And then it wears off, you know, then it wears a bit right and you're like, oh, are they Okay?
00:06:08
Speaker 1: Who am I? Who are they?
00:06:11
Speaker 2: But like in the beginning, you're just like, I'm so tired, right, yeah.
00:06:15
Speaker 3: Well, and also that Miranda in that moment when which one of you says she just had a baby me you excuse me? Yeah, yes, And I love that since Miranda is like, oh yeah.
00:06:31
Speaker 1: She forgotten, she forgot.
00:06:33
Speaker 2: That seems interesting because it was like so mean, and then Carrie responds right away, and then Samantha was friends. And then finally I'm like, oh my god, I hope Charlotte's going to help, and she does, but also like right, thank god, thank god. I was like, hopefully she doesn't stay on the side.
00:06:50
Speaker 3: Like rewatching these episodes and if we've never seen that, you're like.
00:06:54
Speaker 1: I know, it is interesting. I know, I know.
00:06:57
Speaker 2: But that's the joy of it, right, because how could you remember everything.
00:07:01
Speaker 1: Even if you wrote it, even if you acted it.
00:07:03
Speaker 3: I mean, that's what the beauty of it is is like talk about lucky an old lady like, I'm no, it's all hilarious.
00:07:13
Speaker 4: And so familiar.
00:07:16
Speaker 2: Vaguely, I just wanted to ask you, guys, I'm going to ask Cynthia this.
00:07:20
Speaker 1: But like we patted Cynthia up right, like.
00:07:25
Speaker 3: Her down the hallway at the door. I remember that was like it was very important because we were like, we want this to be real and not just like.
00:07:33
Speaker 1: In her head like TV.
00:07:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, but and I liked that it wasn't a thing. It wasn't a thing until somebody. Maybe it's.
00:07:47
Speaker 5: That that also came from that came from real life. What do you mean who will not no one, no one, not present company and none of the writers, but.
00:07:59
Speaker 4: Someone in our world.
00:08:01
Speaker 5: Yeah, I had had that that slur like thrown at her.
00:08:07
Speaker 1: That's awful.
00:08:08
Speaker 2: The other thing that I really loved about charlotte storyline that I had not remembered at all, and I don't think would have meant anything to me at the time. But it's part of the conversation about aging is that there are times that.
00:08:19
Speaker 1: You do feel invisible, you know.
00:08:22
Speaker 2: And it's so interesting that Charlotte's sitting there and there and Carrie's got her kind of low cut top and those are like, yeah, be my blonde, you know, and the hot one, and I'm.
00:08:32
Speaker 6: Like Charlotte's like standing right here, puranical, you know, out of it.
00:08:48
Speaker 2: But also like just the fact that you're kind of yeah, you're like glossed over, like you're just not even present. That is such an aging conversation. But I don't think we would have known that then, you know, and it's interesting the whole thing of like you kind of have to decide like do I care or do I not care?
00:09:08
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, I don't know if you guys you're younger than me, or.
00:09:12
Speaker 5: Sometimes it's yeah, of course, it's a great thing. I Sometimes it's like, oh, I'm this is a superpower. I am not part of this, like I'm.
00:09:22
Speaker 1: Right, see right, right.
00:09:24
Speaker 2: But then sometimes you're like, wait a minute, yes, my soul, like yes, here present in this moment.
00:09:33
Speaker 3: You know.
00:09:34
Speaker 1: It's interesting.
00:09:35
Speaker 3: I think many years later and sadly we all know this and have experienced loss, and it's like we're lucky to be here. Like of course I feel like, oh god, I'm getting old. It's like I'm grateful.
00:09:48
Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, we're healthy, We're healthy, you know.
00:09:52
Speaker 5: I think that's why that coming back to the lying about the age. I mean, I don't walk around advert I don't like drop it into conversation, but I do.
00:10:02
Speaker 4: I feel like that's behind not lying for me.
00:10:06
Speaker 5: Is yeah, yeah, yeah, Like this feels like an accomplishment absolutely.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: And the thing about it, because Nicole and I would often have this conversation on the set of and just like this and just like that one Nicole ri Parker exactly because when the kids would all be there, all of her kids, for her fake kids and my fake kids, something would come up where I would have to say, listen, I'm old, but blah blah blah blah blah, right, and she would say, don't say that, And I was like, why not?
00:10:36
Speaker 1: It's true, number one.
00:10:38
Speaker 2: But the other thing is that if you claim your whole experience by saying that, and you also kind of take the onus off that I feel. I mean, I kind of understand her. Was like, don't criticize yourself.
00:10:50
Speaker 4: She putting yourselves down, right, but maybe you are a little bit No.
00:10:55
Speaker 2: I felt more like, if I want to to talk to the kids about whatever I was going to try to tell them about, which I'm sure they didn't want to hear about, you have to say I am actually old, and I have already lived through all this, you know what I'm saying, Like I've already lived through so many versions of whatever it is that we're talking about, right, And like like just yesterday I posted that thing on Instagram kind of chic to blah blah blah, right, Like I don't know, if you guys are not as.
00:11:25
Speaker 4: I think I think I might.
00:11:27
Speaker 5: I think I might have seen I think I might have seen this kind of chic yes.
00:11:31
Speaker 4: Kind of she too.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: And then you get to fill it in, right, And a lot of them are very much women kind of claiming their own reality.
00:11:39
Speaker 1: Like the first one that I saw that I.
00:11:41
Speaker 2: Loved was this woman who I guess had been engaged and then broke off her her engagement and is just living life single. And her thing was like kind of chic to write your own rules, you know, kind of she to you know, vacation with your girlfriends kind of she It was all things like kind of empowering things that she had claimed, you know, solo things, right.
00:12:01
Speaker 1: So I wrote it, and I.
00:12:03
Speaker 2: Wrote, you know, I put something like kind of cheek to be loving life in my.
00:12:08
Speaker 1: Sixties because I am I'm sixty one. I mean, this is what my license tells me. I have to believe that is true.
00:12:14
Speaker 2: I don't always believe that it's true, you know, I have to be like am I you.
00:12:18
Speaker 5: Know what I mean?
00:12:18
Speaker 3: Different than it's totally.
00:12:20
Speaker 2: Different, right, And this is the joy, right, is that we can rewrite the rules for ourselves and we are like culturally we are. But in my comments, people are like, wait, how who ell hell? Had to go over to Google and make sure that Kristen is actually in her sixties.
00:12:37
Speaker 1: This is crazy. And I was like, listen, I feel you. I feel you.
00:12:41
Speaker 2: I also sometimes have to check, but in fact everyone does. It is true, right, and therefore I want to claim it, you know, because part of me goes like, oh, maybe I shouldn't remind people, But then I'm like that.
00:12:55
Speaker 1: Right, yes, like this is the reality. I've lived through so much stuff and I need to go that, you know.
00:13:02
Speaker 3: Like when we joined the show, it was her very first job. I remember, Judy told may she rest in Yes, great greatest ever.
00:13:10
Speaker 1: Judy told, yes, she just wrote the one right before this.
00:13:14
Speaker 6: Oh right, yes, yes, I think yes, I think you're right.
00:13:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, the with the post, the guy who shows up with okay anyway, the self.
00:13:26
Speaker 1: Help book one yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
00:13:30
Speaker 3: Her whole thing with us was she was like, I'm a hundred, I'm so old, you're so young. Meanwhile she was like forty.
00:13:40
Speaker 4: Wow.
00:13:41
Speaker 3: The fact that like she was calling herself one hundred and I'm so old and you're so young is I look back on that and I'm like, oh my god, Judy, Like I would kill to have Judy here.
00:13:51
Speaker 1: I know me too for sure.
00:13:52
Speaker 2: But I do think in our business at the time, if you were a forty year old writer, you were an.
00:13:59
Speaker 4: Old on your way.
00:14:01
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, which is interesting.
00:14:03
Speaker 2: But I think it's also like there's such power in that, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. And I mean whenever we do anything age related, I'm always like, wow, it's so funny because we're literally like thirty seven when we're doing it.
00:14:18
Speaker 1: And you guys are even younger.
00:14:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really funny. A thousand dollars this is so interesting. Like I was really torn, like should she play it? Like who cares?
00:14:37
Speaker 5: Right?
00:14:37
Speaker 1: But then I was like, no, that is kind of a lot of money for Kerrie, who we know doesn't have a lot of money.
00:14:42
Speaker 4: Right.
00:14:42
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, Also, who was it? Who was? Like give it to me? Who was it? Miranda?
00:14:49
Speaker 2: I think, so I don't know, or she was Miranda's betting is.
00:14:55
Speaker 3: Betting, which I liked that Miranda, Yeah and me.
00:14:57
Speaker 2: Too, given that chip, right yep, yes, yeah.
00:15:02
Speaker 3: So then it's like that's that's a lot of.
00:15:05
Speaker 2: Money, right, But Carrie's like a Julie and she's like, no, no, I'm not betting. I'm not betting this money. Like she was treating it like it was real money. Miranda was treating it like it was like you know, monopoly making fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:15:17
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:15:17
Speaker 3: By the way, that at the end Steve Buscemi's brother at the roulette wheel no way.
00:15:25
Speaker 1: He looks like him.
00:15:27
Speaker 4: And he's the one who corrected our.
00:15:29
Speaker 5: Pronunciation of the last name, because oh well, we were always.
00:15:34
Speaker 4: Saying Bmi and he's like, actually BUMI.
00:15:37
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, now we heard it here first, got it, got it on a computer.
00:15:42
Speaker 1: Tell us did he actually know how to be the Yeah?
00:15:46
Speaker 3: I think he did. I think it.
00:15:48
Speaker 1: He looks like for real.
00:15:50
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:15:52
Speaker 5: And I also remember the excitement of realizing that that Roulette matt ended at thirty six.
00:15:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, like what thing? It was like, wow, good, what are the what are the odds of that?
00:16:05
Speaker 2: Totally that was very good writing.
00:16:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely we.
00:16:10
Speaker 3: Should also mention and least maybe remember when this came. But we as a writing group all went and it was my very first time going to Vegas. But we went to Vegas together, the writers.
00:16:23
Speaker 1: We all went in for this, No, no, just for fun.
00:16:29
Speaker 3: Least was it after season. Yeah, but that's when I I that was like talk about it was still entry into gambling.
00:16:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, what it might have because I think it was. I think Liz was with us, so I think it might have been.
00:16:45
Speaker 5: It might have been the beginning of season before we started, when we were when we were leaving.
00:16:51
Speaker 3: The LA.
00:16:52
Speaker 4: The l a portion of the pre season writing. Yes, I think it was then.
00:16:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, so when everyone went, yes.
00:17:00
Speaker 4: Write just the writers.
00:17:01
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I remember we get a whole like spiritual thing with Cindy And do you remember this least we.
00:17:09
Speaker 5: Were burning our wishes a sort of Michael listen to this too.
00:17:15
Speaker 1: There was Michael Patrick on New Year's Eve.
00:17:17
Speaker 3: One time we had to like write our wishes and we burned our visions for the future thing, and I.
00:17:27
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I remember I had a crazy windfall at a slot machine, the only one I ever had, like maybe one two hundred and eighty dollars or something at a it's very at a slot machine.
00:17:40
Speaker 4: That was wild.
00:17:41
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, oh wow, Yeah, I remember.
00:17:49
Speaker 1: That was so fun.
00:17:51
Speaker 3: At the greatest massage of my life. Anyway, But I digress.
00:17:57
Speaker 1: I remember one time, and I can't remember what year it was. I feel like the show was over.
00:18:02
Speaker 2: And it was Michael Patrick's old house, you know, like the one that had been like some.
00:18:07
Speaker 1: Famous actress's house in the forties or.
00:18:09
Speaker 2: Whatever, and we had he had a whole plan for New Year's Eve, and part of the plan was that in his office with a fireplace, that you would go in one at a time and write your wishes on the desk on this special paper and write what you wanted to be done with. And I think that we cooked what we wanted to be done with and like poured it on plants or something, and then we burned the wishes like it was a whole procession where like each of us did it.
00:18:35
Speaker 1: It was a mystical cool It was very mystical.
00:18:38
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I'm down for some new agey stuff. So I was like, sure, it's funny that they were all into this.
00:18:46
Speaker 3: It's funny.
00:18:47
Speaker 1: It's very funny.
00:18:49
Speaker 3: I'll speak for myself, like I didn't do any of that night. I get it, you like, but I was down to like when in room, I mean, yeah.
00:18:58
Speaker 1: It's a great thing. Yeah it's a group thing.
00:19:01
Speaker 2: I don't really picture it happen in Vegas, but hey, why not, right if you're all together there.
00:19:05
Speaker 3: Why not? I think someone had just been heartbroken. It was a very and.
00:19:11
Speaker 4: I feel like it.
00:19:12
Speaker 5: I feel like it was it was over Valentine's weekend.
00:19:16
Speaker 4: I feel like it was Valentine's weekend or something. Wow, it's all coming back to us. We do we do have some brain cells to.
00:19:29
Speaker 1: No, you have a lot, you have a lot.
00:19:31
Speaker 2: I mean, there's a lot that I remember about this episode, but it's not it doesn't it's not it's not related to the plot. It's related to the experience of being in the very strange Atlantic city.
00:19:42
Speaker 5: Where, by the way, I we were just talking about, like does the time Mahal still exist and does my husband pointed out it is. It's like a mausoleum. It's closed, but it's still there, Like.
00:19:56
Speaker 2: So it's just like a I think that at the time we filmed there, I think it was like in like Chapter eleven or some such like. It was like struggling to keep it going. And we made some deal with that person right who remain named us.
00:20:12
Speaker 1: To go down there. And I believe he was there, do you guys.
00:20:15
Speaker 3: Remember, But he wasn't.
00:20:18
Speaker 1: I thought he was in the episode, but he was not in the episode.
00:20:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, he was in a different episode.
00:20:24
Speaker 1: Yes, I remember that.
00:20:25
Speaker 2: I thought he was also in this episode because in my mind, I think I remember him so vividly that I thought we filmed him.
00:20:31
Speaker 1: But I think it was the kind of.
00:20:32
Speaker 2: Thing like where they were like, you guys have to come here and say hi to mister Trump because he let us film here. So we did, you know, as one does.
00:20:40
Speaker 4: Yes, how fun, good time.
00:20:45
Speaker 2: I mean we were around for some trippy things, you know what I mean, some trippy things.
00:21:01
Speaker 3: The one thought I had that I made me happy about is that I feel like for all of us, we always felt the real love story was these friends and this idea of like you would never never ditch your friends in favor of a guy, whether it's a date or whatever, someone who might be interested like this, this coat of arms, of like these friendships are everything. And obviously in this case, Carrie takes it maybe too far in this in trying to hold on so tightly to like it's just going to be us. You know, that's the extreme of that beautiful idea, which I still believe was a reflection of where she was in that moment. But that idea, and I think It's why that last scene on the bus makes me so happy, is because like they're not in a fancy plane. Yeah yeah, us go in to poort authority, and that's what really matters. That's what the show really was for for me.
00:22:18
Speaker 2: Definitely, definitely yes, And I think you guys really came in and wrote that so beautifully, you know, in all of your scripts, you know. I feel like like that's one of the things about the podcast that I love is that you get to look back at things in different groupings. Because when we're in it, you're just in it, right, and you're like, oh, yeah, like my storyline here, or this is growth for Charlotte here right, you're thinking about it for.
00:22:41
Speaker 7: That awful bonnet here totally totally and that tacky dress you know whatever, right, But that when you look at it in terms of like and obviously you guys were contributing the whole time, as we all know from the way the writer's room works, but then when you did get a script, it's so interesting to look at the stuff, like there's certain stylistic things that are different with each of you, you know.
00:23:04
Speaker 2: Ins of the writing, and also in terms of like which things spoke loudest to you, you know, I think is really evident.
00:23:12
Speaker 3: Well, and also I feel like I'm learning from your podcast because having just listened to Amy's like those, which is so good, both of them. It's like we were all in the writer's room and we all spend a ton of time together every day, but what we weren't doing together is when we were alone writing scripts and wrestling with the demons that come up in them.
00:23:36
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I loved she talked about that it was interesting or.
00:23:40
Speaker 3: Dive and like I'd forgotten about that. I did remember the Samantha in the kayak in the Hudson that obviously went away that story.
00:23:48
Speaker 5: Right.
00:23:49
Speaker 3: That's what I'm appreciating about your podcast because like, yes, we were there, we were all in the writer's room. It was very collaborative, as has been talked about, and that's what made it I think, both so fun and also so much better than all of us separately. But it also was a very special relationship that each of us had to the scripts we were writing, which definitely go to my birthing analogy.
00:24:20
Speaker 4: Where we began this inspire.
00:24:27
Speaker 3: We talking about that my voice over, I couldn't help this script be an even harder labor.
00:24:39
Speaker 2: Well, let me ask you, guys one more question. I loved when Amy was talking about the process of her first assigned script, right, and that she paced a lot, and that she you know this, and then she cried and like so many interesting things that I would never never know, right, because you guys don't ever come to the set and to tell us about this, right right.
00:25:00
Speaker 1: Tell you?
00:25:01
Speaker 2: I mean it is super fascinating. Like when you two are writing together, how do you do that? In terms of like breaking down? Like does one person do one scene and one person does another? Do you do it together? Are you together when you're writing or you separate?
00:25:15
Speaker 1: What do you do?
00:25:16
Speaker 4: We? We talk?
00:25:18
Speaker 5: We we basically, once we have an outline that everybody agrees on and in this case, the whole writing staff agrees on, we will chop it in half and each go off and write one half of the script the first draft alone. Then before we've handed it in, we will pick a date before our deadline.
00:25:40
Speaker 4: We will make an internal deadline to swap halves. Then we read over.
00:25:45
Speaker 5: Each other's stuff and we have full permission from each other and understanding that we will be you know, we will be improving or changing rewriting things that we think could be a little bit better. We often tell each other in our emails to each other, you're going to make that scene better, and we try to do that with each other's stuff. We sometimes will say like, don't freak out this, I just played around with this thing. We know how to sort of like we're pretty good at predicting what each of us is going to be like attached to I will be very happy. I will write sometimes a joke and I'll think Julie will probably hate this, and if she doesn't hate.
00:26:32
Speaker 4: It, and if she actually when I get it back, when.
00:26:34
Speaker 5: I see like, oh it's there, yay, I'm like, so I'm super excited.
00:26:40
Speaker 4: I was sure you were going to kill that.
00:26:44
Speaker 5: So we have a give and take and then finally we go over everything together many times and then we hand it in and then it's basically it's our baby together.
00:26:53
Speaker 3: Wow, just such a degree that neither of us can ever remember like who started with which it's hard. It's very ingrained. I mean's amazing. Certain things like this whole run on of jokes on this page. I'll be like that was all Alisa.
00:27:14
Speaker 5: But mostly and I can do that sometimes, Yeah, I can do the same thing, but it becomes harder.
00:27:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's amazing, very like, that's impressive that you guys can be that open with each other in terms of taking critique and taking rewriting and being a collaborative like that.
00:27:32
Speaker 4: You couldn't.
00:27:33
Speaker 5: I couldn't do I don't think I could do it with anyone else, like I don't.
00:27:36
Speaker 4: I don't think it's a a.
00:27:38
Speaker 5: General like it's not like in my personality, like sure anyone can, but it's we just yeah, we we just share a sensibility and.
00:27:47
Speaker 1: Trust, yes, so much trust.
00:27:51
Speaker 3: Of working at it. It really is our marriage. Our partnership is another kind of marriage where like we have to work at it, like we will have.
00:28:02
Speaker 4: Will conflict sometimes, Yeah, of course.
00:28:05
Speaker 3: Yeah. Our general rule is whoever cares more wins, like really because like we'll get into it, and which.
00:28:15
Speaker 5: I recommend for marriage for other kinds of marriages as well.
00:28:21
Speaker 3: It's like, well but I just thought the way you wrote, and and we can really start arguing. And then at a certain point, I think now this late in our careers, we know it's like you know what I don't.
00:28:33
Speaker 4: I don't forget that you do.
00:28:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and then the person who cares more is like, okay, I'm pushing pering it there, because we do fight over punctuation.
00:28:45
Speaker 7: It's true, yes, wow, vicious.
00:28:52
Speaker 1: Wow.
00:28:53
Speaker 2: But then let me ask you this, once you turn it in, after having that exchange with each other, that whole process of each other, once you turn it in, say to Michael Matrick or the recal writer's room, are you ever is it smooth after that? Or are you shocked? Sometimes and you have to fight for things like how.
00:29:09
Speaker 1: Do you do that?
00:29:10
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, that's a whole other phase. That's a whole other phase.
00:29:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, a whole other phase. Maybe. Yeah. But for instance, along those lines, along those fights that we have, those internal fights, then if we handed into Michael and he's like, what were you thinking on in scene two, then it's up to us to be like, that was me, that was all me? All right?
00:29:34
Speaker 1: I got.
00:29:36
Speaker 3: I changed that, all right? But and then sometimes you know, sometimes yes, sometimes we argue for things that didn't land right. In fact, I remember, I'm so glad you asked this question because I remember the first round of notes we got from Michael on this draft. I remember he was like it was great, and then you got to Atlantic City and it was an oil spell and I never a spell.
00:30:05
Speaker 4: No, that's one of his favorite expressions when.
00:30:11
Speaker 3: And it was like, oh my god, First of all, how many pages were there before Atlantic City?
00:30:15
Speaker 5: Not many?
00:30:16
Speaker 1: So that should you?
00:30:17
Speaker 4: How how dear, oh dear, oh dear? Indeed, but uh but no.
00:30:23
Speaker 3: And then he gives the greatest notes and taught us everything we know because he can look at a script and even though we followed the outline, guess what, sometimes that doesn't work in the script and it was like, Okay, it work the way we thought it would, and why not? And how do we fix it? And then that's a very collaborative thing. And then we'll go back and do the rewrite some more, and then again sometimes we do that more together.
00:30:52
Speaker 1: Rightly, It depends.
00:30:54
Speaker 5: It really depends what the schedule is with a shooting schedule.
00:30:58
Speaker 4: And how much time we have.
00:31:01
Speaker 5: Sometimes in the end of the I feel like in the end of the process, we're usually just.
00:31:07
Speaker 3: Together and we're just like printing it out and marking it up, like that's the last stage. Is when we both agree with what's on the screen, we're going to print it out and then it's.
00:31:17
Speaker 4: Read it separately and then come back together. And compare notes.
00:31:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, reading on the page on the heart.
00:31:24
Speaker 1: Totally, that's so true.
00:31:27
Speaker 3: It always is different and I see things differently and that has never changed in all the technology.
00:31:34
Speaker 2: No, I agree. I feel that way as an actor as well. You read something on the page and you have your own, you know, picture of what the vibe is and what the everything is, and then it's always different. And that's part of the challenge is staying present enough so that you can bring what you want to bring to the scene, but also be open to how it's going to change when everyone else brings what they're going to bring.
00:31:56
Speaker 3: You know, that's interesting. I of course that would be true for you.
00:32:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, but sometimes I'm like wrong, you know what I mean, like fully wrong, and sometimes it turns out great. But then sometimes I might have a really strong sense of what it needs to be and I need to protect that sense, right. It depends on the way the scene goes, and like what I have to bring, like what my part is in the scene, you know what I'm saying, Like whether I should just let go.
00:32:22
Speaker 1: I have to like make that decision.
00:32:23
Speaker 2: When I'm there and also when we're together, and I just want to say this, you know, because I I I you know, I'm in the world now working with other people, which is always really fun and quite you know, an adventure.
00:32:34
Speaker 1: But I just really love working with us. I just want to say that.
00:32:39
Speaker 2: Because such you know, trust and knowledge and like we know each other so yeah history and like you know where everyone's coming from and you know that, like if you give up the thing that you want, you can trust what's happening. You know that we're all on the same page.
00:33:00
Speaker 4: This was wonderful and thank you for calling us.
00:33:03
Speaker 1: Love you, I love you to have a great time.
00:33:06
Speaker 3: Thank you.
00:33:07
Speaker 1: Kaye bye bye bye bye bye.