Jennifer Garner

This week, beloved actress Jennifer Garner joins Ina for her favorite cocktail, a Paloma, and to talk about their decade of friendship, founding Once Upon a Farm, and her encyclopedic knowledge of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks. Beloved hostess Ina Garten welcomes listeners into her New York City apartment for Happy Hour with Ina Garten. Every Wednesday, she sits down with people she’d like to meet from the worlds of culture, food, art, sports, and entertainment for the kinds of conversations you would love to overhear at a great dinner party. Warm, funny, personal, and often unexpected, Happy Hour mixes in-depth conversation with stories, recipes, and, of course, cocktails. Pull up a chair, pour yourself a drink, and join the conversation. SUBSCRIBE ► Subscribe to Happy Hour with Ina Garten for new episodes every Wednesday: https://www.youtube.com/@HappyHourwithIna?sub_confirmation=1 FOLLOW THE SHOW ► Happy Hour on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HappyHourwithIna?sub_confirmation=1 ► Happy Hour on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happyhourwithina ► Happy Hour on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@happyhourwithina ► Happy Hour on Substack: https://happyhourwithinagarten.substack.com/welcome ► Happy Hour on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61589319634655 Host: Ina Garten Executive Producers: Jenna Weiss-Berman, Ali Jaffe Ramis, and Deborah Davis Contributing Producer: Kate Tyler Producer: Jules Natt Video Editor: Tim Fernandez Associate Producer: Mica Pollan Bahn Sound Recording: Mike Larini Audio Mixing: Eleanor Osborne Camera Operators: Liam Lee and Chris Violette Music by Pink Martini Special Thanks to Cinematographer Dion Beebe Happy Hour with Ina is a Vox Media podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ina Garten?

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• 0:38Ina Garten?

  I'm Ina Garten and this is Happy Hour. Today, I'm sitting down with the one and only Jennifer Garner.

• 0:45Speaker 01

  We're gonna take this and we're gonna do that. It's gonna be perfect. And I was like, no!

• 0:50Ina Garten?

  She's a beloved actor, producer, and philanthropist. Who is known for her starring roles in everything from Alias to The Last Thing He Told Me to The Five Star Weekend. I just adore her.

• 1:02Speaker 01

  They would get home from school and I would say, lie in bed with me, we're gonna watch Ina.

• 1:22Ina Garten?

  Jennifer Garner, welcome to Happy Hour. I'm always happy when you're here.

• 1:27Speaker 01

  Me too.

• 1:28Ina Garten?

  Oh my god.

• 1:28Speaker 01

  So happy to be here.

• 1:29Ina Garten?

  So I made palomas.

• 1:29Speaker 01

  Oh, you know I love the frozen ones.

• 1:31Ina Garten?

  I do.

• 1:33Ina Garten?

  Don't you make a batch of frozen palomas and put them in the freezer?

• 1:36Speaker 01

  Uh huh, I do.

• 1:38Ina Garten?

  Always, palomas are handy anytime you want them.

• 1:41Speaker 01

  You never know.

• 1:42Ina Garten?

  Never know. You just never know when you need them.

• 1:44Speaker 01

  And it's just so little. It's the taste of them. They're so fresh. They're so light. You can dial up or dial down the alcohol. It doesn't really matter.

• 1:51Ina Garten?

  The sweetest, yeah, exactly.

• 1:55Speaker 01

  Oh my gosh, it's so good.

• 1:56Ina Garten?

  And I made hummus too, so help yourself to hummus.

• 1:59Speaker 01

  I am gonna dig in because otherwise that will go right to the heart.

• 2:02Ina Garten?

  I think the part description of how you and I met is meet cute. It was a really awkward meeting. So what happened? You went to my office when I was doing my cooking show.

• 2:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:15Ina Garten?

  And said, I'd love to be on the show. My assistant came into me one day and said, I think I've done something terrible. And she said, I said, what could you possibly have done? And she said, I think Jennifer Garner was one of the people who asked to be on your show. I'm like, and you said no?

• 2:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, cuz they said that you don't...

• 2:33Ina Garten?

  Yeah, these were my friends.

• 2:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, of course, which I really respected. I didn't have a problem with that at all. I just, I was anticipating our friendship. Maybe that's what it was.

• 2:43Ina Garten?

  You were like, I can be a friend.

• 2:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 2:45Ina Garten?

  And then, I don't know, was it like a year later, I was coming to LA and we did Barefoot in LA.

• 2:50Speaker 01

  Yes, Barefoot in LA.

• 2:51Ina Garten?

  And I invited myself to your house.

• 2:53Speaker 01

  Yes, and we shot at my house. And it happened to be, was it my 40th birthday?

• 3:00Ina Garten?

  It was your 40th birthday.

• 3:01Speaker 01

  So it's been 14 and a half years then.

• 3:04Ina Garten?

  I know.

• 3:05Speaker 01

  Is that crazy? I'll drink to that.

• 3:07Ina Garten?

  And that was one of the most extraordinary days I've ever had. Cuz not only did we just feel such a connection, we had such a good time. But then you were so sweet, you invited me to your party.

• 3:18Speaker 01

  But you were so sweet cuz you came.

• 3:21Ina Garten?

  Are you kidding?

• 3:22Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 3:23Ina Garten?

  Who would miss that? This is, you know, this is not an ordinary LA party. You invited 40 of your best girlfriends. You told them to come to Sweat House, right? With their hair pulled back. And everybody showed...

• 3:35Speaker 01

  No makeup, no skin, it was skinny jeans at the time. And I said, leave your skinny jeans at home. You're only allowed to be pajamas, sweats, no, like hair in a bun on top of your head.

• 3:48Ina Garten?

  And that's what they did.

• 3:49Speaker 01

  Yes, but then, once you get there, I wanted it all to be really nice. Like catered, you know, everyone very well taken care of, wonderful bartender.

• 4:00Ina Garten?

  What I remember is extraordinary women.

• 4:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:04Ina Garten?

  I mean, your friends are extraordinary people. They were warm, they were funny, they were smart, they were accomplished. I mean, it's just, do you feel that way about your friends? It's just an incredible collection of people.

• 4:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, I do. I feel really lucky. I have like my work friends that, that I've, people that I've worked with for 25, 26 years. I have Nicole. She spans all of it. I have my work friends on set that are just like so dear to me that I can't even tell you. There's, we've just worked together through everything. And then I have my mom friends. And when you...

• 4:42Ina Garten?

  Oh, that's interesting.

• 4:43Speaker 01

  Reach that part of your life, because I'm not always on set, you know? I'm often in mom mode. And the moms that you camp with on school camping trips and that you talk about, oh my gosh, did your kid get hand, foot, and mouth? I think my kid gave it to you. Do you have lice in your house or whatever it is? Those women are, that's a different kind of being in the trenches together.

• 5:05Ina Garten?

  And do they go together?

• 5:07Speaker 01

  They go together. And it calls, it's like all different. Mom friends are everything. They are, they stay at home, but they happen to be a lawyer who went to Yale. Or they, you know, they're just such, or they are a cardiologist, or they're a dermatologist, or a hedge fund manager, or they are just a cool lady who is, you know, like me or like you and just is at home with kids and...

• 5:31Ina Garten?

  And they're different from film friends.

• 5:33Speaker 01

  And they're different.

• 5:33Ina Garten?

  So they have different professions, which is wonderful.

• 5:36Speaker 01

  Which is, it's wonderful. It's really grounding to have those.

• 5:40Ina Garten?

  No, I, so many people know you from your movies. But what they don't know, how important is Save the Children and your incredible business, Once Upon a Farm.

• 5:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:52Ina Garten?

  What an incredible thing.

• 5:53Speaker 01

  You've been such a champion.

• 5:55Ina Garten?

  Oh, nothing, nothing compared to you.

• 5:58Speaker 01

  You have been. I know. You've been such a champion of Once Upon a Farm.

• 6:01Ina Garten?

  I mean, I think it's extraordinary. And I have friends who say that that's all they give their children for snacks. And I think that it's organic and it's fresh and it's, and it's available all over the country. I mean, from Walmart to little specialty food stores. It's incredible. I love that you said that you found that parents were buying it for their kids. And since they were hungry, they were eating it themselves.

• 6:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:29Ina Garten?

  So why not?

• 6:30Speaker 01

  Because it's real food.

• 6:31Ina Garten?

  It's real food.

• 6:32Speaker 01

  It's like how radical to just have food that you sell in a pouch, be actual, real, whole fruits and vegetables and legumes and all kinds of, you know, all kinds of good things in there, hero products for your brain and, or not products, but ingredients.

• 6:47Ina Garten?

  A friend of mine writes a book about, called Mattering.

• 6:50Speaker 01

  Oh, love. You gave me this book.

• 6:52Ina Garten?

  It's just, I love it because mattering is, is the study of what makes people happy. That sociologists found that the people who were the happiest weren't the richest, they weren't the most famous, they were the ones that felt that their lives mattered to others. And both of these organizations have to make you feel like your life matters.

• 7:13Speaker 01

  That's nice. That's a nice way to put it.

• 7:15Ina Garten?

  Because you've changed their lives.

• 7:16Speaker 01

  That's a nice way to put it, Ina. Thank you. I think for me, selfishly, at a time where I was a little bit overwhelmed by being recognizable, Save the Children helped me make sense of it and helped me be like, okay, this is why. This is what I can do with it. That's good. My mom told me, she said, you've gotta flip it for yourself. It is your responsibility. Happiness is your responsibility. It's a choice. And you can either choose to be overwhelmed by this or you can choose to find a path forward where you're doing something good with it and something positive. And so she was, as in all ways, my mom is the most wise person in my life. And she was just like, nudge, nudge, nudge, get over yourself, figure it out.

• 7:59Speaker 01

  And so I did, and it's turned out to be this, this part of my life that is just, it's taught me so much, just practical. Like I didn't know anything about really how our government worked. And now I can go to DC and I... It's very complicated, as you know.

• 8:19Ina Garten?

  As I know.

• 8:20Speaker 01

  You know better than anyone. But now I can go and I know kind of what's happening and who, how to advocate and who, what the different committees mean and what the, who the chairs are and what, what matters. And I have those relationships. And that's really, my boss at Save, my mentor, Mark Schreiber, has, he's really mentored me and taught me a lot. And then I took whatever I learned there and I just used it. And Once Upon a Farm and kind of said, okay, I know how to be helpful in these ways. Why can't this be for the way I work for a business? You know, cuz you're kind of figuring it out yourself. It's not like there's a handbook.

• 8:57Ina Garten?

  In a funny way, I like having a business that I have to figure out. Because nobody says, this is the way it's done.

• 9:03Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 9:04Ina Garten?

  Because you figure out what makes sense.

• 9:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:07Ina Garten?

  And sometimes it's completely different from the way it's done.

• 9:09Speaker 01

  What is the next indicated action?

• 9:11Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 9:11Speaker 01

  And that is, that's what you follow. You follow your nose.

• 9:14Ina Garten?

  Yeah, and you followed your nose very, very well.

• 9:18Speaker 01

  I know. Nothing like you just being like, um, I think I just bought a specialty food shop.

• 9:24Ina Garten?

  Well, that's a little thing.

• 9:25Speaker 01

  Far from where I live.

• 9:27Ina Garten?

  Yeah. And you just try it? You jump in the pond? You splash around? You figure out what works? You figure out what doesn't work? And you go in the direction of what works?

• 9:35Speaker 01

  And you kind of make a mess for a while, you know? You kind of splash and make a lot of bubbles. Like for a minute, Once Upon a Farm had some real, we had a moment there where we were just like, are we gonna make it?

• 9:46Ina Garten?

  What was that moment?

• 9:47Speaker 01

  We had a lot of distribution right off the jump. I went around with John Forker and our sales team and we met all the big retailers and we were just like, we're about to bring this, we wanna bring this to the wider market.

• 10:00Ina Garten?

  We're talking big, like Walmart, right?

• 10:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, but it's more that it was, we went from a couple hundred, if that, maybe 20, I mean, not very many stores. Just stores, to Target, to Whole Foods, to, and they were in a few Whole Foods. But you know what I mean? Like we were just taking it to like 10,000 doors at once.

• 10:21Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 10:22Speaker 01

  And it was...

• 10:25Speaker 01

  A lot. It was a little, um, so we, we took it to all of these stores and then all of a sudden I went out, I talked about it. We launched in this big way, but we had like three tiny SKUs that you had to go into these huge Targets and be like,

• 10:43Ina Garten?

  Find it.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  Or Walmart and be like, where is it and what is it? And then we had to educate people why you would want refrigerated, organic, fresh instead of what they were used to. And it was just like, oh, and so for a minute, our, our velocities, which was a word I did not appreciate before, was like, we're selling one unit per store per week, one point two. You don't want that, Ina. You want like thirty.

• 11:06Ina Garten?

  And also you walk into a store like Walmart.

• 11:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:09Ina Garten?

  And it's overwhelming how many, how many products they have. How are they gonna find my product in here?

• 11:15Speaker 01

  Well, they didn't.

• 11:16Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 11:17Speaker 01

  They didn't. But now it's okay. We figured it out.

• 11:20Ina Garten?

  So I've been binging Five Star Weekend. It is so good. I just love it. And I love that it's about friendship. And it's friendships, all different friendships in your life. Was it fun to do?

• 11:31Speaker 01

  I mean, can you imagine?

• 11:33Ina Garten?

  No.

• 11:34Speaker 01

  Beyond. It was beyond. Yeah.

• 11:37Ina Garten?

  And you chose everybody that was in it?

• 11:39Speaker 01

  Not really. I mean, no, they're all much, they're fancier than I am, but um, I was part of the, the casting, but more just to be like, oh my gosh, Gemma Chan is gonna do this? Really? It was more like that. Like Chloe Seventy? Oh my gosh.

• 11:57Ina Garten?

  Isn't it great?

• 11:57Speaker 01

  It never occurred to me she would say yes, or Darcie Garten or Regina Hall. Right after one battle after another, she does this. Like, what an honor to do that with her.

• 12:08Ina Garten?

  And I love that each of them was a unique personality and you paired them up in the sauna and you paired them up at the grocery store. So it wasn't like a lot of people talking all at once. It was two people trying to figure it out. And everybody had secrets that they needed to deal with. And I think it's so interesting when, when we have a problem, it turns out everybody has something they're dealing with.

• 12:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:30Ina Garten?

  And we're all kind of just acting out. So in, in your own life, what do you look for in a friend?

• 12:36Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 12:37Ina Garten?

  Cause I know friendships are as important to you as they are to me.

• 12:41Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, I mean, if you take our friendship.

• 12:45Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 12:46Speaker 01

  If I don't hear from you, if you don't hear from me for a while, when we do, there's no like, well, where have you been?

• 12:52Ina Garten?

  No.

• 12:53Speaker 01

  It's just like, oh my god.

• 12:54Ina Garten?

  Where we left off.

• 12:55Speaker 01

  Right up.

• 12:56Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 12:56Speaker 01

  And we're just like, what have you been doing? I, it's, it's someone who assumes positive intent, you know, who's just like excited for whatever.

• 13:04Ina Garten?

  And there's no judgment, like, oh, oh, you didn't care, you didn't care to check on me. It's just like, so happy to see you.

• 13:12Speaker 01

  So happy.

• 13:12Ina Garten?

  I wanted to talk to you.

• 13:13Speaker 01

  Yeah. And, and a sense of humor.

• 13:17Ina Garten?

  So interesting, cause that, that's like number one on my list. The connection, that somebody can really, makes the effort to see you.

• 13:25Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 13:25Ina Garten?

  And that's the what, the way we did when we met. When I was at your house and we were doing, I just felt like we had a connection.

• 13:31Speaker 01

  Such a kinship and an ease.

• 13:33Ina Garten?

  Interests and similar values.

• 13:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, and a similar outlook on life. I mean, I feel like you and I are both, we both choose happiness.

• 13:43Ina Garten?

  We just.

• 13:44Speaker 01

  We do.

• 13:44Ina Garten?

  That's, that actually is exactly what we connect on. I hadn't thought about it.

• 13:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:49Ina Garten?

  We choose happiness.

• 13:50Speaker 01

  We choose happiness and we, we both try to have fun in whatever we're doing.

• 13:53Ina Garten?

  Have a bad day.

• 13:54Speaker 01

  Of course it's not.

• 13:55Ina Garten?

  We just work our way out of it by choosing happiness.

• 13:58Speaker 01

  We strive for it.

• 13:59Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 14:00Speaker 01

  And I think we both tend to see the good in other people and we laugh at the same cartoons. I always, I really am careful. I don't send you every New Yorker cartoon. I wait until I see ones I really think you'll feel like.

• 14:16Ina Garten?

  The New Yorker cartoons.

• 14:17Speaker 01

  How do I do?

• 14:18Ina Garten?

  You're, you're doing perfectly. Send more. Send more. And also I think we love to take care of people. And I think cooking is part of that. I mean, you get up in the morning and you make, when I say you make English muffins for your kids, you make them from scratch. It's just incredible. And it, and it pleases you to do that.

• 14:39Speaker 01

  Of course it does, but Ina, I'm not alone that I learned all of it from you. I have a mom who cooked, so I had the sense of what it looks like to take your salt and go like, you know what I mean? Like, there's something about when you've seen someone fold again and again, you, you don't have to, and you don't have to have done it forever, but that's what we all get from you. Is that we see you do it and we think, my hands can do that.

• 15:06Ina Garten?

  That's how you fold something.

• 15:07Speaker 01

  That's what it looks like. So just because my mom had always cooked, she didn't pass down recipes. I use, I cook like my mom, but with your recipes.

• 15:18Ina Garten?

  Thank you.

• 15:19Speaker 01

  And with you kind of showing me and encouraging me even before I knew you in the creepy way that, you know.

• 15:26Ina Garten?

  I love when people say, walk down, I walk down the street and people say, you taught me how to cook. Because if we cook, we're taking care of people. And we're, we're nurturing them in, in both physical and mental ways. And I, I love that. I love doing that for people I love. And you do too. And that's how we, we always connect on that.

• 15:44Speaker 01

  Generation, you changed home cooking forever.

• 15:47Ina Garten?

  Thank you. Thank you. So tell me about how Pretend Cooking Show started.

• 15:52Speaker 01

  Well, it's an homage to you.

• 15:53Ina Garten?

  I love this.

• 15:55Speaker 01

  It literally.

• 15:56Ina Garten?

  Really?

• 15:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:57Ina Garten?

  So your assistant, Mo, who was your assistant, and all of a sudden at some, some point, you realized that she'd gone to UCLA Film School?

• 16:05Speaker 01

  So, okay, so what happened?

• 16:07Ina Garten?

  How does that happen?

• 16:08Speaker 01

  So, okay, so Mo had gone to film school at Northwestern.

• 16:11Ina Garten?

  Yeah, Northwestern.

• 16:13Speaker 01

  She's a brainiac. And um, I met her, my Nicole, my manager, Dusty, twenty six years, we just did the math, twenty six years. Um, so when Nicole, she was my publicist, when she moved from publicity into management, we chose the company together and Mo was kind of the senior assistant there for someone. And anytime I spoke to Mo on the phone in passing, I would just be like, gosh, she's smart. She's funny. She's great. You know, I think everyone thinks that about Mo cause she has all those things. So at some point, years later, I was about to do three movies back to back and I realized I had my kids figured out, but who is gonna take care of me?

• 16:57Speaker 01

  And we were all going on location and it, I just was like, wait a minute, I think I need help. And ended up calling Mo and saying, are you free? And she had, was between, she had kind of gone into music for a minute. Anyway, so she was between things and she said, yeah. And I said, would you work with me?

• 17:16Ina Garten?

  That happens.

• 17:16Speaker 01

  Yeah. And we're leaving for Cleveland tomorrow. And so then years later, when I wanted to become a co-founder of Once Upon a Farm, joining Instagram was part of my contract. And I didn't want to hire a company to follow. I wanted it to be me.

• 17:32Ina Garten?

  That's what you and I have become. I wanted to be me. And people are always amazed that it's so, so authentic. Well, it is authentic because it's you.

• 17:42Speaker 01

  Yeah. So I was like, Mo, you went to film school. You do it. You've gotta do it. And now she's like this social media.

• 17:49Ina Garten?

  Did you suggest cooking?

• 17:52Speaker 01

  Well, we knew, we wanted to, I do cook. So we wanted to connect me as somebody who cooks to, because of Once Upon a Farm.

• 18:02Ina Garten?

  Oh, so, so it's connected to one. I didn't realize it had to do with that, which is smart.

• 18:06Speaker 01

  Joined it to be a marketing tool for Once Upon a Farm. And so we started and then I said, I don't, I didn't know what to do. I didn't wanna do what everyone was doing. Like, what I love is your show. I mean, that's, that's what I love. I, you know, I set my auditions around your show for so many years.

• 18:26Ina Garten?

  You did?

• 18:26Speaker 01

  Yeah. Oh, heck yeah.

• 18:29Ina Garten?

  I remember, the, the only thing I know is the first Pretend Cooking Show, was, was it lemon cake?

• 18:34Speaker 01

  No, it was your, I'm sure it was honey white bread.

• 18:38Ina Garten?

  Oh, it was the bread?

• 18:39Speaker 01

  And I took your bread and made it into Breadman, which is something my mom did for us as kids.

• 18:45Ina Garten?

  So you and I have cooked together and I don't usually share a kitchen with people. Do you?

• 18:50Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 18:50Ina Garten?

  You do. Everybody cooks together. You have a fabulous kitchen, with, I happen to know a fabulous stove.

• 18:56Speaker 01

  Well, Ina, you helped me design my kitchen. You said, this is your triangle. This is the stove you get. I just did anything you told me. I do. I love it. And I find the two sides of the oven to be so different, the gas versus the electric.

• 19:10Ina Garten?

  Well, the gas oven is better for cooking and the electric oven is better for baking.

• 19:15Speaker 01

  That's it, Ina?

• 19:16Ina Garten?

  That's it.

• 19:17Speaker 01

  That's all I have to know? Okay.

• 19:19Ina Garten?

  But you know, somebody said, if you can cook, you can cook in anything.

• 19:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:23Ina Garten?

  So it doesn't really matter.

• 19:24Speaker 01

  I always say that to makeup artists when they are like, oh, I forgot my this. I'm like, you don't need it. You could just look at me and pinch and then it'll look like, because you just have that eye. Yeah. But I think because I grew up cooking with my sisters and my mom, I find there's such comfort to me in cooking with another woman especially.

• 19:45Ina Garten?

  For Thanksgiving one year, I invited two friends to come and cook and we, the deal was that they were gonna come early and we were all gonna cook Thanksgiving dinner together. Jeffrey, who doesn't cook much, but he could, you know, help out. And these two friends, and I found myself in the kitchen by myself. The three guys were in the living room watching the football game. And I had to make the entire Thanksgiving dinner by myself in two hours. I never did it again. So I'm really jealous that you get to cook with other people, cause I never do.

• 20:18Speaker 01

  So my favorite Thanksgivings were when my kids were really little. I think it was right at the end of Alias. And it was um, in, at a, at a big house and Victor came and my, my spy daddy, and Ron Rifkin and his wife, Iva, and Bradley Cooper came. And my kids were little and Ben and I were there and we all cooked and Bradley made the stuffing and Victor made, and I think Victor's sister came. But it was just like our little Alias family cooking together.

• 20:54Ina Garten?

  Oh, fabulous. That must've been wonderful. It's great. Well, everybody makes one thing and they all make it together.

• 21:00Speaker 01

  If they all go together. Sometimes you get one that you're like, huh?

• 21:05Ina Garten?

  I remember being on a stage doing Thanksgiving dinner with you.

• 21:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:08Ina Garten?

  What was that? Was that like for Walmart?

• 21:11Speaker 01

  It was, and it was making Thanksgiving dinner on a budget.

• 21:16Ina Garten?

  Oh, on a budget. Oh, yeah.

• 21:17Speaker 01

  We were in Malibu.

• 21:19Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 21:19Speaker 01

  And you were like, thank goodness we did it together because you are the queen. So you were just like, we're going to take this and we're going to do that. We're going to jazz this up like this, and this is only going to come out of a can. It's going to be perfect. And I was like, no, whatever she says.

• 21:36Ina Garten?

  The one thing we know, we're always going to have a good time together, no matter what we have to do.

• 21:39Speaker 01

  I think it translates, you know, I think the people there had a good time because we had a good time. At least I can tell myself that. We had fun.

• 21:46Ina Garten?

  Definitely have fun.

• 21:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:48Ina Garten?

  You know, it's funny, in my new book, I'm simplifying things as much as possible, especially Thanksgiving dinner. Like, you don't actually have to make mashed potatoes. You can buy really good mashed potatoes at the grocery store. You just have to add things to it, add sour cream and Parmesan cheese. Nobody knows that you didn't peel a potato.

• 22:05Speaker 01

  Right.

• 22:05Ina Garten?

  But it's absolutely delicious Thanksgiving dinner, and everybody has a good time, which is the only point.

• 22:11Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 22:11Ina Garten?

  Right?

• 22:12Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. It's kind of like Thanksgiving is just, what is it fun for you to make? If you like making pies, make pies. If you don't, don't.

• 22:20Ina Garten?

  Don't.

• 22:21Speaker 01

  They are very easily bought. Yeah, figure out.

• 22:24Ina Garten?

  Well, that's what I'm always saying is look around and see what is available and use that.

• 22:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:30Ina Garten?

  And, um, and, and, and add to it, but don't make, you know, don't make things you don't have to make. I mean, people make vanilla ice cream. There's great vanilla ice cream. You don't need to make it.

• 22:41Speaker 01

  But if it makes you happy.

• 22:42Ina Garten?

  Well, if that's, yeah.

• 22:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:44Ina Garten?

  If it makes you happy making it, that's different. Would you make vanilla ice cream?

• 22:48Speaker 01

  You know why?

• 22:48Ina Garten?

  Why?

• 22:49Speaker 01

  Because in barefoot parties, barefoot contested parties, you have a vanilla armagnac.

• 22:55Ina Garten?

  Oh, that's different. That's valuable.

• 22:57Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 22:57Ina Garten?

  Is that good?

• 22:58Speaker 01

  It's so good.

• 22:59Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 23:00Speaker 01

  And now it is, everyone expects it. Thank you very much, queen. And so I have to make it.

• 23:05Ina Garten?

  I have to make it.

• 23:06Speaker 01

  So I'm thinking like, I do make vanilla ice cream, but it's because of you.

• 23:09Ina Garten?

  But the good thing about that is you can make it in advancing, keep it in the freezer.

• 23:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, you totally can. And it's, it's not a custard, is it?

• 23:16Ina Garten?

  Well, ice cream is actually creme anglaise that's been frozen.

• 23:21Speaker 01

  Yes. But that one, I don't think you use eggs, do you? I can't remember. You do, you do both. You know the other ice cream?

• 23:29Ina Garten?

  You're really paying attention, aren't you?

• 23:30Speaker 01

  Of course. I'm your ultimate student.

• 23:32Ina Garten?

  Yeah, there's, there's ice cream that you can make with just whipping cream and flavor and freezer.

• 23:37Speaker 01

  Which I feel like your vanilla armagnac is.

• 23:39Ina Garten?

  Oh, it might be. But it's very heavy. It's very rich.

• 23:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:42Ina Garten?

  Um, if you use eggs, it lightens it.

• 23:45Speaker 01

  Anyone who is looking for a great Thanksgiving ice cream to go with your pie, check out Barefoot Contessa Parties. Go to, go to Aina, I'm calling you barefoot. Go to Aina's, um, index and of recipes, which is on one of my saved things on my phone.

• 24:01Ina Garten?

  Nobody knows this. There's an, there's an index on the website for all the recipes that I've ever done.

• 24:06Speaker 01

  What does anyone know about it?

• 24:07Ina Garten?

  Because I can't remember what they're in.

• 24:08Speaker 01

  I have to tell you what book things are in all the time.

• 24:11Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 24:11Speaker 01

  But the other ice cream that is, I mean, the rum raisin that you, but then the other.

• 24:17Ina Garten?

  That's, okay, that's my favorite.

• 24:18Speaker 01

  Oh, my God, it's so good.

• 24:19Ina Garten?

  The rum raisin ice cream is my all time favorite.

• 24:21Speaker 01

  So good. Okay, the other one though, Aina, seriously, get serious here, is the chocolate Oreo.

• 24:27Ina Garten?

  Oh, yeah, that's good, too.

• 24:28Speaker 01

  Because it's for some reason not too sweet.

• 24:31Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 24:31Speaker 01

  Yeah. Okay. All righty. Cheers to me.

• 24:47Speaker 02

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• 25:02Speaker 03

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• 25:03Speaker 02

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• 25:11Speaker 04

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• 26:06Ina Garten?

  So we all have a comfort meal, like something that you had a bad day. You come home, you open the refrigerator. What do you hope is there?

• 26:14Speaker 01

  Oh, oh, my gosh. Um, I love, I love a roast chicken. You know, my mom made roast chicken when I was little. Roast chicken and rice and gravy and broccoli or salad. I mean, what's better?

• 26:30Ina Garten?

  Isn't it interesting that every cuisine has a roast chicken of some sort? Because it's the ultimate comfort food. It's not fancy. It's so easy to do.

• 26:42Speaker 01

  It smells so good.

• 26:43Ina Garten?

  It smells so good. I love when, when you, somebody walks in the house for a dinner party, thinking you're going to make them something fancy, and it turns out it's a roast chicken with vegetables in the pan. It's like the easiest thing in the world, and it's the most delicious.

• 26:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:56Ina Garten?

  Yeah, I'm with you on that.

• 26:57Speaker 01

  Melissa Clark made, had a recipe for, you know, Melissa Clark at the New York Times? Yeah. She did a recipe where you, you do like a spice rub, and then you do the, um, searing of the skin on a, what's it called? A cast iron skillet over a grill. So it's super hot. Then you turn it over, and then you move it off of the heat and let it roast in the grill, but not on the heat. And so it turns into more like an oven. Oh, my gosh.

• 27:28Ina Garten?

  It's so good. I'll have to try.

• 27:29Speaker 01

  I will send it to you.

• 27:30Ina Garten?

  Oh, good. I love it.

• 27:31Speaker 01

  So good. It's so.

• 27:32Ina Garten?

  My favorite is actually a butterfly chicken.

• 27:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's what, it starts, it's butterfly.

• 27:36Ina Garten?

  It's butterfly, like that. And I just put lemons and onions and garlic in the bottom of the pan. Put the chicken on top with like an herb rub. Put it in the oven, set a timer, and forget about it. And the lemons, even though you're using the rind of the lemon, they all cook with the onions, and it makes a sauce.

• 27:54Speaker 01

  My mom really had made a thing out of making gravy. And now because I, I make your roast chicken, that is full of lemons, full of all these aromatics and garlic. And I don't think the sauce is just.

• 28:06Ina Garten?

  That's it. You don't need a gravy.

• 28:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:08Ina Garten?

  It's, the sauce is the juices. And the, and the, and the vegetables and all of those flavors that go in.

• 28:15Speaker 01

  Do you know what really can screw you, though, Aina, is if you make it in a dark pan? Or something that pulls the heat more and then dries out the drippings as they, and burns the drippings as they hit the pan. Do you know what I mean?

• 28:28Ina Garten?

  My first recipe for roast chicken had, um, it said what size pan to put it in, with onions and garlic, and then you put the chicken on top. And what I found was sometimes people would say the onions burned, and it was because they used a big pan. So it has to be a pan that's just slightly bigger than the chicken, and then all the vegetables and everything cook at exactly the right temperature.

• 28:51Speaker 01

  That is the thing about your roast chicken that I don't know if people know. I'm very glad you just said it. It's very important.

• 28:58Ina Garten?

  Very.

• 29:00Ina Garten?

  These are important things in life.

• 29:04Ina Garten?

  I love, I love talking about friends because it's so interesting to me. When you meet someone, how good a judge are you about whether they're going to become a friend?

• 29:11Speaker 01

  Well, with women, I'm pretty good. I, I think I have a good picker with women. I sat next to a woman on the plane the other day from, I don't know where, maybe from Atlanta to LA. And I had a lot of work to do. And I always, I get on a plane, I go to work, I don't move.

• 29:30Ina Garten?

  It's just quiet.

• 29:31Speaker 01

  It's quiet time. I get so much done. I don't move a muscle. And I sat down and started chatting with her, and we talked the whole way. That is a vibe. That is like, uh, there was just an instant kismet connection. I don't know if I'll ever see, but I met a woman when I was, I was doing a play. My eldest was one, turning two. I was doing a play in New York, and I went to the same playground every night, Ben and I did after rehearsal. And we would see the same mom with her son, who was exactly the same age as our daughter. And she, I texted with this morning. She's been my friend for 20 years. Yeah.

• 30:14Ina Garten?

  Well, that's the one forever.

• 30:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:16Ina Garten?

  That's wonderful.

• 30:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:17Ina Garten?

  And also, I think that connection is really important. As you say, you, it's not just that you're, um, connected with somebody, that you, you can be apart.

• 30:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:29Ina Garten?

  And still be connected. And you just know, they think you're really important, and if you need anything, I'm available for you, and vice versa.

• 30:37Speaker 01

  Well, my, my girlfriend from the playground, Anna, we were texting this morning, and she's a teacher. And she said, okay, well, I have to go now. I have to go teach the future of America. And I said, well, I have to do hair and makeup.

• 30:52Ina Garten?

  So Ezra Klein had an incredible podcast this past week that has really stayed with me about Americans having romantic relationships with chatbots.

• 31:08Speaker 01

  I know, isn't it wild?

• 31:10Ina Garten?

  And we're talking 20%.

• 31:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, 20% of people.

• 31:13Ina Garten?

  Isn't that shocking?

• 31:14Speaker 01

  Ina, tell me the truth, are you having a romantic relationship?

• 31:18Ina Garten?

  I mean, how can you not understand that that's a company, not a person, and that it's telling you what you want to hear, which is why it's so appealing? And the discussion, I thought, was really interesting because we're having conversations with chatbots that have no rough edges.

• 31:38Speaker 01

  Right.

• 31:39Ina Garten?

  They're not telling you anything you don't want to hear. They're supporting whatever you say, but it's not a person.

• 31:45Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 31:46Ina Garten?

  How is that possible?

• 31:47Speaker 01

  Well, what does that say about what loneliness is doing? It's just loneliness. What is loneliness doing to our, to people in our society?

• 31:58Ina Garten?

  And it seems to me that it's easy.

• 32:00Speaker 01

  It's just easy, right.

• 32:02Ina Garten?

  You don't have to make an effort to connect with somebody and figure out the differences.

• 32:07Speaker 01

  I'm sure that those are doing a great service to some people for a minute. You know, I'm sure that it could be building, we don't know, we're not experiencing that. Maybe it's building people's confidence, maybe it's reminding them that they're lovable. Maybe they've had so many hard edges in their lives that to have something that it has no friction to it, that is just a positive interaction is really a wonderful thing in their day. It's dangerous, though.

• 32:32Ina Garten?

  It's so dangerous.

• 32:33Speaker 01

  It's dangerous.

• 32:34Ina Garten?

  And I can see it for older people that are on their own and really don't have, you know, they've lost family members.

• 32:40Speaker 01

  People are giving up their human interactions, right?

• 32:43Ina Garten?

  Right. This, I think, for children is the scariest thing in the world because they don't really figure out how to make real human relationships, real connections.

• 32:53Speaker 01

  For sure.

• 32:54Ina Garten?

  And work through the problems.

• 32:55Speaker 01

  I mean, we're gonna have to figure this out.

• 32:56Ina Garten?

  Right.

• 32:57Speaker 01

  As a society, we're gonna have to just decide, without any guardrails on it, we're gonna have to decide together, how are we gonna do this? What are we gonna say to our kids? How are we gonna, you know, teach them the healthiest way to interact? How are we gonna interact healthily? It's, this is just, this is the reality now.

• 33:15Ina Garten?

  Well, Jeffrey went to Yale, he teaches at graduate school, and he decided that nobody could use AI. It was just unacceptable. But the truth is, they all use AI.

• 33:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:29Ina Garten?

  So he had to say, okay, you can use AI to do your exams, but...

• 33:34Speaker 01

  Wow, to do your exams.

• 33:36Ina Garten?

  Isn't that crazy? Because you're not thinking anymore. You're getting AI to do your thinking for you.

• 33:41Speaker 01

  Because aren't you in graduate school or college to learn how to think?

• 33:44Ina Garten?

  This is graduate school.

• 33:45Speaker 01

  More than learning what two plus two is. Don't you want to learn how to think?

• 33:49Ina Garten?

  I know. But he just said, he said, okay, you can use it, but you have to announce that you're using it. So, and, and a lot of the teachers are saying, use AI, but then tell me what's wrong with AI. The test is actually analyzing AI. So you're forced to think about what the right, what the right situation is.

• 34:10Speaker 01

  My kids have a lot more in-classroom writing assessments instead of, you know, writing essays at home.

• 34:17Ina Garten?

  At home, where they can use AI.

• 34:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:20Ina Garten?

  Yeah, that's totally true.

• 34:21Speaker 01

  So far, I think everyone in my house is okay because they're really thinking about the, just the implications with the water that's used for AI, the amount of energy that's used for AI. You know, it's just so, it's so messy and so confusing for kids to be told, here's this thing, but it's gonna ruin the, I mean, it's just very confusing.

• 34:40Ina Garten?

  I just, I mean, it just keeps staying with me. Can't imagine thinking that I'm having a romantic relationship with a chatbot.

• 34:47Speaker 01

  I know, I know.

• 34:48Ina Garten?

  And yet, there must, it must be filling some extraordinary need.

• 34:52Speaker 01

  I know.

• 34:53Ina Garten?

  As you say, for loneliness.

• 34:54Speaker 01

  Yeah. I have so much love and empathy for those people.

• 34:58Ina Garten?

  Yeah, yeah. Well, see, that's, that's what your reaction is. You lead with your heart.

• 35:04Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 35:05Ina Garten?

  You, you lead with, what, what is it that this person needs?

• 35:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:08Ina Garten?

  That having an artificial chatbot relationship fills.

• 35:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:14Ina Garten?

  And, and that you have enormous empathy for it. I love that. I just love it. You know what I was remembering? You guys went to Paris for a while, and you sent me pictures. Remember that big cashmere scarf that I got?

• 35:25Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 35:26Ina Garten?

  It was purple because I think you looked gorgeous in purple.

• 35:29Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh, I love it.

• 35:30Ina Garten?

  And you said you used it as a napkin, you used it as a scarf.

• 35:33Speaker 01

  I wrapped my kids.

• 35:34Ina Garten?

  You wrapped your kids.

• 35:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:36Ina Garten?

  What was the Paris trip like?

• 35:37Speaker 01

  Well, okay, so that, when, when my kids were really little, I went to Paris because Ben was shooting some Batman-ish movie in London, and we went for six weeks. I took them out of school.

• 35:50Ina Garten?

  Wow.

• 35:51Speaker 01

  It was the last time I really took kids out of school, but it was wonderful. It was so incredible.

• 35:55Ina Garten?

  I mean, what an education.

• 35:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was incredible. It was so fun. And part of that is that we bopped around, you know, we went to Venice, we went to Paris. That was their first real experience. And they were little. My little one was four.

• 36:07Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 36:08Speaker 01

  So, I mean, he was wrapped up in that beautiful purple scarf. And I sent you all these pictures, and you told me to go down the Seine in a boat, and I've done it now. Every time I go, I want to do it.

• 36:19Ina Garten?

  It's the Nishan Water Taxi, and it's so low to the Seine, and it just feels so incredibly luxurious coming down the Seine with the lights coming up.

• 36:30Speaker 01

  Every picture from that night, from that trip, the smile on my kids' faces, it was such an adventure that you gave us. So, when I went back to Paris with my eldest, who speaks French...

• 36:41Ina Garten?

  And she went to school there, didn't she?

• 36:42Speaker 01

  She did. She's done a ton of things there, but she was doing a program there, and I think she was still young, maybe eighth grade.

• 36:49Ina Garten?

  Oh, wow.

• 36:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, little, eighth night, somewhere in there. And she, I was dropping her off, and we had a night there before I dropped her off. And I said, I said, I think we're close to where Ina lives. And she was like, because she, my kids grew up watching you with me. And especially if they were home from, sick from school, we would watch. When I was pregnant with my youngest and I was very nauseous, they would get home from school and I would say, lie in bed with me, we're gonna watch Ina. So they have this, you know, this feeling of ownership about you like the rest of America. But anyway, I texted you and said, I think we're close to where your apartment is in Paris, and where should we go?

• 37:31Speaker 01

  And you led my daughter and me on a, you led us on a tour from far away.

• 37:37Ina Garten?

  I'd forgotten, but I remember that, yeah.

• 37:38Speaker 01

  We did everything you told us. We went to Poulet.

• 37:42Ina Garten?

  Palan.

• 37:43Speaker 01

  Palan.

• 37:44Ina Garten?

  And Bartellami, the cheese shop.

• 37:45Speaker 01

  Yes, the cheese shop.

• 37:46Ina Garten?

  And Grand Apisserie, that huge specialty food store.

• 37:49Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 37:50Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 37:51Speaker 01

  We did all of those things. We went to a souffle restaurant that's no longer there, that you sent us to.

• 37:55Ina Garten?

  Le Brezamey.

• 37:56Speaker 01

  I have pictures of her. Like, just, it was just the two of us. It was so special. And it was, and so then, she was back studying at a different time, and she recreated it all. And she went to the market that you, where you get your...

• 38:10Ina Garten?

  Brest by Market.

• 38:11Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 38:12Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 38:13Speaker 01

  And she said, look, look, I found it. And she did all of the things, and she sat in a park and had, you know, ate her chicken and had her, her, you know, her baguette.

• 38:21Ina Garten?

  Nothing like it.

• 38:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:23Ina Garten?

  You know, Adam Gott, in his book, From Paris to the Moon, said, everyday things in Paris are wonderful.

• 38:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:29Ina Garten?

  And that's what it is, going to the market and getting a chicken and a baguette.

• 38:32Speaker 01

  You know what's hard, though, is knowing what the everyday things are. So you gave us that. You helped us know the everyday things, and we did them. And then for Christmas that year, for the holidays, you sent me these things from how you, the little punishments.

• 38:46Ina Garten?

  They're Punitions, which is French for punishments. And the, the owner of Palan, her mother used to punish her by giving her little shortbreads.

• 38:56Speaker 01

  A little cookie.

• 38:57Ina Garten?

  With little cookies.

• 38:58Speaker 01

  And my kids loved that.

• 39:00Ina Garten?

  Isn't that the best? It was a punishment, so they'd give her a cookie. So the kid knew that she was being punished, but she was being treated at the same time.

• 39:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:08Ina Garten?

  And loved.

• 39:09Speaker 01

  It was loved. My mom always said, when your kids are the most rotten, that's when you have to wrap your arms around them the tightest.

• 39:14Ina Garten?

  What a lovely thing to do.

• 39:17Speaker 01

  Well, that's what those little cookies do.

• 39:19Ina Garten?

  Can you say that again?

• 39:20Speaker 01

  They say, I love you. When your kids are being their most rotten, that's when you have to wrap your arms around them the tightest.

• 39:27Ina Garten?

  Oh, I love that.

• 39:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:29Ina Garten?

  I think we all need that.

• 39:30Speaker 01

  We all need that.

• 39:31Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 39:32Speaker 01

  Because we're, we're being rotten because we're hurting.

• 39:33Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 39:34Speaker 01

  I don't always do it, Ina. Sometimes I don't do it. Sometimes I say...

• 39:39Ina Garten?

  I'm sorry.

• 39:40Speaker 01

  I would like to give you a cookie, but I'm gonna walk away. No, my kids are great. I know, I'm sorry.

• 39:45Ina Garten?

  I am convinced that your kids, A, aren't rotten, but if they were, you would wrap yourselves around them.

• 39:51Speaker 01

  They're allowed, they're allowed to have a moment. Everyone is.

• 39:53Ina Garten?

  Of course. And then there was the time.

• 39:58Ina Garten?

  When you came to a talk I gave in LA and I texted you as I was going onstage, "Want to go out for dinner?" And I said, "We're going to In-N-Out Burger."

• 40:07Speaker 01

  We sure did.

• 40:07Ina Garten?

  And we sure did. And I got there, it was like nine o'clock. Every kid in LA had been to this In-N-Out Burger. It looks like a bomb exploded. There were napkins everywhere and food everywhere. It looks like ketchup has exploded.

• 40:19Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 40:20Ina Garten?

  And I got there like 15 minutes before.

• 40:21Speaker 01

  And then when I got there, you know what you were doing?

• 40:23Ina Garten?

  What was I doing?

• 40:24Speaker 01

  Cleaning the tables.

• 40:25Ina Garten?

  I was cleaning the tables.

• 40:27Speaker 01

  You were cleaning the tables.

• 40:27Ina Garten?

  I was not about to let you walk into it.

• 40:29Speaker 01

  You were busting the In-N-Out. I know.

• 40:31Ina Garten?

  So what are you hoping, what are you looking forward to the future? What do you, do you feel like you will do more movies? Or do you think you're really, I mean, it's just incredible.

• 40:41Speaker 01

  I really, you know, I feel so lucky, I know, because I really love my job.

• 40:46Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 40:46Speaker 01

  I'm really happy

• 40:47Ina Garten?

  And it shows.

• 40:48Speaker 01

  to get to do my job. And I can't believe that I still get to do it. I auditioned for so many years when I was starting. It was such, felt like, you know, it was just, I really enjoyed the journey of it, but it was a long process.

• 41:02Ina Garten?

  It's hard when you don't know if it's going to work.

• 41:04Speaker 01

  Exactly. So I feel lucky that I'm, I feel established, like the right roles will come my way. I don't stress out too much about it. And Nicole and I produce our own stuff. So if we're lucky enough to continue to be able to do that, then there's that. We did a movie that Nicole produced called One Attempt Remaining that I'm super, with John Cena. And it's about trying to figure out a password for a very large amount of money that ballooned when, from buying it on our honeymoon 15 years before, and it was crypto. And it's ballooned in value and we forgot we had it. And we're divorced now. And we're trying to figure out what in the world our password was when we were in love, under the influence.

• 41:46Ina Garten?

  What a great premise for a movie.

• 41:47Speaker 01

  It's so much fun. It's so fun. So I can't wait for people to see that next year. And yeah, I just, you know, I'm excited to live this next year with my kids and see what everyone, they're just in such interesting places in their lives.

• 42:03Ina Garten?

  And I love, I love not making a long-term plan.

• 42:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:06Ina Garten?

  And just, let's see where it leads.

• 42:08Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh, always. I think we share that. Like, I've always just taken the leap. You know, I wasn't planning on living in New York when I was 22 and I got here.

• 42:17Ina Garten?

  And babysitting for the Colbert's children.

• 42:19Speaker 01

  Babysitting for Stephen's kids. And, and, yeah, and, oh, my gosh, in their tiny apartment.

• 42:25Ina Garten?

  Isn't that incredible? Oh, they had a tiny apartment?

• 42:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:28Ina Garten?

  Oh, that's so sweet.

• 42:29Speaker 01

  Not anymore. Yeah. I know. Their daughter, what a sweetie. She was so cute, so precocious. Yes. So I wasn't planning on moving to New York. And then I got a job for $150 a week and got, you know, a spot on someone's kitchen floor, a room a little smaller than this. And I had a futon and I had my suitcase. And I lived out of that for nine months.

• 42:56Ina Garten?

  For nine months? And then what happened?

• 42:59Speaker 01

  And then I got a TV movie starring Melissa Gilbert. And Melissa showed me how to be in front of a camera. Told me what a call sheet was and, okay, now the camera's going to turn around. It's going to be on someone else, because I had no idea. I had only been on stage, which I had done a lot. But she taught me everything. And then I just kept getting those jobs. And then I, you know, I made, I made a couple of thousand dollars. And so that was enough. I made just enough to cover first month, last month, and security deposit. And I needed a broker because I didn't have anything in my savings account. So I had to have a broker help me get an apartment.

• 43:43Ina Garten?

  Would you ever do theater again?

• 43:45Speaker 01

  Yeah. Will you come see me if I?

• 43:48Ina Garten?

  100%. Are you kidding me?

• 43:50Speaker 01

  Good.

• 43:50Ina Garten?

  Yeah.

• 43:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:52Ina Garten?

  Is it something that you think might be in the future?

• 43:54Speaker 01

  For sure. I mean, that's all I ever wanted to do was theater.

• 43:57Ina Garten?

  Was be in theater?

• 43:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:59Ina Garten?

  Oh, good. You'll be in New York.

• 44:00Speaker 01

  I hope so. I hope that New York will have me.

• 44:03Ina Garten?

  I'll come see you.

• 44:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:04Ina Garten?

  You know, everybody in their lives have had like a sliding doors moment where one thing totally changed everything. You're going along, you know where you're going. And then in a moment, everything changes. And sometimes people have had several of them. Is there one in particular that you remember?

• 44:21Speaker 01

  I've had a few of those, but one of those would definitely be getting that tiny little job in New York and staying in New York instead of going on to the internship I was planning on doing and...

• 44:33Ina Garten?

  Just the moment that you knew, oh, this could actually work.

• 44:36Speaker 01

  I don't think I thought that way. I think I thought, this works today. This is fun today. And I'll figure it out. I always thought I could go back to school. And then I had kind of the equivalent when I suddenly was like, oh, I came to LA to do a pilot, but I think I live here. And then Alias was such, just my life was one way and then it was another way. And that was like the day that Alias premiered was that.

• 45:04Ina Garten?

  And that was everything. That was huge.

• 45:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, that was a big defining moment.

• 45:09Ina Garten?

  Did you know in that, in that, when you took that, that that was going to be an important show?

• 45:13Speaker 01

  Well, I had thought about 10 different jobs were going to be important jobs before that.

• 45:18Ina Garten?

  And you never know until it happens.

• 45:20Speaker 01

  And you just don't know. So I gave it the same amount of thought and than I had for so many other jobs, but assuming that it wouldn't become what I thought it could become. Because I had thought so many other, you know, I thought so many other things were going to be like such a great, and I just was like, well, this is just...

• 45:40Ina Garten?

  You jump in the pond, you splash around, you find out what it is. And sometimes it is what you think it is, and sometimes it's not.

• 45:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:47Ina Garten?

  And then you go from there.

• 45:48Speaker 01

  And that time, it was so much bigger than I even thought. Yeah.

• 45:50Ina Garten?

  Well, I'm so glad it worked out. Cheers.

• 45:53Speaker 01

  Cheers.

• 45:53Ina Garten?

  Love you.

• 45:54Speaker 01

  Love you, I know.

• 45:59Ina Garten?

  Happy Hour is hosted by me, Ina Garten. Our executive producers are Jenna Weiss-Berman, Ali Jaffe Ramis, and Deborah Davis. Kate Tyler is a contributing producer and Jules Natt, a producer. Mika Pollan-Bon is our associate producer. Tim Fernandez is the video editor with sound recording by Mike Larini and audio mixing by Eleanor Osborne. Our camera operators for this episode are Liam Lee and Chris Vile. Music for the show is by Pink Martini. Special thanks to cinematographer Dion Beebe. Happy Hour with Ina is a Vox Media podcast. Recipes featured in this show are available on beaufortandessa.com.