Hollywood Confessional

Bitch It Was You

• Ninth Way Media • Season 3 • Episode 1

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We are back! Welcome to season three of Hollywood Confessional. The season opener sets the stage with a gripping narrative from a support staffer, who unveils the emotional rollercoaster of managing a monster boss.

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Hollywood Confessional is a Ninth Way Media production, produced by Meagan Daine and J.R. Zamora-Thal.

Sound Effects and Music provided by Zapsplat and Pixabay.

Keywords: filmmaking podcast, film podcast, screenwriting podcast, entertainment podcast, Hollywood, filmmaking, writerslife, actorslife, setlife

Speaker 1:

In nomine Cinema e TV Espiritu Streaming. Amen. Hello Hollywood, faithful, we are back. This is your favorite podcast priest JR Zamorathal.

Speaker 2:

And your other favorite, Megan Dane. We are back, as a matter of fact, and so grateful you're joining us for season three of the Hollywood Confessional.

Speaker 1:

Season three. I didn't even think we'd finish season one.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thanks for your faith bud.

Speaker 1:

Well, you know, things are looking up in all aspects of our lives. We're coming to you live from a writer's room of an Amazon show we still can't talk about.

Speaker 2:

It's so crazy how long things take in Hollywood, like we've been on this show for what? Almost two years, has it been two years?

Speaker 1:

It's been two years. That is unprecedented job security in my life.

Speaker 2:

It's amazing, yes, and it's incredible, of course, to be able to continue to be employed after the strike, before the strike. It's a miracle and we're so, so grateful, but it's also like it just makes you realize that this is a long fucking game.

Speaker 1:

It's an incredibly long game, and that's kind of part of why I love our podcast. You know, while we're playing the long game with the show, we're also putting something out weekly or biweekly that I love, quite frankly.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it feels pretty good to be able to keep this thing going and like thinking back to many a long year ago. I mean a few long years, three years since we started talking about this podcast.

Speaker 1:

I feel like I lived three years in the last year alone.

Speaker 2:

I know, right, and yeah, like talking about, hey, like the stories that remember we were sitting at happy hour yeah With and and just having a blast and talking about all the stories that we could never say out loud. And then all of a sudden we're like we really need a forum for this, like people need to be able to tell these stories in like a public way, but without like trashing their careers forever.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I remember that night like it was yesterday. The pierogies were fantastic.

Speaker 2:

Oh my God, yes, they were.

Speaker 1:

That's like my favorite bar in LA.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, and here we are, three years later and starting our season three, and still at it sharing these people's stories so that we can make Hollywood a happier place.

Speaker 1:

So in that vein, for our season three opener, we're getting back to our roots. This one's a story about a horrific boss from a support staffer who was initially conflicted about coming forward.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but once they decided to tell their story, they went all the way in, as you might be able to tell from the title Bitch, it Was you. You ready for this one? Jr?

Speaker 1:

Season three let's get into it.

Speaker 3:

Forgive me, Father, for I brought notes on this bitch.

Speaker 1:

Oh juicy, Please feel free to unburden your soul.

Speaker 3:

It all started a few years ago. I was 26 years old, I'd worked in reality at agencies in development and then I ended up working for who was TV development guy?

Speaker 1:

Oh, I know.

Speaker 3:

I could do a few episodes of this show, but yeah, I was working with him. We had an overall. Then we moved to a different studio and the studio decided that I would assist a different pod. So I was assisting two pods at the same time. I literally had two phone lines, two emails, two weekend reads and one of the shows was in production and I was losing my fucking mind.

Speaker 1:

That's insane. Working for two pods at once is way too much work for one person.

Speaker 3:

During the holidays I had to organize a whole Christmas dinner. We were going to a famous Hollywood restaurant and, at the last minute, decides to invite the head of the studio's television department and because of the seating at the restaurant, he was just like you just have to figure it out. We went from five people at dinner to seven people and I was like the answer is I can't come to dinner if this is the place you want to go to. So I didn't go to the Christmas dinner at the company I had helped launch and I was just like that's it, I'm done. Look, you had to pay your dues in Hollywood, but there's a difference between paying your dues and eating shit.

Speaker 2:

Well said, and you decided you'd had enough shit.

Speaker 3:

Yes, I knew I wanted to be a writer. So at the top of that year I quit my development job. I went on vacation for a week and I was like this is my last time in the city as an assistant. When I come back I will be a writer and I will only have writing jobs from here on out. And then I came back and there were no jobs. I was unemployed for about nine months. Then I was like maybe I'll just get a job doing something else.

Speaker 3:

I had an interview to be a lawyer's assistant. I was so panicked about the interview I like, laid out in the middle of a sidewalk One of my neighbors thought I was having a heart attack. I distinctly remember shouting at him no, this is just existential angst. And he was like okay, after that interview it really felt like no, I want to be a writer. And then an assistant I know reached out to me. She said she was working for the showrunner and asked if I wanted to interview. I went in and interviewed with she asked me to send her notes on her pilot. So I typed up notes and I sent them in and I didn't get the job and at that point I had been sending out my resume quite a bit. I had written so many cover letters and my parents came into town. I took them to the Watts Towers and it's that thing where, like you say I'm going to go to LA and be a writer, and then your parents come to town and you don't have a job.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, been, there.

Speaker 3:

So I was with my parents at the towers and I was so upset and so angry so I actually left them at the towers and went back to my car to have a freakout. And I was in my car. I was like beating on my horn and screaming I need a job, I need a job, I need a job, I need a job. And then my phone rang. Holy shit, it was the producer. The person that they hired had gotten staffed within a week and they wanted to hire me to take over. And I was like, oh my God, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. So I had the job. I was so excited. It was Friday evening.

Speaker 3:

I knew I wouldn't be able to hang out with my parents, but they would be fine because my career was the most important thing. We're a very career driven family and I remember that Sunday I was at a coffee shop getting coffee for me and my mom and I look at my phone and it's just emails, emails, emails, emails. Must have forwarded me like 50 fucking emails in one go At this point. I had been an assistant almost continuously for five years. I knew what was normal, what was appropriate and what was bullshit, and it was just like what the fuck have I gotten myself into?

Speaker 3:

The first two weeks on that job it was just constant, 24-7 texting emails Constant, constant, constant, constant. I would never know where I was going. I didn't know if I was going to her house, if I was going to be running errands, if I was going to the studio. There was one time when I was on the 10 going to her house and she texted me to meet her at this cafe on the east side. So I go to this cafe and I'm at the table with her and she asked me to do something. And then she was like you're typing too loudly. You had to go sit at this other table, no way. So I went and sat at this other table and after about 30 minutes she just left, didn't tell me where she was going or what else she was doing.

Speaker 2:

Oh my god, this woman is special.

Speaker 3:

There was a day when we were just working out of the studio office, it was 3 pm and I hadn't eaten lunch. I got up and she was like where are you going? And I said I was going to get myself some food and she was like, oh, will you get me a cookie? So I'm like sure, then I'm driving to a cafe that is literally like five minutes from the lot, and the entire time I was driving there she must have sent me 10 texts like where are you, are you there yet? Question mark, question mark, question mark. And then, when I got there, she wanted me to take a picture of every single fucking food.

Speaker 2:

Why do I have to do this.

Speaker 3:

There was another time when she asked me to return some of her wedding china. I was at the store. She was like can you pick something out for me? So again, it's the fucking pictures. I'm taking pictures of everything in the store. I took a picture of some plates. She was like in the background you see that vase, can you take a picture of that? It wasn't even for sale and it was always shit like that. She just always wanted to save something, keep decks, have everything compiled, save photos. Even for the pilot, like the costume designers would have decks and it would be available for like a week or something. The idea was that you would look at it for a week and then you would make your decisions and it would disappear. But then she was like no, download and print everything, and then we're just going to keep it all.

Speaker 1:

It sounds kind of shady.

Speaker 3:

It was fucked up. These decks are designed for a limited amount of time, Not for you to pick the costume designer you want, your friend or whatever the fuck and then use everyone else's ideas.

Speaker 2:

Your impression was that it wasn't just about cataloging things.

Speaker 3:

It was that she intended to use their ideas on her show and then hire somebody else. Oh yeah, why are you asking people who you are interviewing to be your assistant to send thoughts on your pilot? I understand doing coverage of a script to prove you can write, but why are assistants writing notes on your pilot? Look, creative people are crazy. I say this as a writer you gotta have something to make your art about. But with her things were always complicated in a way that felt malicious, Like you do not have time to be zooming into pictures to look at faces in the background. You must just be getting off on torturing me. I was going through some old emails to do this podcast and there would be emails where I was sending her to-do lists, questions, things I needed answers on to get from A to B to C, and there will be no response. No response, no response, no response.

Speaker 3:

After a few weeks of 24-7 text and emails and stuff like this, my boyfriend we had been doing long distance and he had just landed in LA that day and had the production draft of her pilot due on a Thursday, but she wasn't done with it until Saturday at 3 PM and I was supposed to proof it. And look, I will say this. There's a reason. I've never been a script coordinator, but I had to proof it. And I was riding in the car with my boyfriend trying to figure out where he was going to live, and I read through the pilot and sent it and said it was ready to go. And then the producer's assistant called me and she was like there's typos in this. This isn't ready at all. How could you even say that this and this and this is wrong? And I was just like I'm literally drinking from a fire hose and drowning.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to ask a question that I think I might already know the answer to Were you getting paid on the weekend?

Speaker 3:

No, but if I'm just being real about my personality, my parents went to Ivy League schools. My mom was in the first class of women consistently in medical school, and she was a woman of color. I'm the fifth generation in my family to be college educated. Whatever you have to do to get it done, you fucking do it. And then there was the competition. I was once on a show where there were 150 resumes for a writer's PA position. I look at Gen Z and the quiet quitting. And there was a millennial burnout article in BuzzFeed a couple of years ago. But you just do it. You suck it up. You're lucky to be here. There are other people lined up to do this and if you don't do it, somebody else will. The other thing is, I wanted to be there. I was working for a female showrunner on an ostensibly feminist show. I wanted to be involved and I wanted to help. I wanted to work for a woman who I thought shared my same socio-political values. Yeah, I get that. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

So the night the script was due, my boyfriend and I were supposed to get dinner and we pulled into this restaurant, into the parking lot, and I was so frazzled after the script-proofing thing I said to my boyfriend you go eat, I just need to sit in the car. So he went in to get food and I just got out of the car and started walking, walking endlessly. I had this feeling like I was above my body. I was in this I think it was a cul-de-sac and I was just walking and I had the thought if I get to the end of this cul-de-sac, I'm going to forget who I am and just keep walking forever.

Speaker 3:

Oh my God, I didn't know this at the time, but I now know. I went into a fugue state and luckily I happened upon this guy who was walking his dog. I asked to pet his dog and then I started sobbing. I asked him to walk me back to the parking lot. He walked me back and I went into the restaurant and my boyfriend wasn't there, luckily. I had heard something that said in the age of cell phones, you should have your loved one's phone numbers memorized. So I had my boyfriend's number memorized and I called him on the restaurant phone and he was so angry.

Speaker 3:

He was scared. He was like you left everything in the car. The door was open. You left your ID, your wallet was in there. I had no idea where you were. You were just gone. That was when I was like okay, this is crazy, I have to set some boundaries. If she texts me after 8 pm or before 8 am on the weekend, I just wouldn't answer. I was like I am not going to go crazy for this job, that's not going to happen. The thing that kept me going was that she told me I was going to get to go to set. She was going to fly me to B***h for the pilot. Then after a while she slipped in oh, you can stay with my sister. Then all of a sudden it became oh, actually they're using the house for a set, so you can't stay there, so I'm just going to go with an assistant over there. And it was like, okay, fine. So I was laid off. I think she was gone for about a month, maybe three weeks, and then I was rehired for the edit.

Speaker 2:

So did you take the job because of financial reasons or because you still wanted to be part of the show?

Speaker 3:

I wanted to be a part of the show and look, I don't quit things. I was taught very early on by my parents you have to be the best. If you are the best, they cannot argue with you. And it's not just about you, it's about your entire race, it's about all of us. You have to be the best, and if you don't show up, you won't get it done. So if I'm not in that spot, somebody else will take it tomorrow, and my only chance to get to do the next thing is to just stay here and grind it out. So do it, fucking, do it. Post-pilot. Some of the bullshit I had to deal with. Find her a new personal trainer. Oh, my God, the plant-based diet. She wanted a plant-based food system and then she was like this has too many beans in it. It's like bitch, what do you think plant-based is? What else? I had to write all her wedding thank you notes, oh, my God.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, like I said, some days I go to the studio, some days to her house. Like I said, some days I go to the studio, some days to her house. There was one day she didn't contact me. I didn't know where I was going. So I went to a cafe between her house and the production office to write these thank you notes. And she called me and she was like, oh, you're at a cafe and it was like I'm writing your thank you notes and you're mad that I'm at a cafe. That's what the attitude is for Another good one gotta make sure I get everything. She was at the studio. I was at a grocery store near her house.

Speaker 3:

This was not long after tamir rice and michael brown and trayvon there have been so many black men the police have murdered and I was in the parking lot and all of a sudden there were helicopters circling and I see 10 cops with huge guns pointed at one black man lying on the ground, legs spread. I just froze and the cop was like get out of the way. What the fuck are you doing? So I get in my car and I drove to the studio. She had to sign something, so I bring her what she needs to sign. And I'm shaking and the notary is like, are you okay? And I just start sobbing. The woman gives me a tissue and just looks at me. The exec or notary was like, here, have some tissues, get some water. And was just like, hmm, yeah, and patted my arm and then refused to sign. The thing that was a part of me. That was like did she start this fight with the notary? Because I was emotional about watching a black man almost die. Did I steal the spotlight? So she had to make a bigger issue.

Speaker 3:

Then there was one time my friend was coming into town so I told I'm not available this entire weekend. I'm going to the desert and I will have no reception. And she was like, oh, are you doing ecstasy in the desert? And I was like, um, no, we're doing shrooms. I was staying in LA, I was going to a concert, I don't know why. I said I was doing shrooms. But a week or two later she asked me to go get her shrooms. Oh, no, I was like, oh God, I've never bought drugs in my life, but she had the connection. So I go out to this apartment complex on the West side, I'm picking up the shrooms. And I was like, well, I'm here, so can I buy some weed? And the guy was like oh, I'm not a drug dealer, I'm doing this for this is just a favor. By the way, how is the pilot going? Are they staffing? And I was like is this drug dealer trying to network with me? What the fuck is happening. This is the most Hollywood story ever.

Speaker 3:

So I got her the shrooms, Almost saw a person getting shot. So now we're doing post and she told me that she had an affair with someone on the pilot and she asked me to download all her emails about the affair and put it on a zip drive. So I was like, all right, but I'm going to read them If you're dumb enough to give me access to your emails. At one point she came into my office and she was like, wow, this is taking a long time. And I was like, wow, this is taking a long time. And I was like, yeah, you know the Internet Gmail. So I read all of them. There was nothing juicy. But then I was like, while I'm here, I'm going to search for my name in her emails Just to see. I think the E for Beaver, Ernest Millennial, was like maybe she said something nice about me, since I'm killing myself. And then I found an email from my second week when I was going into the feud state, where she said can we blame the pilot being late on my assistant?

Speaker 2:

Oh my God, that's horrible.

Speaker 3:

So I was like, okay, what's the move here? I'd read that in the military you'd fail up. So I decided I'm just going to ask her to be the writer's assistant. What else am I going to do at this point? So decided I'm just going to ask her to be the writer's assistant. What else am I going to do at this point? So I asked her and she said yes. I was shocked that it worked, but I was so elated, so relieved. It was like all right, I just had to survive until the room.

Speaker 3:

Before the room started, there was a night when she asked me to pitch episode ideas and the night it happened I was leaving her house and she had friends over and I remember these women coming in and looking at me like I was dirt.

Speaker 3:

I remember thinking you're looking down on me and I'm feeding her my creativity, giving her my perspective as a woman of color Fucking hell. During the holidays I was still working for her when the town was shut down and there was a day when I went to her house and she said to her husband can we find something for her to do today? I was like there's 50 things I could be doing for you at any given moment and you're asking your husband to find something for me to do. It felt so insulting, so demeaning, like I was driving around getting her kids Christmas gifts. I understand that personal shift is just part of the game, but I just felt used. I did get some petty revenge, like one day she asked me to pick her up from an early morning class. She wanted me to pick her up all the way over on the east side to drive her from the class to her car, which was four blocks away. Are you?

Speaker 3:

fucking kidding me so I turned the ac on high and I directed all the vents toward her in the passenger seat. So when she got in the car, she sat in it for a minute or two and then she slammed the vent shut and never asked for me to give her a ride anywhere again. Awesome, but those moments were few and far between. Mostly it was just her telling me to do work, produce creativity, pull pictures, produce things that would come to no end. It would always come to no end. After winter break, she started staffing the room. I was like I'm going to be the writer's assistant. This is great, the end is in sight. Then I was cc'd on an email where I see that she's offering the position to other people. Oh no. That was when I was like I'm done. I sent her an email and I said I cannot continue with you in the room. Tomorrow will be my last day. Her an email and I said I cannot continue with you in the room. Tomorrow will be my last day. So I gave 24 hours notice because it was so clear at that point that she did not respect me. There's a difference between paying your dues and eating shit, and I was just eating shit.

Speaker 3:

The next day I came over to her house to pick up some things and the first thing she said to me was did you think you were going to be the writer's assistant? And it was like you said yes. You said yes, and that's the thing. She could have said no, I don't think you're ready for that. I wouldn't have been happy, but I might've still stayed. But it was just like why lie? I'm running your staffing grids, I'm coordinating your meetings. I'm going to find out you're offering the job to other people. Why lie? And for her to be like did you think you were going to be the writer's assistant? It's like you know what you did, you know why I'm quitting and you don't care. So, yeah, I finished one last thing, which was to plan her Mexico trip, and I was done. And then I actually called someone and I was like I'm quitting, do you want this job? And and the person was like didn't you hate that job? And in that moment I realized I was so focused on getting out I didn't think about whether it'd be worth it to put someone I know into that position.

Speaker 3:

A couple of months later, someone emailed me and said hey, I'm assistant. I have a couple of questions for you and I was like no, I do not work for this person anymore. But then she wrote me back and was like no girl, I need to talk to you. Oh shit. And it's so crazy because over the years I've been at parties on the picket line and people come, will come up to me and be like, oh my god, I was her assistant too. This woman has had so many fucking assistants there were enough of us that we had a conclave. We had a bitch session about her for like three fucking hours.

Speaker 3:

A few years after I quit, she emailed me. The email said something like I'm doing amends, I'm reaching out to people. It sounded like you had a lot of responsibilities and didn't understand the expectations and it was like no bitch. You said I could be the writer's assistant and you fucked me over. That's it. That's why I quit. Sometimes I wonder if she was a sociopath, because I just don't have any other explanation for her behavior. I mean, look, in sixth grade I cheated on a lot of tests and then I got to a point where I was like this is wrong. If I want something using illegal means, then that would tarnish the wins for me, but for people like a win is a win. If I download all the designer's decks, then I will get the best outfits. If I tell my assistant that she's going to come to set, she's going to work that much harder. A win is a win.

Speaker 1:

If she was sitting in the room right now and you could say anything you wanted to say to her, what would say?

Speaker 3:

fuck you. Yeah, I am a married woman now who has been to therapy, so there's a part of me that would be like just don't lie to people. Don't offer to fly me to set. Don't say I can be the writer's assistant. Just don't lie. That's what I would like to say. But also I wouldn't want to say anything, because she's a gaslighter. She knows why I quit. Then she's gonna send me an email two years later and be like you didn't know what expectations were. There's nothing to say to her. Is she going to change? Is she interested in doing better? You don't go through that many assistants. You don't torture that many people without getting off on it. And one more thing you can't fuck over that many people on a new show. And one more thing you can't fuck over that many people on a new show. This is me being my horrible strategic self. Like can be a monster, but he's made billions of dollars. But to her I'd be like you don't even have enough power yet, oh damn.

Speaker 1:

This podcast is anonymous for both the victim and the perpetrator, but what would you tell everybody about if you could?

Speaker 3:

Don't work with her. I've been in generals where people have said to me oh my god, that show is so good, but if you work with her, at best your ideas will get stolen, at worst you'll be running in circles giving her creative energy. That will go into a void. She's a black hole and there's no amount of creativity or pictures of plates or looking at receipts or sending her options that will fill that hole, because at a certain point she's just feeding off of your energy. If vampirism is how she has to create her art, there's no reason to be a part of that.

Speaker 2:

It's just not worth it Absolutely All the things you're just killing yourself to do because you're trying to be the best and because you don't quit things, and all those things that you said about yourself. It's just going to get sucked into that black hole and disappear forever.

Speaker 3:

Exactly. And you know what's crazy? I've been nervous about doing this podcast, but she did this. All of this happened Like bitch. It was you. You did all this. I feel lighter.

Speaker 1:

That's what we're here for.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for sharing this story with us. Please go create in peace. Oh my God, there are so many elements of this story that I identify with or that terrify me in some way. I mean the thing I can't get over. There are so many things, but one of the things that I really cannot get over is how the pressures of the industry gaslit this confessor into feeling like everything was their fault, to the point that they were questioning whether they could even tell these stories because like no, no, that's on me, like I fucked up, I failed somehow, or I can't talk about these things because I uh am, I am going to lose in some way, and I'm just like that's so fucked up.

Speaker 2:

And you come to the point where it's like, bitch, it was you. Like to be able to make that change in your own mind, where you realize you are not the problem. The like toxic Hollywood is the problem, the toxic boss is the problem. Bitch, it was you. You did all these things. I think is an incredibly powerful thing and shout out to this confessor for getting there and being brave enough to talk about it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's incredible, Especially thinking about where this confessor came from with those episodes of burnout. I mean, burnout is just so real and I feel like we're not talking about it enough. The amount of things assistants have to do these days I mean they were working on two pods at one time that's insane amounts of work.

Speaker 2:

Can you talk about what a pod is and what the work is like?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean with a pod. It's constant scheduling, it's constant note taking and it's really fast turnarounds too. Sometimes, if something is ramping from development to go into an actual writer's room or into actual production, the turnaround times become super tight and there's a ton of work and I mean it's that for two, to do that for two that's like 80 hours a week minimum. Yeah, and that's if you're lucky, that's if it's just at a regular pace.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and then you're put in that position and, because of the extreme competitiveness of this industry, it's like you can't fuck it up.

Speaker 1:

Oh God, that is something I related so much when the confessor talked about it how it always feels like there's another person ready to take your job if you give it away. It always feels like there's another person ready to take your job if you give it away, yep, and that's such a powerful thing that keeps assistants in their place, which is really frustrating.

Speaker 2:

Yep, that's right that, like feeds into the gaslighting and um, also, like you say, the burnout. I mean what was really fascinating to me and heartbreaking about the um, the burnout that this this person was experiencing was, uh, when they went into a fugue state. Oh God that's fucking insane.

Speaker 1:

It's scary.

Speaker 2:

I mean, it's like there was so much pressure and just the constant barrage of like. It feels like every email and every text was just more pressure, more pressure, more pressure. You got to do this, do this, do this, be more perfect, be like better, be faster, be more aggressive, be more, more, more, more, more, until the point where this person literally lost all sense of who they are.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, To have that feeling of just like if I walk past this cul-de-sac, I will not rejoin my body. I mean, that's, that's damn near life and death.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I mean this industry. There are so many things that we love about it and, like you and I, um, are really, really blessed to have a job, not just any job. I mean, we have a job on a show that we love, with people that we love, and it's a very positive environment. But this is so rare and, like, the realities that so many people are dealing with are just extreme and just impossible situations, and so I think, like I want to like share this. I'm so happy that we can share this confessor's story, to just be like hey, we're all in this together and we know that these things happen, and if this is happening to you or anything similar to this is affecting you in this way, like a you're not alone and B you can get out of there.

Speaker 2:

You can find good, happy people to work with and people who will value you for who you are.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's. This all reminds me of something One of my friends told me back when I was an engineer, but it helps me stay grounded when things get a little too crazy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

He told me we're not doctors, we're not nurses, nobody's going to die. And it's like, yeah, the worst thing that's going to happen is a script doesn't go out on time. Like yeah, who cares in the grand scheme of things? Like the show's going to get done.

Speaker 2:

We're going to be okay. So what you're saying is like you're behind on a script to get done.

Speaker 1:

We're going to be okay. So what you're saying is like you're behind on a script.

Speaker 2:

That's not what I'm saying. Yeah, I mean, I love it and that's that's what it's all about. You know, that's just a change in perspective. Um, that's going to lead us to our mission of, like, making Hollywood a happier place. Um and uh, on that note, guys, our listeners, um, we are uh also wanting to make sure that we share with you that in season three, we're kind of branching out on our ways to accomplish that mission.

Speaker 2:

Um, it's going to be a big year coming up. We've got IOTC negotiations coming up, the animators guild obviously there's an election. So, like, we're here with you, we're going to be talking about these things and also telling stories, sharing confessions, but also doing some live interviews from people who are actively working to make Hollywood better in various ways the founders of Pay Up Hollywood. We have an excellent interview with Mo Ryan, who's a journalist for the Hollywood Reporter, who also wrote the book Burn it Down, exposing a lot of abuses in the industry. And we've got some new formats for episodes coming up. Jr, do you want to talk about those, since it was kind of like your passion project?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we've got two oral histories coming up this season and, quite frankly, I love to hear a story told by a hundred different perspectives, because no story lives in a vacuum. We all experience an event from our own point of view and I just think it's lovely when all of that comes together to tell one single story. This season we have two really powerful oral histories. We have two really powerful oral histories. We've got Dream On an oral history of one artist's search for a job in Hollywood, and also Portrait of an Abuser, which is going to be a story told from the perspective of people in many different departments, all of who experienced different facets of his abusive behavior.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that one is going to be intense. I am scared of it and also really looking forward to being able to share that particular series with the world. It's probably going to be a multi-part series and then, on a lighter note, we are starting a list Hollywood loves lists. There's the short list, the black list there's are you on the list? Happy Hollywood list, which is going to be an open list of people who have been recommended by you, our listeners, as outstanding people to work with in the entertainment industry. So these can be people from any department. They could be like even lawyers, or you know anybody that you can think of who you just want to shout out and let the world know this is a good person. This is one of these people who are making Hollywood a happier place.

Speaker 1:

If you know someone who should be on the happy Hollywood list, let us know. Or if you're considering a job and you want to know if they're good people to work for, check the list and spread the word. The more people we can add to the list, the more we can help make Hollywood a happier place.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, hit us up on social media at Fuss Up Hollywood, share the podcast, connect with us, make sure you're subscribed and join us again in two weeks for a story that's going to inspire us all about a PA who discovered that they were making less than everybody else on set and decided to do something about it.

Speaker 1:

See you then, faithful, excited to do something about it. See you, then, faithful. The Hollywood Confessional is produced by Megan Dane and JR Zamorathal. Our cast for this episode, taylor Brooks. Special effects provided by ZapSplat and Pixabay. Hollywood Confessional is a Ninth Way Media production. Follow us on socials, at FessUpHollywood.