"Designing Women" actress Annie Potts | The Latest With Maya

A conversation with Annie Potts.❤️ Watch new episodes of Annie's show, "Best Medicine" Tuesdays on FOX!



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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hi Annie, welcome to The Latest with Maya. Annie Potts is an actress who you've seen in the Ghostbusters movies Pretty in Pink, Designing Women, The Toy Story movies, The Fosters, Young Sheldon, and so much more. Annie even guest starred in one of my all-time favorite shows, Royal Pains. You can currently see Annie in the new show Best Medicine, which I love. Thank you so much for being on my show. I'm so excited to be talking with you. My privilege. So who do you most admire and how has that impacted the way you live your life?

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Who you know it's honestly it's not a single person. It's it's it's all people who who live their life in service to others, those who are there always to stand up for and pull up and stand by. And they that those are the people that I admire.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Oh, I love that. Yeah. Um, yeah, so what small things bring you joy on a daily basis?

SPEAKER_00 1:44

What small things? Um well, you know, I'm uh I'm a family person, so of course my children who even though they're grown up now, every everything they do and say is still my favorite thing in the world. And uh, and now I have grandchildren, so uh that that world is expanding, but uh just to have a little FaceTime with them or a moment or have them sit in my lap, that and uh I I love to work. I just uh I think it's uh it's so interesting. I've never since I started doing it when I was like 12 years old, I thought this this is so much fun and the people are so interesting, and uh so any day at work is just great for me.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Oh, I love that. Yeah, um, so if you had a warning label, what would yours be?

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Uh if you're gonna be mean, don't don't talk to me. Um I uh yeah I p you know it's my I'm I'm in New York right now and uh my son and I are uh uh we have an apartment here and he lives here. He's just finished up his uh masters and anyway, we were uh we were watching uh TV and he said, so what what shall we watch tonight? And I said, as long as it's as long as it's nice. I said, I can't, I can't do violence, I can't do people being mean, hateful. I just that that is um we we just can't have any more of that in the world. Uh I don't want it in the room with me. You see my earrings my girlfriend made that say no kings.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

They're good, aren't they? Yeah, they are. I couldn't see what they said, but I was like, I love those. They're just so cool. Yeah, so I I don't want I don't want any kings, and I don't want anybody being I mean, I can't believe what's happening in America. I really can't. I I can't believe that our own government is is murdering our own people. Uh I'm it's uh and but and but I guess that's a sentence. Um to see how people are are taking care of each other and gathering and supporting and making sure that um people who are afraid to come out of their houses get food. And I think I think when we get through this, we'll be a better country. I think it's very instructive. Um, but I think we've got to all stand up and do that thing, be in service to the ideas that put this country together, um, and take care of each other.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Um, so I am uh pop culture obsessed, and I go in stages of shows that I cannot stop watching. Is there a show that you are currently obsessed with?

SPEAKER_00 5:34

I'm obsessed with the pit.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

I love the pit, I think it's just great. Um I think the acting's great, I think the scripts are great, and you know, there's there's always so I mean uh an emergency room is always where stuff is going down. Really lovely stuff. Oh my god, we saved a life, and then you know, on the other side of that, but I just think it it's so beautifully done and acted and thoughtful. I just love it.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Yeah, I I'm obsessed with the pet. I'm always like counting down how many days until a new episode, and so yeah, it's I I know Thursday.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

We have to wait till Thursday, don't we? Yeah, what else are you obsessed with? What am I missing?

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Oh, um, I just finished watching the final season of Queer Eye. Um oh gosh, yeah, yeah. I I just I love that show. It's just such a like feel-good show, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

I have I haven't watched that in a while. Maybe I'll take that back up.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Oh, yeah. I it was um good to watch it because we like my family and I have been watching a lot of dark stuff recently, and we were like, we need something light, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

So I agree. Well, that's where my new show comes in, too. It's sweet, and it's about lovely people taking care of each other, yeah, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Yeah, um, so what is uh the best advice you have ever gotten?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Oh never give up. It it it takes a it takes a lot of courage to keep going sometimes. And uh you know I've always in hard times I've I've always had family who was there to to tell me that you know I could do it, keep going.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

So I love that. Yeah, yeah, that that's uh great advice. Um so what has been the biggest obstacle, either personal or professional, that you've overcome?

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Well, when I was 21, I was in an automobile accident, drunk drivers hit me, and uh I I broke every bone in my body below my waist, but one. And uh so I was many months in the hospital and uh and then you know had to recover after uh I got out. And I've had over the years um like uh I more than 20 surgeries. And uh so uh I'm just about to have another one ug. Um but that's been really challenging for me. And challenging because I, you know, I uh I don't have a desk job. I have to I have to, you know, walk around and do things. And uh so it's it's uh been a little tricky sometimes. Um I had before I I broke my legs, I I had been I had been doing a lot of musical theater, and I thought that that would be my entree into my profession doing that. But then after that was like, well, there's no more dancing. But just uh 10 years ago, I was offered a role on Broadway uh in a musical, and not only did I have to dance a little bit, but I had to do a trapeze act, and um uh even looking back now, I can't believe I did that. I mean, I was up on the trapeze with this amazing, amazing uh uh uh performer from the Cirque du Soleil, but um it was like uh that was that was the universe's saying, see, you could do it. Um and it meant so much to me to to do it. Um even though uh it was I was uh 62 when I did that. And if somebody had told me when I was just coming out of school that I wouldn't I wouldn't be doing a musical on Broadway until I was 62, I might have thrown in the towel, you know? Oh my gosh. But I had the best time.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Oh wow. Yeah, I well, I'm so sorry that you know you have to you had to go through that and still have to go through surgeries, and also that is extremely impressive.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Well, I I don't know if you love what you do, you'll do anything to keep doing it pretty much. Um uh so um I didn't I didn't think it was uh I mean a lot of my friends said, are you insane? The trapeze? With and there was no net, no harness either. Oh wow. But uh yeah, it sure was fun. I felt safe the whole time.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Oh good. Oh, I love that. Yeah. Um so what is um the greatest lesson you have learned from a character you've played?

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Well, I take home I try to take home the best bits of the characters that I do. And sometimes, you know, when you play somebody who's really strong, you you come away feeling like, wow, I'm I must I must be able to be that strong because I knew how to uh harness it. And uh so somewhere I had that inside of me. So I I mean little little things, little insights that maybe I wouldn't as Annie have seen, but the character allows me to to have some uh real insight into those those feelings.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Yeah. Oh I love that. Yeah. Um so what genre of movie would your life story be told as?

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Uh oh, I think it'd probably be a dramedy. Just look half and half, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

I like that. Yeah, I I've always wanted my life to be both a musical and a rom-com. So yeah. It's yeah, that works too. Um so do you have any irrational fears?

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Uh well, I don't know if they're irrational, but I certainly have some. I I I have a uh I have a uh ongoing uh nightmare um that I'm on a I'm on on a a road that's like that hairpin turns and it's only wide enough for one car and I can't see around the corner. And yeah. I but I don't think that's irrational. I'm sure it's it's connected somewhat to the uh to having been in an accident. Um but uh I think you know w, I don't know. I'm thinking about no, none of my fears are irrational. They're all absolutely rational, and everything I'm afraid of is stuff that could actually happen. Um that's probably not entirely true, but um I think uh I think once you have children and uh you're just always worried forever. Oh goodness, what can I be there for them? What you know, whatever it is. Uh anyway, everything's going pretty well, so good.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Yeah, I um I have too many irrational fears that I always think are rational, and my mom and my sister always remind me that it's that they're irrational. So when I'm kind of spiraling about something, I'm like, what if this happens? Like, that's not going to happen. I say, but it could, and they're like, it's highly unlikely.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

I know it's hard to talk yourself out of those things sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Yeah, it is, yeah. Um, so what movie, book, uh, song, play, or show has had the biggest impact on you.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Oh gosh. Uh you know, different different things. Um, you know, year to year it changes, and I uh I just saw a beautiful I've seen it uh a couple of plays in New York that were just sensational. They have a uh a new um uh uh uh at Lincoln Center, they're doing the musical ragtime. And I I didn't see it when it first came out, but it's so poignant and beautiful, and the performances are just wildly fantastic, and and the lyrics are great, um, beautiful and beautifully uh done. There's a performer named Joshua Henry, who's a singer, and oh my god, he he plays Coal House Walker. It's a it's a it's from a beautiful book, anyway. That knocked me out. Uh, I mean, that's a great big production, and then I saw a little one-woman show that was so beautiful called Nothing Can Take You From the Hand of God, and I was so moved by that. Um, I try to see as much theater and um and as many movies as I can because uh well it inspires me and it it thrills me, you know. So um, but I'm always I'm always up for the next thing.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Yeah. Um yeah, there's so many um things that have like always just always stuck with me that I think about all the time.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

What what are the what are those things that stuck with you?

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Oh, um I mean there's um a line from one of my favorite shows, A Million Little Things, where one character he says love each other. Um, that that just has that line has always stuck with me. And then and there actually another line from the show where one character just says, um, I always get it confused. Uh I don't know why I always mess it up. I don't know if he says have a beautiful life or have a wonderful life, but I like both of those. So I don't know. I think about those two lines a lot. Um yeah, but there's so many that I'm kind of I'm blanking at the moment.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

But I know that's me too. I have so many, and sometimes I'll forget them until I see that movie again. And then it's like, oh my god, I'd forgotten about that for years, and it meant so much to me.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Yeah, um, yeah, definitely. Yeah, there's also I have a lot of scenes that from like shows and different movies that just kind of play on a loop in my head, just uh make me laugh whenever I need uh whenever I need a laugh. So um I think those scenes have impact those scenes have impacted me too because they make me happy.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

So yeah. Well life is kind of uh tricky. I once I I was it was I was do doing a show. I was doing designing women actually, and uh I I wasn't I wasn't I wasn't having a great time doing it at that particular time. You know, some years were really great, and some years it was like, oh, I got nothing to do here. Anyway, I was thinking, oh, why do why do I do this? And I would rather be doing something else. And I had to go to the hospital to see a friend, and the hospital in uh in Los Angeles, the the Cedars Hospital, is so it's so enormous and it's so complicated. I I I'm always lost there. So I was trying to find my friend's room, and you know how it is when you go down the hall in the hospital, you look left and you look right and kind of see what's going on in there. Um it was at night, so uh every you know, was eight or so, so people were just watching TV, and I I'm thinking the whole time, I'm thinking, oh, I'm so unhappy in my work. And then I realized after I got lost down about five different hallways, that every every doorway that I passed had on the TV, and they were all watching that show. Because I I'd heard snippets of Dialogue, it was like, oh, oh, oh, oh, that's my show. And I thought, you know, I'm missing the point. This is why you do this, you know. So people who are lying in a hospital bed having fears and concerns and um sadness and things, that's what that's what uh entertainment is for. Then I thought, I'm built for this. I'm built for it. So I should embrace it and be happy about what I'm doing because it's doing it's doing more good than I uh I I understood.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah, it's yeah, entertainment is such um, I mean, it's always been my escape. And so I know for a lot of people, for so many people, it's been um it's always an escape too.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Um so what is um something people are always surprised to learn about you?

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Oh gosh. Uh um I I don't know. I I I I don't I don't know. Uh I uh I guess gosh, I don't know. I never ask people what surprises me uh what surprises you about me? Um uh well I think just generally speaking, most people think us actors are um uh it might be uh well that we might not be down to earth or something. And uh I I guess that it's not just true of me, but it's true of a lot of actors. It's like wow, you're just like a real person. I was like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

Yeah, yeah. Um, so I just have uh one final question for you. Um, so today, what are you most grateful for?

SPEAKER_00 24:55

What am I most grateful for? Um so many things. So many things. Um that uh you know that I have my family and my friends and my faith and that uh I'm I'm still I'm still working, even though I'm 73 and I'm I've broken all my bones. I'm still going. Yeah I'm still doing it, and that is uh that that makes me happy.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Yeah. Oh, I love that. Yeah. Um, well, that was um my final question for you. Um, I've had the best time talking with you. You've made my day. You made mine. Thank you, and um thank you so much for joining me, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Great, thank you, Maya. Much love to you. Oh it was a it was a joy talking to you.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Thank you so much. You yeah, like I said, you've made my day. I woke up not feeling great today, so this has this has made my day. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Oh good.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Well feel better. Thank you. Um, and I hope you have um a great rest of your day. Thanks, you too. Thank you. Bye bye. Um, and that's the wrap on today's edition of The Latest with Maya.