Natanya Ross: The Secret World of Alex Mack

We sit down with Natanya Ross, known to a generation as Robyn Russo, the dark, sharp, unforgettable heart of The Secret World of Alex Mack.

Natanya's story starts earlier than almost anyone's, on stage as a baby and on Broadway before she ever set foot in Hollywood. We get into the call that changed her life & pulled her family west, the audition that was only supposed to last three episodes and turned into one of Nickelodeon's most beloved characters, and what it was like to grow up on camera, as the show became part of a generation's childhood.

We get into all of it, the family she was raised in, a momager who managed a remarkable career and the money that came with it, and the harder chapters that followed once the show ended and the anchor it gave her was gone. Natanya is open in a way few people ever are about the years she lost, the people she lost along the way, and the long road back. What she built on the other side of it, a life in recovery and mental health advocacy, is the part she's proudest of, and the part that almost never gets told.

There are lighter moments too, shut-down amusement parks for wrap parties, the cast that's still family decades later, a 90s love story with another familiar face, and a few set secrets she's never shared. We talk about owning your past instead of hiding from it, why the loudest stories about child actors are so often the wrong ones, and what it really means to still be here.

It's funny, it's honest, and it's a reminder of exactly why this podcast exists, because the real stories behind the kids you grew up watching are always more interesting, and more human, than anything that made it on screen.

🎥 What happens in this episode?

00:00 – Cold open: "We're so back"

00:31 – Welcome, and the Robyn Russo reaction

03:51 – From Asbury Park to Broadway to the call that moved her west

07:01 – Becoming Robyn: three episodes that turned into an icon

13:43 – The cast that became family

14:29 – Growing up edgy in young Hollywood

18:32 – The momager, the Coogan account, and a complicated home

24:00 – Acting as the first escape

32:13 – The end of Alex Mack and getting herself back on the show

37:01 – Life after the show and holding on

40:15 – The eight mile audition and losing everything

45:29 – The hardest years, and the moment things turned

46:57 – Treatment, purpose, and a career in recovery

49:21 – "Nothing cooler than being kind"

55:00 – A 90s love story

57:26 – "We're Still Here, Babe" and rewriting the narrative

1:00:21 – The documentaries, the safe set, and the real story

1:05:31 – Would you do it all again?

1:06:00 – Set secrets and one last Polaroid

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Transcript

There was a good what decade and a half ish that no one was really talking about any of us. Right?

We're back in the time now.

We are so back. So babe back.

If you were anywhere near TV in the mid-90s, you already know today's guest.

She played Robin Russo on the Secret World of Alex Mack, one of the defining Nickelodeon shows of the decade, and brought the same warmth and energy to her role in the beloved babysitter's club movie.

She was part of the lineup that practically raised an entire generation, and we're so excited to have her on the show. Please welcome Natanya Ross.

From our childhood to yours, welcome to the NASA Little Rascals.

Hi Natanya.

Hi guys.

Thanks for joining us.

Oh my gosh. Thank you for having me here. Yeah.

So when Jordan told me that he got you to come on the show, I was like, Natanya Ross, Tanya Ross. And I looked you up and I was like, oh hell yeah. Because I'm not gonna lie, there was probably like there's probably a point in you know the 90s where I had a crush on you at some point.

Okay, well thank you. I'll take it. I'll take it.

I thought you guys were related. Played settlements.

I don't know. I was kind of like, wait, what's it?

It's only because redheads are almost ex extinct. Yeah, yeah, you have to stick together. Yes, we do.

Well, like obviously, I was a huge fan of um you know the secret role of Alex Mac, like anybody who grew up in our era was. Sure. Um, I was curious, like, what do what is the first reaction you get when people realize that you were Robin Russo?

Oh my god. And and thank you for saying Robin Russo, because that's actually the bigger reaction than the show, even.

Yeah.

You know, because when people put together like, oh my god, this week or old of Alex Mack, they think it's really cool. But once they realize, like, oh my god, you were Robin Russo, the reaction is um it's surprising, actually. It's um of course there's a lot of like you're my favorite actress growing and all of that, and it means so much, but there was a lot, and you will relate to this, there was a lot of like you were the only representation on television of a redheaded person, girl, in their teens and growing up and all the things, and just how different you looked from season one to season four and all the things, and um, and so many people told me how bullied they got in high school and being able to like watch me every night or Saturday on Snick, you know, was just it helped. Robin was just she was like in the darker pockets of life, you know. She just she understood cynicism in a way that I appreciate so much now. I understand her more and more and more the more older I get. And um, so yeah, people's reactions there, it's like all over the spectrum, really. I've had people start shaking sometimes, crying. Um, and then other people are like, oh my god, that's so cool, you know? But it's a it's a cool reaction, yeah. That's awesome.

It's probably cooler to hear that as as like as the years go on, too.

Yeah, definitely, definitely. Um, yeah, I mean, we we got pretty popular pretty quick. Um, so of course I can remember all of that stuff from in the 90s and the 2000s and stuff, but you know, there was a good what decade and a half-ish that no one was really talking about any of us. Right? So um, so yeah, it's different now. It's definitely it's we're back in a time. We are so back. We're so back. Uh it's a different feeling now. Yeah, it it means something differ a little different now because we're also, I think, all nostalgic for this too. Our perspective changes, right?

And we've and we appreciate it more.

We can own it, we can own it in a different way now, too. Because we're obviously growing a lot more as adults. Like individually, and it's a lot easier to just like you know, be proud of your past and show what you you know what you learned from it and who you grew up to be.

It's hard to it's hard to own it after a lot of years too, and just like and just say, like, I did that, I'm very happy with it, and like it's it's nice to just like say it versus hide away from it, which we all probably did at different times.

Sure, absolutely, absolutely.

So you're from New Jersey. I absolutely originally. Originally. I want to hear about the call that changed your life. What was the point where your family packed up and moved to Los Angeles to chase this dream?

Okay. Well, I don't know if you guys know this, but I started acting at six months old. So that's crazy. I crazy.

Crazy.

So I think that call came before I like even knew what the call was, you know.

Um but you must know the lore.

The lore. I mean, my career technically actually started on Broadway. A lot of m people don't know that. Yeah, so I was doing Broadway in New York. I started on off Broadway, I did Annie for a few years, and then I could see it. Um you got it? You get me.

It must keep going.

In my cup, I'm stealing and taking home with me. By the way. Um, and then I did um a couple shows of Les Miserables, and but we were flying back and forth for pilot season. So, in between this, this is the call I remember at least when I was old enough to remember I was nine eight, eight and a half, probably, maybe almost nine. And um, we were flown out to screen test for what ended up being my first television show called Billy, starring Billy Connolly. And so they they put us up at the Sheraton Universal, and um, I was just all I just wanted to go to Universal Freaking Studios, you know. I was like, finally, I'm out of Asbury Park. Like, just let me go to the studios. And uh my mom was like, no, Natan, we gotta stay by the phone. Yamanaja's gonna call any second David. His name is David. Um I wonder what happened to that guy.

Yeah.

He's waiting for the call standard. I know. Yeah, because he's like, he's like, I hate her. No. Um, so finally, she um finally she agreed to let us go to Universal Studios. She was like so tired of me bugging her. As we were walking down, this like, you know, that like long walk down from univers from Sheraton to go back up, whatever. We just hear Natanya, Natanya, and I'll never forget. My manager was running down. He had this like bright orange shirt on. He was like, You got it, you did it, you got it. And my mom was like, Oh my god, Natan! It was awesome. It was crazy, yeah. And uh so then we ran back upstairs to call my dad, who was back in Jersey, and um, and then once some of the excitement died down, I was like, Can we go now? To Universal.

That's a great memory, though.

Yeah, so that was that that was the call that really changed it all. I mean, I remember like a lot of the big calls, you know, Alex Mack, Babe Sitter, a lot of that stuff, but that was definitely like that was the one that changed your life.

Yeah, that's the thing. That made you move here.

Yeah, so we, you know, did like the thing you don't ever do is break Broadway contracts to to come to Los Angeles.

And for for others, like, what's the reason?

To be to do my first TV show.

No, what's the reason you would never break in product?

Oh, because you'll get blacklist yourself.

Broadway never forgets.

Yeah, even if you're eight years old, you will blacklist yourself. Yeah.

I know that you have you have a similarity with Jordan 

where for the Secret World of Alex Mac, you auditioned for multiple parts.

Correct.

Um, like Jordan, he auditioned for pretty much the entire cast of little rascals. Yeah, pretty much. Um so I want to hear about that process and what was that like? Did you feel any sort of rejection? And then because I know that there's a pretty cool story about how that role came about.

So yeah, I started auditioning for it when everybody else did, and I was auditioning for Alex, um, and then I was like getting all the way down to last calls, screen testing, and then it would be like, Oh, we're gonna bring her back for and try her for Annie for the sister. And so then I went back and went all the way to the end for the sister, and didn't happen. So then they filmed the pilot and everybody, every single character got recast. The sister, Alex. Oh wow, the origin uh the I don't even oh god, it's so bad. I don't even know who these people are. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

Is that is that a chemistry reason? Like because everyone did a match, or just they're like, okay, we're throwing it all, throwing it all away, trying again.

Probably like what did what they used to do back in the day, those like market research groups, you remember that stuff? Yeah, it was probably something like that, and they just didn't like the cast.

The testing just didn't work.

It the testing.

I think it happened a lot with Kid Cast too, where it's seem you know, a lot of people audition for different roles end up with someone else because you just don't know how a person ends up on screen.

And I'm such a like deep believer in the universe, too, that it just wasn't meant for those people. It was meant for us, you know. So they went and filmed the pilot, and you know, we thought it was done, and then we got the call, like, hey, they're recasting, they want to bring you back in for Alex. So went back and did the same thing again, and it was a no. Then back for the sister, same thing again, and then it was a no. And I was like, fuck this show. Fuck Lynch Entertainment, just kidding, Tommy. I love you. Um, and um, and so then my agent calls like a month later. They're like, okay, they wrote a part just for you. They love you so much. They wrote you a part, it's just three episodes, it's not like a big, big thing, but you know, this is how much they liked you, and you they you just have to go down there and put it on tape for them. I was like, okay. And I was very mature at nine years old. You know, I like nine. No, actually, I was ten.

You were ten when this started. So you were ten when that show started.

No, no, I was ten when I started auditioning for it.

Okay, yeah, gotcha. Until I was eleven and a half. Were you mature just because of you just wore as a kid or growing up with all the Broadway and everything else helped make that go faster?

Yeah, I mean, before I was like ten years old, I had done 50 national commercials, Broadway, off Broadway. I was I did Crimes and Misdemeanors, I did Awakenings, speaking of Robin Williams, I did um I did Little Monsters, I did um uh One Life to Live General Hospital, Every Soap You Can Do in New York. I mean, I so I That's all before 10. That's all before 10.

Okay. Yeah. That's a lot.

Yeah. And now because of I'm so old in my brain, where where was that leading to?

Well, I mean, that just that's that makes sense why you you were so mature at 10. Oh, you're not gonna be able to do that. You're just you're traveling, you're traveling or going on session. You're living in very different.

Thank you. Yes. So I just I just kind of understood the industry already. I mean, I just, you know, I I was astute, I guess. Um, so when they said we need her to come back and put it on tape, I was like, oh my fucking god. So I went back there and like I walk in and it's a hundred other girls, you know, all there for Robin.

I was like, that doesn't feel the same.

Yeah. This was not written for me, I'll tell you that. But I went in there and I just did like such a throwaway because even at that age, I was like already over it. I was like, I'm good, no, it's okay.

The burnout started early with you.

Very early. But what what ended up happening was I went in there and I actually created that character out of this very cynical, like just whatever kind of fuck it attitude, and that's how Robin was born. Really?

That's a cool story. You are Robin Whistle versus the other way around.

A hundred percent. And also, um, you know, I I and it's so I'm so I'm so honored. I've been dubbed like the OG emo goth alt girl of Nickelodeon.

Yeah. Well they wouldn't so they weren't showing a lot of shows for like an older an older group of kids.

No, we were one of the first, you know, live action drama shows for sure, like in that where it was more for like a uh it wasn't like a Dawson's Creek type of teen show, but you know, we were teenagers on the show going through teenage stuff in high school and and all of the things. And um, so anyway, went in, did the audition, blah blah blah, and got the role, of course. Um went, did the three episodes, you know, of loved it, loved everyone, you know. At the end of that, I was like, and then when they ra when they yelled rap for me at the end of the third one, they were like, actually, Natanya, can you come back for a second? I was like, I just knew.

I was you killed it.

I was like, yes. And like, we would like to invite you to stay. And that was it.

And that's that's that's a better story, dude.

Like it it was crazy. Yeah, I mean, I was only supposed to be there for three episodes.

Right. You know, I feel like you created this character just as much as the writers did.

I might have manifested it.

Well, I think you you did though what everyone learns to do when they're older in acting, which is you you made a fan in the room. When you make a fan in the room, they like you, like they're gonna try to make you fit later and keep you in mind.

They will.

And most people just like you do a good audition and you're forgotten until your headshot just rolls by.

Yeah.

That's special.

Yeah. Yeah, it it it was definitely a special, it's a special story. We tell it a lot. Um, me and Tommy laugh about it often. I'm so blessed that I still have uh relationships with all of them for the most part, including the creator of the show, um, who checks on me often and um is really has been such a paternal figure in my life, my entire life.

Yeah.

So you started you started shooting on that show when, like you said, when you were about 11 and a half.

I uh yeah, uh yeah.

And I believe I went five seasons?

We went four seasons, but we did double seasons.

Okay.

Yeah, which is yeah. What was we did 28 a season, which was crazy.

Oh, 28 episodes. I forgot how many episodes seasons were. How many years? How many years did you spend on?

Oh my god. Uh like seven years or something? Six or seven years.

So you I mean you spent some pretty pivotal years.

All my all of my formidable years. I went through all of my puberty, everything on that show.

What was the family dynamic

 like there? Because, like, uh, I mean, Jordan and I never got to experience a long-term television show. You know, I did mostly commercials, a couple of features here and there. You know, guest starring stuff, same as Jordan.

Yeah.

And um, but as a cameraman, I've worked on several long-term shows, like seven, eight years. Right. Those people really become part of your family. Oh, they do, yeah. That's right, 12 hours a day with them.

Yeah.

Curious what that was like as you know, yeah. As a teenager.

Absolutely. I mean, and we had so many of our firsts together, and then also Larissa and I did another movie together as well. Um, so yeah.

Babysitter's club.

Babysitter's club. Say hello to your friends. Um, we were definitely a family. We still are, you know. Um, we're still so close, it's crazy. They were all at my wedding.

And that's not like that's not. Can't glaze over that though. That's not very common. It's like to stay friends for that many years, even if you did something for that many years.

It's not very common. Yeah, and also um, you know, my I a lot most people know my boyfriend is Nate Richard, and he was on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and they're all the same as well, which is so cool to see. They're all such good friends still. Um, so yeah, we were very much a family. Um, Daris and I were like best friends from jump. Same with the Larissa. I mean, they were all my bet first best friends in life, you know. And um, I I was a I don't I was a bit of an edgier kid. So I think honestly, at a certain point, some of the parents probably were like, you know, let's keep our kids a little bit away from Natanya. Um, which was sad, but that's when my partying in young Hollywood in the 90s at that time really started to take off, you know, and they were focused on other things, like they wanted to go to college and and stuff like that. And I just, you know, wanted to go to clubs and live at the chateau and you know, do blow in the back of Dublin's. And yeah.

That's what everyone thinks of 90s actors, though.

Yeah.

But also that's what people do in their teens.

What age did that kind of start? Like the edginess. Like, when did the edginess start?

And like, you know, when did you start going on honestly, and especially as a redhead, like you don't like once you blossom, you blossom. You're either gonna be hot or you're not. I mean, it just is what it is, you know.

He's still he's still waiting. I I keep telling him it's it's his time.

So I think once I kind of understood that boys liked me and stuff like that, you know, I I I just started hanging out with like the different actor kids groups and that that were drinking and they were a little bit older and and um also like super famous too. And it was just a weird thing, you know. I had so many different friends circles and stuff, and and um but you know, the partying didn't get like severe until I was over 18 for sure. But I started drinking pretty young at like 14, 15 years old, yeah.

Like, were you in school during this time or just doing homeschool?

I mean, honestly, I was never not on set. Like, I there was really very few periods that I just wasn't on something. Um, but I did go to a high school called Excelsior High. It was me, Marla Sokoloff. Oh, Excelsior. Excelsior. Yeah. Um, my first boyfriend, my first love, Ben Gould. Shout out. Oh, there we go. Pretty sure he hates me still. That's okay. Um, just like any actor kids, you know, it was like two and a half hours a day with a 30-minute break in between. We were like smoking cigarettes behind the the liquor store. I mean, it was just, you know, everything you imagine young Hollywood in the 90s, for little. There we go. It was, it was. There was a lot going on at home for me. So I was just looking to escape wherever I could. You know, for me when I got to go to set, it meant I didn't have to be Natanya. You know, and oftentimes I yeah, oftentimes I think that maybe my first drug of choice was television because it was such an escape for me. Yeah, and I loved everything I was seeing so much, and I wanted to be it and emulated, and I fell in love with Lucille Ball and all, you know, just all of my idols. Um and then also that my first drug of choice maybe was acting, because I got to show up somewhere every single day, and I didn't have to be Natanya for a little bit.

Sure. A lot of other actors kind of say the same thing. Yeah. You get to consume someone else, but then that makes it hard when you're leaving a hundred percent. Because it's it's not like you just walk out and you go back to the room.

100%.

And like Blake asked, you you did the show for seven years. So even in between seasons, like you're not letting it go.

Yeah, no, I mean, and we were all still together in between seasons, and you know, um, yeah, we were we were a very close cast, still are. Okay. I'm really proud of that for sure, 

yeah.

What was your family dynamic like during this period?

So I was living with my mom right when like the second season, sorry, right when the second season of Alex Max started, was my dad left. I don't even think we'll have to do a part two or something. But I I ended up finding out at 35 years old that I'm adopted, actually. So the people that I'm talking about right now are not actually my parents.

Sure. Um, I just I want to hear about the momager, right?

Yeah, robbed me blind.

Yeah.

Um so you're not alone, sis.

Yeah, yeah.

Hence the heroin addiction. I'm just kidding. Okay. Um, but really. So yeah, I um the family dynamic was crazy. Um, my dad was I'm from Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Mm-hmm. That's like right. Do I have to say more?

You know what my dad did? You can guess, right? Uh Asbury Park, New Jersey.

I mean, he was probably in the mob. Fair enough.

I'm not allowed to say it. Um, so I uh yeah, I came from a our house in Jer. It was like casino. My mom was like Michelle Pfeiffer. My dad was like I mean, it's exactly what it was. And then um, you know, the second the second I was making enough m or whatever, she kind of got us out of Jersey and to Manhattan, which is where all the theater stuff took off and Broadway, and um and um you know they were both very sick individuals. Um my dad ended up getting in a lot of trouble and got sentenced to 10 years probation in the state of New York and somehow got it transferred to California. Very odd. Right. Very doesn't happen often. Not not often at all.

So I know some people, you know what I'm saying?

Right. So um it's I I have a really crazy story, that's why I always make a joke, like part two. There is a book, it's written, it's almost it's almost out. And uh so anyway, he yeah, he he took off when I was about 13, 14, and then we found out that he had transitioned to a woman.

Oh no shit at all.

Yeah, I mean, before we even knew how to talk about it. Yeah, yeah. Before I mean, but it was during a time where they were calling it a sex change, you know? Yeah. Um and and calling him a transvestite, and and um I uh my uh my mom knew the whole time. I never knew she decided to tell me like two years after he took off.

It's a hard thing to break to a child too.

It's a yeah, uh yes, especially uh I mean for her, I I don't it's such a it's such a complex thing because she was such a mastermind of the whole thing as well. I mean, she had adopted this child, specifically requested a redhead with blue eyes. I'm not shitting you. Yeah.

It's not shopping, yeah.

And um, yeah, anyway, it's a cra it's a crazy, it's a crazy, crazy, crazy story.

Yeah, it is. It seems like she did a good job of managing your career. I mean, so yeah, I mean you were very successful.

She wanted to make me famous and she did. She was determined to do so and she did so. Um up and to the point literally um to where you know I couldn't work anymore because my addiction and my alcoholism had taken over. So severely, and nobody was tending to no one was helping me. Sure.

Wasn't so that it was clear for others who were around you to see it.

Yeah, yes. I mean, I had the party house, everyone smoked weed at my house, we all drank at my house, we all or at Oakwood, it was my part, you know, it's Oakwood. Yeah, all I I mean, I yeah.

This is the part that I think anytime, whether it's it's not even just for child actors, but if you don't have the support system around you and the ones that are are looking out for that, it that's what's gonna happen to any kids to any kid.

Yeah, and that's why you know child actors are so precious to me now too, and like I'm always looking like how's your mom treating you? You know, I just because just because I I I know the long-term effects of like the first real heartbreak of my life was my mother. Yeah, you know, I mean, finding out that that everything you have worked for your entire life, never by choice, you know. Did I at some point realize I'm in love with acting? Sure, of course, but you don't have a choice at six months old.

You just keep going, yeah.

Yeah, so everything that you have worked for your entire life, all you get is what this little tiny amount in a Coogan account, because your mother figured out how to incorporate you at 10. So all you got was the Coogan account from from six months old to ten before you even got your success. Really? Okay, that was fun.

What it's it's tough when you hear like the way some parents can get around it.

Yeah, yeah. It's it's really criminal and and really, really damaging.

My story is very similar on like the financial side of the stuff.

I'm so sorry. Yeah.

I mean, you know, I I think it's it's actually super common. Like a couple of our other guests we've had, you know, yeah. Same story.

Yeah, no, I I think it it's one of those things where it tests a person in the family of greed. And really, look, if if they're doing it for you or they're doing it for themselves, like like do they feed off your fame in some other reason, or are they doing because they generally think, you know what? My kid is creative and talented, and they should do something, have an outlet.

100%. And that I believe in. I mean that and I mean also I have so many friends that are still actors that were child actors that did a diff went didn't go down the same path as me. And it's so true, they had such different parental structure. Yeah, you know. I mean, I was raised by wolves, basically. I mean, I was left on my own the second I was 16 years old. She let any guy that was over 18 years old be my set guardian. You know, I mean it was it was wild. Yeah, it was wild times. I really feel like I've raised myself my entire life. And the the most interesting part too is even when I found out I was adopted at 35 years old, the birth parents, both of them, the my birth father Michael and my birth mother Robin both had passed away. So I will ne I would have never I'm just in in this lifetime, I was not meant to have parents. But what I craved my whole life were brothers and sisters.

Sure.

And and I got that.

And that's why you get close to all your cats mates too, which is nice.

Well, that's the thing too, and you know, and Larissa as well, she was an own is an only child, and we've both said that you know, we're always trying to recreate family in whatever like social dynamic we're in, you know. And because until I was 35 years old, I was an an only child to a single mother. No father, no grandparents, no cousins, no aunts, no uncle, nothing. She kept me in a bubble away from everybody. Um to the point where she changed my birthday and my last name. Um like Ross's and even my adopted father's real last name, trying to hide me so much so the birth parents would never find me.

Oh, versus doing it for like an acting name reason.

Correct. Yeah.

Oh man.

Um, yeah, like my birthday legally is October 8th. Right. Or I'm sorry, uh October 4th legally, but she um changed it somehow to October 8th. It's just the whole thing is like crazy made.

Now you have a whole birthday week instead.

That's it.

I mean, it's just insane.

It's wild because it seems like you like you were literally a manufactured child actor. Like it's crazy.

Yeah.

So I like to remember back to Alex Mack and Robin Russo.

Let's do it.

I

 like to remember my Robin Russo. She had like a little bit, should have a little bit neurotic.

Very.

Very um, how much of that was like brought to the table by you?

All of it.

All of it.

Yeah. The writing, so she was named after the other co-creator, Ken Lippman's sister, Robin.

Okay. Okay.

Um, how much of like her attitude and stuff and the the writing was after his sister, I'm not sure. But, you know, obviously they gave me incredible writing to work with, but I um it's just how I played her from jump. It's interesting. I'll leave I I haven't watched the show in its entirety. So the majority of what I've seen are fan edits and clips, which is so sweet. And it's I watch everything that I'm tagged in. I watch absolutely everything, but it's interesting to see like the earlier seasons to like the very end episodes, you know, and just how much her character arc, like it was she just really interesting. She really evolved in real time in front of the world in the 90s.

As a teenager, honoring being a teenager.

Yeah, and especially for for that demographic of teenagers in the 90s, you know, where it was not really cool to be goth or emo or alt or any of those things. It wasn't really cool to have an opinion, it wasn't cool to have a political stance, it wasn't cool to know that like bullying is not okay. It wasn't none of those things were cool. But Robin knew those things were cool. She knew what was cool and she knew what wasn't cool. And um, so yeah, I mean, uh yeah, there's so much we're so enmeshed, me and her, you know.

I feel like I've I've heard you like obviously in this podcast already you've told us that she was kind of the first all emo kind of punk character that is definitely a nickelodeon at least. Were you aware of that at the time? Because it seems like you were very mature for your age. Like you had a very good sense of what was going on, like you were even able to make this character ten times better than it probably showed up on paper.

Oh, thank you so much. Um, I no, I did no.

How did you realize that? Like, how many years later did you go, wow, this this was actually the first character of this type?

And like someone said it to me. Who was it? I did a podcast during COVID, and someone was like, I don't know if you know, but it on Wikipedia or something like that, you're like dubbed the and said the whole thing. I was like, Oh my god! That's amazing.

It was like Daria and then Robin Russo.

Yes, Daria and Robin, that's right.

I saw this interview that you did in like '97, it was with variety. And even like at that age, you were still knowing that the character was like a role model for kids for all those reasons.

Yeah.

And and kind of like what Blake was saying, that's a really mature perspective to have, but to be aware, yeah, and then find a way to continue to honor that. Like that, like that's really cool. Like that wasn't being done.

Thank you. And I was also uh because I was so and also I mean, there's so so much red tape with Nickelodeon and your behavior offset, and especially once you guys start becoming famous, and there's just there's a lot of rules. It's a kids' network, you know. Um, but regardless of of how deeply I was suffering inside, and and no one really knew what was going on, and how that manifested through my actions, whether it was like I started smoking at 13 years old, or I started smoking weed at 14 or drinking or all the things, I didn't let that get out to the best of my ability publicly because I knew how big of a show this was for kids. One time I got clipped. See, I you even got clipped back in the 90s, but it was the National Inquirer, those fuckers. And they got me smoking a cigarette at a uh uh kids' choice awards.

Did that make you cooler back then? Or that or that almost got me fired. But like I wonder the response from from fans.

Oh no, it was horrible. I mean, I had uh kids writing me letters saying, I hope you die of cancer and knockwood. Is there any wood in here? Yes. Knockwood, I'm just you were still a kid, see, I am I'm I am neurotic in real life.

Well, you were still a kid hearing that kind of feedback.

Yeah, I I was and and and I was like, yeah, I mean, these people are right. I should not be smoking. But like still, just no one was watching anything really, you know. Or being sympathetic to maybe why I don't no one was even asking is everything okay? So no one, you know, there's nothing to be sympathetic to because I I was able to present so well um and hide so much of it, and then like as soon as I was offset and like straight to Oakwood, literally, and like who at wherever the party was that night, whatever whoever's apartment, it was like right into it, you know? Get offset, go straight there, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, whatever, and just you know, d uh Darius Love from my show um said it best. Oh god, what did he say? Oakwood was the place to be in the 90s if you were a famous child actor who was somebody but wanted to be nobody while still being somebody, right? You went to Oakwood.

I just want to give a little context. I want to give a little context on Oakwood. Oh yes. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because people might might not know about Oakwood. You're right. That's like an that's a OG.

Yeah, it's an inner circle thing. You're right.

So Oakwood are furnished apartments, and it's a community that's in there's one in Burbank, and most of the little rascals that came from out of town, they were all put up at Oakwood.

Yeah.

Like all of them that were from outside of Los Angeles. That was the place to go. That was the place to go. And uh, I believe you've dubbed yourself the queen of Oakwood for a period of time.

Yeah, I mean, some people might try and fight me on it, but I think most people would agree.

I'm not fighting you on it.

Yeah, don't fight me on it.

What was the realization like when you realized that Alex Mack was done? You were on this show for so long. Yeah, it became part of your identity, right?

Right.

What happened after? Right. Who were you after that show?

Yeah, we going into our last season, we knew it was our last season. I actually almost wasn't in it because I booked another show. Oh so contractually on Alex Mac, like my team was always smart enough to never have me contracted as a series regular, even though I was, because they were like, this kid's gonna work, she's gonna work, you know, and we don't want to limit her future flexible. Right. So, and because of that, I was able to do these really special, iconic, specific episodes like Boy Meets World and um other things. I mean, step by step, so many other things I did in in the middle of everything. We knew going into it because Larissa wanted to go to college, so we knew it was our last season. I almost didn't do it because I got another TV show called Over the Top with Tim Curry. Okay, this was network, this was different. Yeah, and because my team was so smart contractually with Alex Mack that I was always really allowed out to do whatever else I needed to do. So if I had to be written out of an episode, I could be. So I go do this pilot. Um, I'm in Excelsior High with my best friend Marla at this point, who I had done Freaky Friday with. I did the babysitters club with, and we were best friends. Like we were best friends. Oh, that Marla, yeah. Yes. That's why when I said about my yes, when we about when he named himself Marla. Yes, now you get it.

There we go.

So I do this pilot. It's that week where everybody's waiting to hear if your pilot gets picked up and everyone's like on pins and needles and it's this big thing, and I'm in school, and I'm we're not getting a call, and it's so weird. But then my publicist calls me and she's like, Congratulations, you guys got picked up, blah, blah, blah. This is gonna be huge. And but my agent wasn't calling, my manager, and my mother wasn't picking up. So I I knew something was wrong immediately. Long story short, I got replaced from that pilot. I had never been fired from anything in my life. And it was because they did the market research thing, and they were like, This girl just doesn't fit in with this family, and that was like the feedback they got. So, because of that, I got replaced.

That's a weird feeling because numbers tell us you're not a fit.

Correct.

Yeah, how did that make you feel at that point?

Well, I got replaced with Marla. And we were in high school together. So what happened was is I finally got a hold of my agent. She said, Sweetie, your mom's gonna be there soon. Just wait, just let your mom talk to you. My mom came, got uh got in the car, uh, and she said, you know, and we didn't know yet who got the part. Um, she told me what happened, and I said, driving to the gas station, I need to buy cigarettes. I mean, I was 16 years old, I was like calling the shots at this point, you know? And my mom was like, Oh, okay, you know, because I was devastated. And as we were calling, I said, wait, wait, call my agent. So we got my agent on the phone, Wendy Green, shout out, Abrams Artist Agency, and I said, Call Tommy. Tell them, get me back on Alex. What do you wait? Has anyone done that yet? Has anyone thought of this yet? I'm now available to finish my show. Like, let's go. And they got me back on Alex Mac.

But you were the one like like doing all the mingling in between.

That's right.

Wow, that's actually amazing.

Like, I can't believe I got back on the last season because it's I i I was in every episode. I I mean I we finished the thing out together strong, and and because my best friend replaced me on this show, I got to finish my show in its entirety and never miss any of it.

Definitely softened the blow.

I for sure. Uh meant to be. Yeah, and like we talked about before, you know, and that at that time was meant for Marla, you know, to go be able to go do that for 13 episodes and and that amazing thing. So anyway, yeah, um uh crazy stories.

I'm just I'm just picturing, like, I love this because you and I have talked about this a lot, how child actors are forced to grow up so much faster than everybody else. Yeah, right. And I'm just picturing this, like, you know, 16-year-old Matani in the back of the car. Mom, I need cigarettes. Call my agent, we gotta get back on Alex Mack.

Like, literally, exactly what yeah, literally.

So you were the real manager of the managers. Yes.

I mean, I was the shot caller. I didn't manage myself well, you know, because to answer your question, after Alex Mack, we should have that's when we should have been pushing the hardest.

Sure. But instead of the Jews coming off the show.

Yeah, everybody just let me really do whatever I want, and that's when things started getting really, really bad.

Well, tell us, I want to hear about life after Alex

 Mack.

I mean, I I was working, I I didn't stop working. Um, it was just episode after episode on a different show, this and that, and uh some movies, and and um, but nothing was like connecting like Alex Mack. You know, um I had obviously aged out of that role. I had aged out of being a child actor at that point. Sure. I'm like now 18, 19 years old. Um I did 902 and oh, I did a lot of big I did Baywatch, I did a lot of big stuff.

Yeah, we all did Bawatch. There we go.

Woo! Woo! It's one of those. We all did Baywatch. That was a wild that was a wild couple.

And they're bringing it back now too. Yeah.

That that's a full circle. And I actually just saw Jeremy's somewhere recently too. Yeah, super full circle. Anyway, so um, so yeah, after Alex Mack, I mean I was I was holding on as hard as I could to my career. But the truth is is that the the darkness and the sadness and the the addiction and all of the depression and all of the stuff inside me was like bubbling so much that like there was no containing in it anymore, and now I'm 18. You know, I still haven't found out that she's taken everything because she's like, Here's your Koogin account and have fun. And I was like, Oh my god, there's like so much money, you know. And so I bought her a house, a beautiful house in Laguna Beach, um, a car, uh just all the things that I'm like, well, I have this Koogan account, I'm cool for a minute, you know. Um and uh try, you know, I was auditioning, I was booking, um but then it just became too noticeable, you know, and um my very this was the last hurrah, really. My very last audition was eight mile. I gotten all the way down to like I mean, and I was showing up out of my mind, and I was still doing a good job in the room, I guess.

It was in your blood. Just just to be clear, like Eight Mile the MM movie Brit Brittany Murphy.

Correct.

Yeah, was that the role you were going out for?

Uh no, I was going out for Taryn Manning's role. But the the first the full circle there is when we first came out to LA to do Billy, it was between me and Brittany. And she was my first friend in LA. Wow. And um she was so fucking awesome. She was amazing, and I learned very quickly that not everybody is like this in Hollywood. But not only did I get the part and she lost a part that was gonna supposed to be this huge new TJIF show, her and her mother offered to let me and my mom stay with them for the first few months. We were in LA so we could get accommodated and all of that. You know, my mom's a weirdo and did not. I wish we would have taken them off. They were amazing. Her and her mom were amazing, but sorry, where was that leading from? We could be here for hours, you guys. Yeah, I love it.

Um, I guess we were just like the identity like how like because it's it seems like the role of Robin Roos and Alex Mack was what really kept the lid on the craziness that came after Alex Mack.

Yeah, after that it was I would say after I turned 18 and I moved out, right, you know, and I finally got out from under her is when I went in wild.

Well, and and it like do you think if you were still on a show, like is that routine help you?

Or is it when you're not gonna be able to do it Yeah, I think if I yes, I think if I had still been on a show my life probably would have looked really different, but it wasn't supposed to It just contains it. Yeah, it wasn't supposed to like you know once I once I learned in my adulthood in my life that nothing's ever happened to me, it's only ever happened for me. Even if it's just for me to be sitting here right now at 731 on Saturday night, and maybe one person in the world that hears this podcast relates to something that I'm saying or something that I've been through, that makes it all worth it for me. You know, because I've been through some crazy shit. Like after I've I that audition, by the time I, you know, I I my for my last last last last it was the last call before you were gonna screen test with Eminem who I was obsessed with, who wasn't. Um, I was so nervous that I did a bunch of stuff. And um it was just obvious, visible, noticeable, and by the time I got home, all of my representation had called me and dropped me.

Right.

Every single one. And only one of them offered to to help me and asked me if I needed help. And it was my manager, Beverly Strong, who I will always give a big shout out to. That's nice because I love it.

It's amazing how the others don't.

It was wild. It was just like a wow, really, after 18 years, okay.

Like, okay, well, well, you're not booking, it's getting harder.

So it wasn't even that. It was a we heard you showed up on drugs to this very serious last call for eight mile. We will absolutely not have you out there representing us like that. Best of luck to you. Wow. That's it. Okay, that's yeah, that's how that's Hollywood.

That's Hollywood. It's a brutal motherfucker.

That's Hollywood. And my manager, it wasn't like, um, it wasn't like I'm dropping you, but like if you need help, it was uh let me help you so I can continue to represent you.

Sure.

And at that point, I I think I literally said something as simple as like, I found something that quiets this long enough for me to do this.

Yeah.

And for like however long I could chase the first few moments of whatever high it was for that day, again, I didn't have to be myself.

Right.

You know, I didn't have to feel those feelings. I didn't have to um it was a new escape. It was yeah.

Was that the end of that chapter?

Of acting?

Yeah.

Yeah. That was the end of that chapter of acting in a really significant way. I mean, I I remember almost um like deciding, yeah, okay, I'm gonna um I'm gonna chase after this feeling now.

I think I'm gonna take this path and leave acting by that.

Yeah.

And how long did it take for you to go, okay, enough's enough if I need to get my shit together.

You know, I have such a crazy long story. Even when I say it out loud, sometimes people must think I'm full of shit. Because it's just the it's wild, you know, but it's um I don't know. I've always had a very special connection to the universe. I believe that I've been through certain things um so other people don't have to, you know, because I I'm willing to talk about it openly.

 Um I so yeah, I you know, by the time I was 20, I was pretty much a full blown heroin addict. Um at that point, I had already we had lost everything. Um, you know, it started at with me and my boyfriend at the time living in the Hollywood Hills. Within two years we were living in a car. Um, lived in a car for a couple years. That took us down to Skid Row, lived down there for a couple years. And it's a huge part of my story that not a lot of people um uh a lot of people know about it and not a lot of people know about it. Sure. You know, like if you do enough research on me, you know about it. But if you just kind of do a quick like chat GPT, who's Natalia by, you know, it's just a basic like she's best known for blah blah, has had a publicly known, um widely known addic a b battle with addiction, and now is a recovery ad or whatever it says online, but people don't know the real story necessarily, you know, um, and those were really hard years. Um, and they were with so it was the boyfriend, and then him and I broke up, and then I started dating someone else, another child actor, and then the three of us just all ended up living together because we all were, you know, junkies together. And um, all three of us incredibly successful actors. So just uh really wild stuff. That that went on and off till I was about 25. I did a couple rehab stints, I tried, um, you know, I was left for dead on the street. I did call and ask for some money a few times to go to rehab. Um there was a lot that went on there in order for me to even be sent.

Were you stepping away from the group you were with each of those times or going or going to rehab and then going back to the same the first time I went to rehab um I left the first boyfriend.

Um, and then when I got out of that rehab, I got out and like one of my best friends of my whole lifetime who was also another big child actor, and we have I don't know, we had been dating on and off since we were like 13 or whatever, had you know had the same manager. Um he's um sadly no longer with us. His name's Blake Heron. And so then I called him, and then it just then him and I started, you know. I mean, it's just that's how it goes. That you know, it's the cycle. And then him and I were about to get kicked out of the apartment. We call Manu, we end up moving into the car, and then two years later, before you know it, we're all on Skid Row. It's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy how fast it it happened. So um, yeah, then we did a s a second stint of rehab and so on and so forth, and then I broke away from them and kind of you know had to find life on my own, and and at that time, um I got sober for a little bit, and then I started um I started dating another child actor, and then um sadly a year later he overdosed and passed away next to me.

Oh wow, yeah.

And um I got sober three days after that and stayed sober for a while, and in that time started working in treatment, and that's how all of that came about. 

Um, I had a I had a brief relapse, and then I went to treatment for the last time when I was 30. I'm almost 45 now, and then from 30 to now is when I discovered my career in mental health advocacy and substance ability.

Well, that's the part that should be talked about more. What came out of it?

What do you mean?

Like all that came out of it. Now you're servicing others that can use the same help and don't have that.

Absolutely. And and I did it mainly in 12 step first because that's for free. Sure. Right? There's no charge to go to an AA meeting. And if you get up at a podium and share your story, and I always shared it very privately, discreetly, I don't say the name. It's just um, but the story has helped so many people at this point. That's why I said, you know, it's like no matter how far down the scale I've gone, my experience can always benefit somebody else.

And also most others that like these other actors you're naming and and all the others, they shy away from it and don't ever talk about it. But I've seen you more publicly talking about it. Absolutely. But when you own it and you're using it to help others, it's very powerful. Enough people don't. Yeah, exactly.

There's nothing shameful in addiction. I mean, uh everybody has a vice of something.

The things we keep private.

I hit my vape twice under the table. All right, I'll just wrap my own.

It's more shameful to keep it private because you feel because you feel you need to.

It's part of the reason we started this podcast. Like, because you know, yeah, nobody could really relate to the experience we all had as kids.

And that's a different level of it, too.

It's a different level of it.

It's a therapy. Yeah, they're therapeutic as a conversation.

It is, it's healing.

It seems like treatment not only saved your life, but it also gave you a new purpose and kind of became your new Robin Russo. Like, because you mentioned that Robin, like after after Alex Mac, like that's when you sort of lost your way. Right?

Right, yeah.

When Robin Russo was keeping that, keeping you in line. It was something that you were getting to create. Yeah. This character that you got to love and and and uh new anchor. Yeah, it was an anchor, and then now treatment became your anchor.

Interesting. I've never thought of it like that.

Right. I don't know.

But smart depans.

I it's my like it's it's it's nothing's cooler than being kind, I think.

It's that that's my that's my phrase, baby. That's my phrase.

When did that become like your mantra?

Well, a lot because I got bullied so badly when I was younger. So, like I said, redheads peak, okay? And by 14 or 15, you're gonna know if a redhead is gonna be hot or not. It's just it is what it is.

Yeah.

Before I was 14, I was not the cutest kid.

Awkward phase.

Um, very awkward phase. Um, and uh also what kids don't understand, they bully, right?

That's the best way to put it.

Right.

Because it's exactly that.

Right. So I was on a TV show every Friday night on TJIF that all these kids were watching during Family Matters and perfect strangers and all that stuff, and then I would show up at school on a Monday. It was the only one year I ever went to a public school after that. My mom was like, Natan, never again. You are out of here. But I got jumped in the bathroom by three girls. I mean, it was just I mean, I just I just don't think kids at that age uh understood like what is the girl that was on TV would like so and also the red hair thing, it's a lot, you know, it's it's uh it's a lot.

So people's jealousy when I told myself it was that when I was made fun of for having a mullet and being weird, and I'm like, oh, it's just because they're jealous. It probably wasn't, but I like the thing so at least.

I just denied it. Yeah, he literally went to the meat kid.

And he look, he looked exact look, he looked exactly the same. Can you mention?

I would just gaslight the shit out of people.

Nope, it's not me.

I just love that poster so much. It's harder, but I think that Where are you on that poster?

Um, I I always said it was a remake of the original where Froggy wasn't in it.

Yeah, I was gonna say, what's going on? I want to like edit that. I know. I want to take Bug's uh point off his head and put your face.

It's okay, it's still a sensitive thing. Yeah, it's okay.

Okay, it would be for me too. I'm on his side. I'm boycotting. Just kidding. Just kidding. Okay, just kidding. Yeah. Reel me back in.

So nothing cooler than being kind.

Nothing cooler than being kind, yeah. I started saying it like 10 years ago. I don't know. I just like always said it in every interview. I started like just writing it everywhere. And the sweetest thing happened. I had a fan who is Robin obsessed, and she would make all these like really cool fan edits for me and just has been an incredible supporter. Her name is Erin. She's a teacher, and in her classroom, she ch she teaches disabled children, teenagers, um, tough, tough work, you know, like highly disabled kids. So she made a mood board of all different Robin faces, of all the weird little faces I would make. So when I'm like, you know, all my faces. And um, so the kids could go to the board and point. So it'd be like, I'm feeling happy, or I'm feeling sad, or I'm and then she made this thing that sits on her desk and it says that there's it, there's nothing cooler than being kind, and then it says Natanya Ross.

That's so cool.

Yeah, it just that blew me away, you know, because it's like, and it's also the realization that, you know, our words matter. People are listening to us, you know. You never know what somebody is going through on any given day of their life. Say one wrong thing to somebody, and you can change the entire trajectory of their life. I don't understand this new culture world we're living in with these like internet thugs that go on their phones and like write horrible things. I mean, me and my boyfriend deal with it all the time, you know, and um on a much smaller scale than what's the new generation deals with it. It's crazy. So it's it the there's nothing cooler than being kind, is really just it's all stems from like like anti-bullying.

I I've learned instead of like reacting in a negative way to someone's like mean comments, yeah, when you beat it with kindness, they either delete it or they realize and it's the it's the best way to respond. Totally. Well, like actually so like when someone cares enough to say like you still care about this 30 years ago, I'm like, you know what? I appreciate you caring so much about not caring. But you told me. Right. And I hope you come back in two weeks to tell me again how much you don't care and take that time. Yeah, because you don't care.

Please like, please like and subscribe.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, it's like it's another fucking view for you. Yeah.

But joke aside, like it really says more about the person that they're spending their time doing it.

A hundred percent.

They need more help, and I think there's no point of laying it on thick at that point and trying to fight back.

Yeah, I mean it's to try and um fight with a mentally ill person is useless, you know, because a mentally sound person does not need to go on and attack another human being in order to feel to either feel something or to feel better about themselves. Only mentally ill people need to do that.

I think it's called rage baiting now.

Is that what it is? Rage baiting? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I listen. Everything has a little bit of a I have I I know, I know. Um I in my audition that I had the other day, one of the lines was like t touch grass. I'm like, I actually do know this one. I know this.

Um what does touch grass mean?

It's like like go outside and like touch grass, like get grateful, like get grounded, like like uh come right, like come down to thanks, babe. Um I I I I want to look cool, and just in case my stepson is listening. Um no, but so I try not to ever go there with the comments and stuff. I will get pretty um protective when it comes to my boyfriend.

Sure.

There are times where I see things and I want to absolutely murder people because I because one he's the best nicest person in the industry.

Let's talk about

 this boyfriend.

Yes, we can. We absolutely can.

What is the complex like in this household? I mean, would tell us date.

Yeah, it's we have an interesting household. We really do.

Would you mind telling our audience who your boyfriend is?

I would not mind. Um some of them might know. It's Nate Richard. He played um Harvey Kinkle on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the tiny little show that a couple people might have heard of. I'm not sure.

Yeah.

Um he was America's boyfriend in the 90s. That's what I say.

Totally.

You know, I mean, goddamn, he was and is so handsome, but the character he played, it's really who he is. Yeah. He's he's that good, he's that pure, he's that sweet. I saw that Amazon Prime had put out something that said, like, did a clip of him or something and said like the OG, if he wanted to, he would. Absolutely, and like so, of course, I reposted, you know, and like and still is.

How did you guys count?

And still is. Um, through Sean Weiss, actually. Oh, cool. Yeah. Um, through Sean Weiss and um Nate and I had we knew each other in the 90s a tiny bit. We weren't friends. Um, he was one of the very few men who were was respectful of underage women at the time. So um good. I I mean I was pissed. I'm like, who the fuck does this guy think he is? He was not looking at me, he's not talking to me. Fuck this guy, he's too nice looking anyway. Yeah, not bad boy enough for me. No, um, he was just a good a good guy, you know, and I was underage. So he stayed away from me. And then um we both went through some pretty crazy divorces and connected a few years after that. And um, yeah, it's a crazy household. We're both um lifelong actors who have had long time sabbaticals. We both uh woke up one day 10 years ago and had a career again because everybody was so you know obsessed with the 90s.

Sure.

We go on podcasts together sometimes. We both have our own podcasts. Um, we do autograph signings together. Sometimes we get booked and then apart, and um, and he helps me with everything, you know, and um he's incredible, and he's the most talented person I've ever known. And Ed's a million times more talented than me. So cool.

Well, and let's let's talk about so you're having a so you're launching a podcast too. 

What's the inspiration for that?

So the inspiration for the podcast, thank you for asking that actually. Um, it's called We're Still Here, babe.

Oh, that's pretty good.

I mean, I think it's it says it in the title, right? We're still here, babe. The podcast. It was sprung bored off the idea that I want to give a platform to child actors, creatives, uh musician, whatever, um, that there's a story beyond the salacious TMZ headlines. And that although some of us, yes, we do get fucked up and we do end up doing the drugs and the things and all, but there's a story after. We don't all we're there's not like a child star, you know what I mean? It's like we're here still, we're still here. And I want to give a platform to those of us that have that story. I want to give a platform to my friends growing up that had and were dealing with things that nobody would have ever imagined. So if somebody that's listening in Kentucky or Ohio or Idaho or wherever right now hears somebody that they grew up watching on television say, yeah, I was depressed every day of my life as a teenager. I had suicidal ideation, I was cutting, I had an eating disorder, whatever the situations may be, or just me and my friends getting really honest about some of the stuff that was going on in the 90s, or you know, having my really good friends on and saying, like, what do you think was going on with us that that we were running to cigarettes at 14 years old and we were doing that, you know, and all of that kind of stuff. And and um and I want I just want to give a platform and a space to people um that we've all grown up loving, yeah, you know, to to tell their true stories. Yeah. In a in a s in a space where they feel safe and comfortable to do so. So it's awesome. Yeah.

Right on.

Yeah.

Well, congrats.

Thank you so much. You can and when you guys are gonna be on it. So get ready.

Well, I I I love I love this though, because I've been finding more you know people similar to us going on podcasts, doing these signings, and it's it is really nice because I think the nostalgia era is growing more and more with what's happening around us in the world, and like you just want to be a member of what and then you should be happier to know, oh, they're doing good, they're doing this. Like, I'm happy to know that.

A hundred percent. Yeah. Because uh because people uh get so crazed when they hear the headlines and stuff, you know, and then they root for you, they want you to be okay, yeah, but they don't uh so many people don't necessarily like we're we need some follow-up. And with the follow-up, we can remove a little bit of the stigma. And if we remove a little bit more of the stigma, then maybe we can help some people not suffer

 so much.

You know, so I I assume you've seen like the Nickelodeon documentary, and like you know, and you hear about like the Disney Star Fallout and all that stuff, like you were you were coming up during like the height of that time. Like, does that narrative match what you experienced?

No, no, absolutely not. It's really interesting. I had dinner with Tommy Lynch, who's the creator of Alex Mac, and Ken Littman was the co-creator. Yeah, and um, you know, I watched Quiet Onset. I know they call Dan Schneider the Nickelodeon hitmaker. I don't necessarily agree with that. I think Tommy is the Nickelodeon hitmaker, and he made sure his sets were so completely safe to the point where he made sure to be on set at whatever the first call time was for whatever kid had to be there first because he wanted to be in the makeup room to see if he could smell alcohol on us and to see what we looked like.

Wow. Yeah. It's such a different perspective.

It's such a different perspective, and I my heart about the people on there and putting it together.

Yeah. But the only perspective that people know is the negative one that gets the clicks. Right.

It it right, and my heart breaks so much for them, and I have so many I I mean, I was watching that and I was literally watching so many of my friends, like very personal, personal friends.

They were shooting on the same lot as you, like, you know, I in in not in theory.

In theory, the theory, you know, you guys were part of that same lineup, like yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah.

Um But you said each set is like its own world, it's got different people calling the shots.

It's a whole the that universe of Nickelodeon was a whole other Nickelodeon universe, you know. That you know, the live comedy um sketch Dan Schneider world was a whole other thing. Sure.

Yours was much more like a scripted drama.

Yeah, we were doing a a live action drama, essentially. Um I I think at that time we maybe Are You Afraid of the Dark, but I think we were one of the only ones um at that time doing it, you know, and um so yeah, Tommy kept a very safe set for us, but it's hard because I say that like, you know, I wish uh a different documentary would also come out because I think that Nickelodeon was ruined for so many people because of that documentary, as it as as it should be, as it should be. Um, but I also um I also want to r bring hope to child actors, current child actors, too, that there is still safety in the world. You just have to be managed properly.

Well, and the those stories, the negative ones, are the smaller percent, but they are the loudest. Yeah, and absolutely we're the kind of people that need to make a documentary like you know, from people that experienced like the good side of it. Yeah. Because it doesn't get talked about outside of personal settings like this.

Right. And the truth is all of my bad behavior was on my own time. It wasn't that's being a teenager growing up, like that's right. It's it that's absolutely right, yeah.

Would you put uh like hypothetical kids in acting?

It's an interesting question. It's come up. We've you know, obviously had to have those kinds of conversations. Um yeah, if the kid really wanted it. Only if the kid I mean.

Yeah, they have you know, if they're able to be part of the choice, it's different.

Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah.

Because then it's a creative outlet too. Yeah.

Yeah.

I think I think what's amazing, you know, now that it would have been hard for me at least, is these families that are doing YouTube and where you get instant feedback. Yeah. I don't know how the filming is. Are you filming one day, then you're acting like a real family normal actor? Or is your whole life filming kind of filming? Yeah, and then you're and then like it's like you know, your mom takes your audition, but you don't get feedback five minutes later. Right. Imagine filming and ten minutes later, like you get no likes. Okay, that doesn't work. We have to go back and do it. Yeah, like that's a hard that's a fucking life for kids. Instant rejection.

Yeah.

Yeah. Instant.

Instant. It's yeah, it's definitely hard to do that.

We're not like we're not built for that as kids to be able to read our own comments like that. No. And they're talking about you as if you're an object and an adult because you're a video online.

Yeah, it's it's the the whole thing. It's so horrifying to me.

What advice would you have for 12-year-old Natania or any like you know, 13-year-old girl 13-year-old.

Be careful who you surround yourself with. Really? Be careful who you surround yourself with.

True in life, more true in this. I feel like more than anything.

And when someone shows you who they are, you have to believe them.

It's really hard to though. It's so hard. But like you you want to trust so much at that age. It's hard to know to like have the conscious choice of like this person's bad for me. Right?

Because you actually don't have those tools yet.

Well, I don't think I think you get those tools from the experience because like all of our parents warn us of all the bad things. Sure. And usually you you experience makes you stronger, and you know, it's it's hard without it.

I would I think I would also tell her that it's gonna be okay.

Well, look, that I can that's nice.

Yeah. I I would tell her that it will be okay.

Knowing everything that you know and all the experiences that you've had of the good, the bad, the ugly, the weird. Would you do it all again?

Absolutely. Over and over and over. And I would not change a single thing.

I think that says that a lot of it because what you're doing now is is powerful and helpful to a lot of other people.

I'm trying. I'm really trying.

Do you have any cool stories from the side of Alex Mac that nobody really knows about it?

I mean, yeah. Of course. I have all the stories.

You want to give us something good?

Sure. Let's see. Larissa smoked weed for the first time with me. Pretty sure she smoked a cigarette for the first time with me. But sh she might have gotten drunk for the first time with me. Yikes. Okay. That's not great. Here's another fun one. Um in our in our second-ish season, um, a young man named Ben Smith joined our cast, another redhead. Um Ben and I had been friends since we were like eight years old. Um, we had like had this weird crush on each other on and off, on and off, on and off. And in the show, I think for like a little bit they did a like will they or won't they with with Robin and um Lewis kind of anyway. Um, but one time uh we snuck behind one of the prop trucks and made out.

Classic, like teenager fun.

You know, and then I drank a beer. I was like, watch this.

Throw it back.

Such a loser. Like, that is not I know. It's like the least cool thing to be doing. I'm trying to think of anything else. Oh, here's here's the best one. For one of our rap parties, they shut down um uh Magic Mountain for us.

Oh, that's awesome. Oh, really? That's like you only get that if you're graduating like high school. Yeah, that's cool.

But you gotta share it with all the other high schools.

Yeah, or your season finale, series finale of Alex Mac.

Of a top performance show, one of the biggest networks at the time.

I mean, um that's some fun stuff.

Yeah. As a star of of Nickelodeon, was there ever like you know, Nick vs. Disney beefs or like attitude towards Oh yes.

I'm sure there were, but I I don't know if I was involved in any of it.

Okay. It seems like it's always one side or the other.

Yeah, I don't honestly, like uh the it was kind of like that. Like uh the Nickelodeon kids all hung out together. Yeah, you know, those shows all kind of hung tight. Even still to this day, it's kind of funny how it is. But I mean, I didn't have any beef with anyone on Disney. Not that I know of. They probably had some beef with me.

You were too busy managing your successful career.

Yeah, exactly.

Mom, get my agent on the phone.

Exactly.

After all this all the stuff you've done, this you know, Alex Mack, David Series Club, like all the theater, the commercials and stuff. Are you proud?

Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure. I'm I'm really proud of all my work in the 90s. I'm really proud of um like even no matter how scared I was every time I showed up on a podcast or uh an interview and spoke openly about some of the things I've been through in life in hopes that maybe it'll help somebody else. I'm really proud of that too. I'm proud of that as much as I'm proud of the acting legacy, you know.

That's very brave.

That's more like a very mature and and and human outlook of it all.

Thank you to be proud of. Thank you.

Anyways, like this has been awesome.

This has been this has been really fun. I've loved this, yeah.

You're so much fun and you have such a wild story. Thanks for sharing it all with us.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

We're gonna do what we used to always do on set. Like, I don't know if you remember this and like get annoyed by it. I did when I was a kid, like the constant Polaroids.

Oh, for wardrobe, yeah. I have most of mine still.

You do? Oh yeah.

That's fun to say. I have a lot of mine, yeah.

Actually, I have another question. Who was who was an actor or producer or director or someone that had like a major impact on your life? Like, what is who is someone who a lot you think about that interaction and like are like wow, I can't believe that that happened.

Oh, like that I met with personally. Yeah. Oh, um, honestly, probably that week working with Tim Curry.

Yeah, I love a fucking legend.

We had some amazing guest stars on Alex Mack throughout the years. Um I mean, uh I worked with De Niro and and Robin Williams on Awakenings. There's been some pretty epic stuff, yeah. Uh 902 and oh, to me, that was like everything. Even Baywatch, I mean, you guys remember I I was like staring at Pam Anderson. I'm like, are you really in front of me? Like in my idols in the 90s, you know, remember I was a little edgy, but my idols were, you know, um, like David Lynch and Boz Lerman and Claire Danes and Drew Barrymore and uh uh Pam Anderson and Choices. Yeah, yeah. And um uh yeah. So I'm trying to think. I I would say Tim Curry for sure.

It's so cool.

Yeah, I mean it's just yeah.

Nice. That's awesome. That's a little better than mine.

Who's what's yours? Who's yours?

Um, I don't know if I've talked have I talked about it before Dennis Leary?

Yeah, oh that's what a great one. I think so.

Yeah, it was all it was just a big full circle moment in my life. Like, you know, he was the first celebrity who like was really cool to me. And like I followed his whole career growing up, and then I ended up working with him as um as a cameraman on a TV show called Animal Kingdom.

I don't know, I don't know if you know. Um that's huge. Yeah, and the director of Little Rascals is Penelope's Ferris. Yeah, and after like some years later, she was uh directing uh Black Sheep with Chris Farley and David Spade. Oh wow, and she like called me in to like really just kind of just you know like just give me a small role, like you know, someone likes you, but at the same time I was offered the role of Carpool, and she was like, I want you to be in this, but that's a real movie that's gonna film for a while. That's much better, so you should take that. Yeah, and it was like really nice to have someone that was actually like this makes sense and it's gonna be a good part for you, right? And then I got to go to the the premiere of Black Shape, and me, Chris Farley, I'm like, oh, that was awesome.

Oh, that's so cute!

And then I I definitely remember auditioning and calling David Spade Martin Short. I was like, I look I look back and he might have maybe was complimented, but I was like, my mom was like, How could you do that?

Oh my god, that's I just saw Spade the other day at the comedy store.

He was great, still still dry and funny.

He's so fucking great. I was just at the comedy store the other day, too. Yeah, I love it. We go a lot. You do? Yeah, we do too, actually. We should all we should yeah, we should all go as a group and so much fun, yeah.

Oh god, that'd be good, that'd be some good crowd work. It would wait, you're you're all here together?

Yeah.

Oh, you want me to stand up and come on stage with you? Sure.

Well, that I mean, when me and Marty and when we all go out, I mean it it always tends to end up on something.

There was definitely we did uh a rascal reunion, I think it was like the 20th or 25th, and the night before to get like to all hang out because that someone flew everyone in who was out of town. We all went to the bowling alley over here. Yeah, and and my mic was pins. Oh, pins. Yeah, and like while we're there in my head, I'm like, somebody's gotta look and be like, they're all here. What is this? Oh my god, like I was just because like it just it's never happened we were never all together. It was just really funny.

Same for I'm not I can't make the full announcement yet because I'll get in trouble, but same for Alex Mack for our cast, we've actually never appeared anywhere all together. Oh as a as the as the main cast. Yeah. Um to to celebrate our third year anniversary. So be on the lookout. Stay tuned.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Yeah, stay tuned. That's awesome.

That'll look like that's a that's a good tease.

Yeah, I mean it's a good tease. Something might be happening. I don't know.

What's more fun to even though is like everyone is even happy to do that together, is the best part. Because there's because there's a lot of casts that it's not possible.

Right.

Like some people are just so yeah, so recluse that they don't want to go back, and make in that maybe it's a positive or negative, but yeah, you just can't do it.

Absolutely. And then some casts get really lucky for sure.

Yeah.

Oh my god, we're doing it.

Are you ready for your Polaroid moment?

Oh my god.

Want to do this, have everyone have it in sign, and you know, we're gonna have a nice memento of all of our guests together.

Okay, wait. Hold on. Let me get cute. Like Polaroid Q, right? Yeah, it's different. Polaroid cute. Yeah.

Oh man, I miss that.

That noise.

Don't shake it too much, right?

I know. It's so good.

I love it.

Awesome.

What a cute little thing. I love that. This is awesome.

Natana, you're awesome. Thank you so much for the channel. Thank you so much. This is great.

This was amazing. You guys are so awesome. Thank you for keeping the 90s alive.

I feel like I relived my 90s too. This is awesome. Yeah. You know, we're gonna just keep writing the coattails of our seven year old selves for as long as we can.

You know what? Fuck it. I mean, listen. Yeah.

Hit like, comment, and subscribe. Or we're going back to auditioning for dad number three.