Heather Brooker

Heather Brooker is an actress, comedian and host of the Motherhood in Hollywood podcast. She’s appeared on television shows like “The Orville,” “The Office” and “Grey’s Anatomy” and can be seen each week covering stories on the entertainment industry for NBC in Los Angeles.

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Speaker 1 0:00

I knew a few Heather's now I know a lot of Heather's let's get to know,

Speaker 2 0:06

Welcome to the Hey Heather podcast, where I attempt to interview and get to know as many of the world's Heathers and their stories as humanly possible. I'm your host? Heather Edwards.

Speaker 1 0:16

Okay .

Speaker 2 0:18

Today's Heather is an actress, comedian and host of the motherhood in Hollywood podcast. She's appeared on television shows like the Orville , the office and Grey's anatomy, and can be seen each week covering stories on the entertainment industry for NBC in Los Angeles. Please. Welcome to the show. Heather Brooker,

Speaker 1 0:36

Heather Brooker . Hi,

Speaker 2 0:39

I'm so dark on one side of me . I wasn't sure if this was going to be audio or video. Um, so I didn't dress up. I hope that's okay. Totally fine. I am not dressed up. Okay, good. I just , um , was finishing an interview and I was dressed like a Christmas outfit, so I had to run and change really quick. Christmas outfit. That's interesting. Yeah. It's for a Dolly. Parton's new Christmas movie. Oh, cool. So is interviewing Dolly Parton, which was really fun. That sounds really fun. Did she have a Christmas outfit on too ? She did. That's amazing. Yeah. Oh, thanks so much for joining me today. Sure. Thanks for having me. I'm very excited to chat with you. So last night, man, I saw you on clear the air on YouTube. You were doing some virtual standup comedy from your bathroom. Yes . That was amazing. Um, that's like the pinnacle of success. When you know that you're you could sit on your toilet and tell jokes. You've made it. Usually I just do that. Didn't no one listens to me, but I almost died because you were like, I've got my wine and angel Maura was like, I'm good

Speaker 1 1:47

Onion rings. I was like, Oh,

Speaker 2 1:50

Whatever we need to get through. Yeah, that was so fun. It was so , um, such a random thing that they asked me to do. Cause I haven't done standup in quite a while. Like since my daughter was born, I've been sort of, it just is very time consuming to go to the clubs every night. And when you're a mom, it just doesn't. I just decided to take, let it take a back seat a little bit. And so I was like, this is easy. You can do it from my bathroom, you know, give it another try. So yeah. And now everything's virtual these days, so you should do more. You're hilarious. Thank you. That's so nice. Thank you. That's really encouraging because it's , like I said, it's been awhile . So I was like, I'm going to bust out of my comfort zone and give it a try. Yeah . Everyone should do something like that. Step out of your comfort zone. Yes, totally. Yeah. So you're Heather, this is, Hey Heather, I've been talking to hundreds of Heathers over the last month. It's just been the coolest project. I love it. Do you know why you were named Heather? I was originally going to be named Carla , um, which is no offense to the Carla's, but I'm not a car lab. My dad's middle name was Carl. And so , um, I guess they were going to name me Carla . And um, my mom

Speaker 3 3:00

Had always, just really loved the name. Heather. He was a popular name in the seventies, mid seventies, especially. I like to think maybe because of like Heather Locklear , uh, you know , uh, but , uh, cause I don't know of any other like super famous Heather's from that time period, but I know that the name heathered was sort of sweeping across the nation at that time. So my mom and my , my dad at the time sort of went back and forth. Um, and then also they were going to name me, Tiffany. That was another name that was in the running. He said, if you can't name her Carla, then named Tiffany. Um, which I also don't know that I would have been, I wouldn't have been mad at a Tiffany. I just think I'm just more I'm Heather, like you just know you're a Heather. Um, so that's, so my mom ultimately won and she got the name Heather

Speaker 2 3:44

So glad. Yeah. You're definitely a Heather. Yeah. Did you know a lot of Heather's growing up?

Speaker 3 3:50

I didn't actually, I feel like I know a few more now, but I was the only one in my school named Heather, but I went to a, kind of a smaller school. There was a lot of Sarah's and a ton of Jennifer's . Um, but I was the only Heather

Speaker 2 4:05

That's cool. Yeah. I had a ton of feathers in my class. There was always like at least three others.

Speaker 3 4:11

Are you? You're probably a lot younger than me too. Yeah .

Speaker 2 4:14

I'm 37 born in 82. Yup .

Speaker 3 4:17

You're a lot younger than me. So that was when it was probably like everyone was naming their kids.

Speaker 2 4:21

Yeah. From the research I've done. It seems like the name spiked in popularity in 75 for whatever reason. Probably Heather luckily or ish time. And then again in like 88, 89 when the movie, the Heathers came out. So yes.

Speaker 3 4:35

And we have to talk about Heather's that to this day. I'm sure. I don't know if it's every Heather's favorite movie, but it's certainly one of them .

Speaker 2 4:42

Yeah. Yeah. It comes up a lot in conversation.

Speaker 3 4:46

Oh yeah, for sure. It just for purely narcissistic reasons, right . It's like, it's my name. They obviously made it for me. Exactly. I can't tell you how many times I used to quote that movie to people and sometimes I still do.

Speaker 2 5:00

It's terrible. It's terrible, but it's kind of great. Yeah. Very cool. So you are an entertainment reporter for NBC LA. Tell me about that. How long have you done that?

Speaker 3 5:10

Well , um , I've been in journalism for , uh , since I graduated college, I'm originally from Oklahoma and I went to Oklahoma state university and um, I was a theater major and , um, and journalism and I ultimately kind of got cold feet about being, I didn't believe in myself enough as a 1920 year old actress from Oklahoma to think that I could make it. I wasn't triple threat. I wasn't a dancer singer. Uh , I think I can sing and dance, but Broadway doesn't. Um, so , uh, I sort of , um, my practical side took over and um, my, I went into journalism because I thought, well, this has a performance element to it. I can tell stories and be on camera. And I really fell in love with journalism. I loved the idea of being sort of the watchdog for the American people. And I got into investigative journalism and then feature reporting a traveled all over the world as a reporter. And so , um, when , um, we, my husband and I lived in Tulsa, I started , um , missing theater. I started missing making people laugh and entertaining. And so I started auditioning for local plays and local , um, movies and commercials that were happening in Tulsa, which there wasn't a lot of, but occasionally there was, and I really missed it. Like I got bit again by the acting bug and my husband and I, we didn't have any kids at the time. So we were like, you know what, let's just go to Hollywood and let's see what happens. So I decided to stop reporting. Um, and, but I stated news, I became a writer and producer behind the scenes so I could pursue acting in front of the camera. And , um, uh, when my daughter was born seven years ago , um, she was about, I was a stay at home mom, but also an actress like going out on auditions and things like that. And when my daughter was about two , I started really realizing that I needed a community of other moms to connect with and other people to connect with. So I started my podcast called motherhood in Hollywood, where I interview, where I interview other , uh , parents in the entertainment industry and just say, Hey, what are you doing about breastfeeding and about , um, you know, how are you getting your kids do something other than Mac and cheese and chicken nuggets and like, you know, swapping ideas, sharing, parenting tips, but also talking about how much we love movies and TV shows and that really grew and grew and grew. And my news director at the station I worked for, which was NBC here , um, was , uh , listened to my show and he followed along on my social media and he was like, Hey, you know , um, I think what you do is really great. Would you ever be interested in doing that for us here at NBC LA? And I said, sure. I thought I had left my reporting days behind and kind of closed that chapter of my life. But sometimes , um, God has different plans for you. And he opened up this door of opportunity and there was no way I was about to turn it down. Um, so I was like, sure. I'll, you know, so I became the first ever digital entertainment reporter for NBC LA and their first ever like plus size reporter really in the LA market. There's nobody that looks like me. Um, that does what I do. All the entertainment reporters. I'm sure you know, are like super skinny. They all wear these like glitter balls shirts. They're cookie cutter. Yeah. They all go to, and I don't mean to make fun of them cause I, you know, but they all do look the same. They all, they're all the ones that, yeah , they're all the ones that want to be the celebrities as well as, you know, they have, you know, they're not really journalists, they're hosts and actors and stuff like that. So, and that's no shade on them cause you know, you gotta do what you gotta do, but um, nobody looks like me. There's still nobody that looks like me. That does what I do. And I end up , um, so for two and a half years now I have covered entertainment for NBC and Los Angeles and um , the NBC national digital platforms. So my interviews with people like Dolly Parton, like we were just talking about , um, Kevin Costner, I interviewed this weekend saw you interviewed in Vogue. And I interviewed in both after the BB MAs I'm seriously, it was geeking out . Yeah. That was so fun. So I've had like these really wonderful opportunities to sort of , um, as an actor and as an entertainer and somebody who is also a journalist and has a passion for this industry, kind of getting to glean. I get to ask them my own questions. Like , I'm not asking them, what are you wearing? Cause I don't care what they're wearing. I want to know like actory nerdy stuff. Like what was your process like in this, you know, coming to this role, this was so weird or we know whatever I ask them, things like that. But also things from a fan's perspective, like I'm, I'm a fan of almost all the people that I've interviewed. So it's a little bit different perspective than I think. Um, I'm also really lucky cause my boss has given me a lot of creative control over my interviews. I don't have somebody who's there like ask them about this or whatever and ask them, you know, something that doesn't isn't pertinent or that people may not be interested in. She's really given me a lot of autonomy in my job. And I'm so grateful for that. So it's been about, there's a long answer to your question, but it's been about two and a half years. Um , since I started covering entertainment , um , here in Los Angeles and I love it. I feel really lucky to have a job that keeps me connected to the industry. And you know, I still audition as an actor. And as you saw last night, I still do comedy. You know, whenever I can. And um, yeah, it feels super lucky,

Speaker 2 10:34

So fun. I'm having that much fun interviewing Heathers. I'm becoming like I'm super fan girling over each other that I talked to you because everybody's so different, but we're also like really connected in the same way. You know what I mean? It's

Speaker 3 10:49

I saw your question on your Instagram where you said, what famous Heather, Heather, do you want me to interview? And everybody said, Heather McDonald, have you, I'm assuming you've reached out to her.

Speaker 2 10:56

I have. Yeah . I'm still sitting in her DMS. Yep . I know she's so

Speaker 3 11:03

Have you tried going through her publicist ? No, I haven't do that. That might be a little bit. Yeah .

Speaker 2 11:08

That's a great tip. Yeah. I've mainly been reaching out to people on Instagram. I'm just like I did with you, but now I'm getting to the point where I'm like, okay, I really want to talk to some of these bigger name Heathers . So I'm going to have to go down some different avenues. That's a great suggestion. Thanks.

Speaker 3 11:22

Yeah, you have to out here, you have to go through their publicist and their manager, you know , anything like that because sometimes, you know , um, we can get like hundreds of messages from our dorms and I'll feel so bad. I'll be like, Oh my God, where was that one message. Um, and I don't like a lot of celebrities have assistance and things like that. I don't, I'm a one lady show. I do everything myself. So I try to keep track of that stuff. But even so sometimes things get lost. So I would definitely reach out to her publicist.

Speaker 2 11:49

Definitely I will. But yeah , just like you said, I can't imagine the hundreds and thousands of messages that go into their inboxes and they're not looking like I would probably just turn that off at some point.

Speaker 3 11:59

And then , um, have you reached out to Heather Locklear ?

Speaker 2 12:02

Yes. Only through Instagram though. Go through her publicist. Yeah. I gotta do some digging.

Speaker 3 12:07

Yeah . Um , and who I'm trying to think of like some other like super famous Heathers . I'm sure you got a list of running list in your head and my mind, like I said, my narcissistic mind, I like to think I'm the only Heather. Right . But I know that's not true.

Speaker 2 12:21

Well today on the show you are the only Heather, so

Speaker 3 12:23

That's true. Right ? Well you, you, you were both

Speaker 2 12:26

Crap. That's why I keep forgetting. That's funny. Yeah. Heather Graham Graham. Yes . There's a lot of good ones. I had to go through the publicist. You're right. This is such great information. I actually recently watched. I can't remember what the platform was, but you did a talk on starting your own podcast. Oh, was it blogger ? Yes. Yup . Yeah. I watched that. That was really cool. A lot of good tips.

Speaker 3 12:51

Good. I'm so glad. Yeah. They reached out to me and asked if I would write an article about podcast microphones. And then if I would also speak , um , about , um, excuse me, sorry, starting my own podcast and stuff. And I was like, well, I'm happy to write about microphones, but I literally used the same microphone for five years. So I will definitely talk about the one that I use. Um, but yeah, that was really nice. Cause it was , um, very podcast focus talk and about how I started my podcast and I went through a lot of trial and error , um, trying to figure out what would work with my setup. Like I didn't want to have to pay for a studio. I didn't eat , I didn't wanna have to drive across town to go to a podcast studio. I really wanted to be able to be at home with my daughter and be able to invite people into my home and get to know them or do it online like this. And um, so starting my podcast was a lot of fun, but my first like maybe nine episodes are a little wonky. They're also, also my first, like maybe 30 or 40 episodes are way too long. Like I was, I would talk to people for like an hour and a half and I'm like, who do I think I am? I'm not Mark Marin . Don't want to listen to my podcast for an hour and a half. I'm not that interested . So I, I definitely like started shortening them. Um, and um, once I got my system and my everything kind of like refined, they sounded much better too. But the earlier ones like bad.

Speaker 2 14:20

Yeah. I'm in a closet right now. I mean, I'm literally in his tiny little spot, but at least I have some like padding, you know, I used to actually do voiceover work. I've been doing that for like five years. And my first couple of years doing that, I was still, I was in a different closet, but I was just like sitting on the floor with all of my clothes hanging in there, all huddled up, like trying to

Speaker 3 14:42

A lot of people do that. They take their closet and they turn into a voiceover booth. It's so smart to do that because it's a great way to get, if you can get gigs, that's a great way to get extra income. I'm in Hollywood and I have a setup. I can't get any voiceover gigs really. So I'm like, yeah, it's so weird . I don't know that my, I don't know that my team is focused on that. So was something that just kind of has fallen through the cracks. I've just got too many other, a lot of balls in the air. It's a lot. So I kind of have to pick and choose my battle every time I tell my husband, I'm like, Oh, I want to do this. He's like, no, you have so much other stuff. You can't do it. So , um , he doesn't say you can't do it. He's like, just,

Speaker 2 15:21

Should you do that?

Speaker 3 15:23

Do you really want to add one more thing? And so I have to be like, maybe this can wait. You know, maybe it can be

Speaker 2 15:29

Gotcha. So now, because of the pandemic and everything, I'm sure for NBC LA are most of, or all of your interviews remote.

Speaker 3 15:38

Yes. Everything is yeah. Has it always been that way?

Speaker 2 15:41

Is it just now because of the pandemic

Speaker 3 15:43

We used to go to , um, they call them press junkets. Um , and the press junk is used to be held at like some bougie hotel in Beverly Hills or Santa Monica or something like that. And you're given an assigned time. You show up, you interview the talent, usually takes a couple hours , uh , to rotate through everybody, unless there's just one person you're interviewing. And then they give you the, the, the discs like this or whatever , um, to T to take back to the station and then you can edit your piece together. But also too , we had red carpets, like a lot of red carpet events. I was going to maybe one or two red carpets a week, and then I would have another one or two press junkets on top of it. And in LA it's not like it takes five minutes to get anywhere. It takes hours sometimes. So I would be spending hours in my car, just getting to the press, junket, just getting to the red carpet event. And then you're there at the red carpet for two or three hours easily. And , um , so it was just a big time suck now. I mean, honestly, the one good thing for me from the pandemic is I just go to my living room. I don't have to traipse all over town with my equipment or meet my photographer, any of that stuff. I can just go to my living room, set up my laptop and my light and my mic. And I'm good to go. And , um, while I miss that in person interaction with , um , the people I'm interviewing, it's not like you become best friends with them. Once you interview them, it's not like, they're like, Oh , I like that Heather, I'm going to be best friends with her. You know, it doesn't really make a difference. They get interviewed by so many press outlets that they probably forget who you are the second year talking with them, honestly. So for me, in terms of like work life balance, this has been a lot better because I can just go to my living room. I could help my daughter. She's got a desk in her room. I can help her get set up, go to my living room, do my interviews. And then I can come in here and do a podcast. I don't have to traipse all over town. I feel like I can get a lot more depth . Um, cause I'm not on my car.

Speaker 2 17:44

Yeah, I , yeah, I've worked remotely for like the last five years in a couple of different like tech startup roles. And I do love it. I'm never going back. I'm never going back to an office situation if I can help it because you do get so much more done. I , I used to live in California and now I'm in Maryland. Um, but I was up in Northern California, but I worked in San Francisco. So I was spending maybe an hour and a half, two hours each way on a bus to get to work. And it's like, now I can just wake up and start work. You get like extra hours out of your day. It's great.

Speaker 3 18:13

Yeah, you really do. And it's like, it's just so much less stress. Yeah. You know, I , I do miss going into my station every now and then, cause it , you start to feel a little bit like you're in an Island alone, out here. Um, but my boss checks in with me from time to time. It's like, Hey, everything is good . And I'm like, I'm good just working away. Um, but for me, certainly it's especially with my daughter at home , um, you know, doing homeschooling and stuff, it's made a huge difference. So I kind of like it. I know that's terrible. And if some people are miserable and they hate it, but I'm like, I kind of like, it's not for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. It's nice because I feel like I just, I get, I also get more opportunities because there is less press opportunities for these projects. Um, they, you know, sometimes they can be a little , um, what is a nice way to put this studios and publicists can be a little exclusive, like they only want access Hollywood or extra or entertainment tonight or something to interview or they get the most time with the talent and everything. Well now they're all just desperate for press. So they want anybody and everybody, you know, to talk to them. So that's been really nice cause I'm getting more people and more interviews, so,

Speaker 2 19:24

Yeah. That's fantastic. So I also saw a couple of just a couple of the shows that you've been on the office. One of my all time favorites. I know exactly what episode you were on. So exciting Grey's anatomy. Oh my gosh. And then I also think I saw that you were on an episode of the young and the restless.

Speaker 3 19:42

Yes . Like a million years ago.

Speaker 2 19:44

I just finished watching young and the restless and Bolden , the beautiful I'm going to admit it, but Oh man, what , what was your role for young and the restless?

Speaker 3 19:53

So I played like a security guard , um, who has, or I was in a jail, like I was a jailer guard or something. And I had to come out and yell if two actresses who were having a really deep conversation and tell him to wrap it up and get it out. You know, it was great. It was very small part, but it was one of my first years ago. My first role was years ago. And I remember it was very exciting. Cause you know, young, the restless is such a legacy show . It's been around forever, but I was mostly excited because that's also where they filmed the prices . Right. And I got to take a picture by the big wheel. Yeah. It was just sitting in the hallway and I was like, wow ,

Speaker 2 20:35

The wheel,

Speaker 3 20:37

The big wheel. So I took a , so I took a selfie with that and I was very excited about that, but that was really fun. Yeah. It was really fun. It was, it was super fast. One thing they don't, people don't realize on operas is how quickly they move. I think I was in and out and like maybe two or three hours from hair to makeup , to wardrobe to filming . It was like, yeah, they're super fast. What was your very first acting role? Um, my very first like on television. Yes . My cause . Uh, we could go back to when I was like five, but like real legitimate , uh, acting role was on a comedy sketch show , um, called Frank TV and it's a comedian and a personnel impersonator named Frank Kelly endo . He is an excellent , um, impressionist and he had a sketch comedy show on TBS called Frank TV. And I was cast as , um, do you remember baby Jessica who fell down in the well , yes, I was cast to play her all grown up and my, it was back when John McCain was running for president, like the first time. Um, maybe like 10 years ago, 12 years ago. And um, he , uh, I was supposed to be endorsing John McCain for some reason. I don't know it was, it was so long ago and it was so short, but I it's so funny that you asked that because I was just Googling myself the other day. Um, as we do we're Heathers , we do that and I was looking it up and I was like, Oh, I didn't realize that I was on the same episode as Melissa McCarthy's husband. His name is Ben Falcon. You've probably seen him in. He did you see bridesmaids? Yes. Okay . So he was the air Marshall on the plane that she's flirting with . That's her husband. So , um, I was, he was in my same scene and I remember talking with him on set, but I didn't know who he was at the time or that he was married to Melissa and she wasn't as big then as she is now. And then also Adam Devine. I don't know if you know who that is. Workaholics and pitch. Perfect. Yeah. So he, we were all in the same scene together and I didn't know, like Adam wasn't as big as he was now and neither was Ben. And I was telling my husband, I said, clearly they had better agents than I did because we were all in the same show together. And they're huge stars. Now, everyone took a different path. Everyone took a different bath , but um, clearly they , uh, made better choices than I did. But , um, yeah. And I was literally looking for, I was looking so hard for the clip because I was like, I want to see what this was , um, from so long ago, but that was my very, very first one. And then the next one was on a show called monk with Tony Shalhoub. Um, and that one , um, I still get residuals. I still get paid to this day. I get checks from that show. Yeah. They're small. They're like 10 bucks, you know, but , um, but I'm like, I'll take it. That's a , that's a combo meal at Wendy's we'll take it. Um, but that was my first like big, big show was on a roll a monk where I played a fan girl where I was like, Oh my God ,

Speaker 2 23:48

I looked at your real last night. You're like outside in the crowd. And you're like, yeah ,

Speaker 3 23:53

That was it. It's so cool. Yes. Yeah. So that, and that was forever ago though. So that's when I was like, I'm going to make it, I'm gonna be

Speaker 2 24:00

Girl. You've still made it in so many ways. You're doing fabulous things. Oh , thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone switching back to kind of the podcast world? Is there anyone that you haven't interviewed that you would love to interview?

Speaker 3 24:12

You know, I'd love to have Amy Schumer ons . Um, she and I have recently connected on Instagram and, you know, been chatting back and forth and stuff like that. I just haven't really worked up the courage to ask her yet. Cause she doesn't really know me. Um, I would love to have Amy Schumer on , cause I think she's really funny. She'll smoke mom. Yeah. And I think she would have some really interesting perspectives as a comedic actress on motherhood. Um, I would love to talk to , um , Reese Witherspoon. I really like Reese Witherspoon. I think she's very funny and charming and um, let's see. There's probably like quite a few people, you know, that I would be interested in talking to. I don't, I don't also just focus on my show on celebrities. I interview producers ,

Speaker 2 24:56

Writers , directors. Yeah .

Speaker 3 24:58

And people, there are so many aspects of the entertainment industry that people forget about it . You get so wrapped up in the celebrity of it all. Speaking of celebrate Jennifer ,

Speaker 2 25:07

I would love to interview Jennifer Fisher or Jennifer Garner ,

Speaker 3 25:10

Um , speaking of the office and um, yeah, I, I just , um, it's more about if people have an interesting story. Cause I realize , um, for awhile I was just doing celebrities. It was like celebrity after slept like famous people. And I realized they all kind of had similar stories in that it was like, I have a nanny , um, I have a nice house, a great husband. And then I go to work every day at my dream job, which is great and aspirational, but I don't know that everybody, every mom or parent in the entertainment history or

Speaker 2 25:45

Any parent anywhere really that's super relatable. Right.

Speaker 3 25:49

It's not reliable for me. I don't have a nanny and I, I have a great job that I love, but my dream job is to be a series regular on , um , a television show. So I really look for now, I look for stories that I think are interesting and people who I think have something that might , um , add some value to people's life, as opposed to just , um, uh , here I'm very wealthy and famous story and I don't want to , like, I don't want to discount those stories cause they are important and they are with , you know, they are with these women are living in and that sort of thing. But I also want to tell things that are a little more layered and very

Speaker 2 26:26

As well. Yeah. Those behind the scenes people. I mean, like you said, the writers and the directors and the, I mean they have some stories

Speaker 3 26:34

They do, they do. I've interviewed , um, a woman who's director on Miley Cyrus's show , um, Hannah Montana. And she had some stories to tell about how, when Miley was little and how different she was, but she was still sweet. And you know, and she talked about being a mom to her kids while also trying to find work as a director is that it's just a different, it's a different perspective on the industry. And one of the things I love about it is that so often times people think, Oh, Hollywood is just full of like very wealthy people who are , um, have everything handed to them. And you know, that's the case for probably 1% of the people, maybe 10%, you know, of the people out here, everybody else is working three jobs, you know, going to auditions, trying to find a way to , um, get a last minute babysitter if they have an audition come up. Um, and just trying to follow their dreams as an actor or director or producer or whatever they're , they're seeking , um, here in Hollywood. But I kind of wanted to sort of dispel this myth that everybody is very wealthy and very bougie and that, you know, it was just not the case. We're all hardworking people as well. We just happen to , um, work in the entertainment industry.

Speaker 2 27:52

I love that. And a lot of other people must also love that because you won a Webby award. Yeah, I did. I, that's a new thing for me. I did not know the Webby awards existed until I actually saw it on your Instagram and I'm like, hold up , what is this? What is this? How do you get a Webbie ?

Speaker 3 28:10

The Webby awards? Um, honor the best of the best in , um, digital platforms from podcasts to websites, to marketing , um, Instagram, social media, all of that stuff. And they have grown in popularity over the last, I would say probably five, six years. And um, a few years ago I just happened to , um, come across it. And I was like, well, this sounds interesting. I'm going to apply. I'm going to send my little podcast and just see what it does. Um, and I sent an episode with , uh, Jenny Poulos from Bravo TV and she talked about , um, she shared her story and um, it won, I won in the family and parenting category and I was like, what?

Speaker 2 28:55

That's amazing.

Speaker 3 28:57

It feels like they've kind of shifted that category a little bit. Now it's more focused towards like storytelling and um, things for kids. So I don't know, like I was thinking about submitting again this year, but I'm like, I don't know if I would win because I don't have, my, my show is definitely not focused for kids. It's not a kid show. There's swears not a lot of swears , but this way , um,

Speaker 2 29:20

Maybe there's another category or something.

Speaker 3 29:22

Why not? You know, it's uh , if you have the money to do it, you might as well. And then you can have, you know, you could be like, I have an award winning PUD . Do you actually like a physical ?

Speaker 2 29:32

Is there ? I do. It's right here. Oh, cool.

Speaker 3 29:36

Yeah. You see, I know your audience listening. Can't see it, but yeah ,

Speaker 2 29:39

It's there guys. I see it. It's it exists

Speaker 3 29:42

On my wall. Yeah. They send you a plaque and an award. Um, and then the top , um, like categories they can go or they probably won't do it in person this year, but they can go to a live ceremony where they have like a dinner and a party and all of this stuff, like that's for like Kardashian mover and shaker type people, not the lowly family and parenting.

Speaker 4 30:05

Yeah.

Speaker 3 30:06

But they did it in New York the year I won and there's no way I could have gone to New York anyway. So , um , gotcha. So yeah. So you have one daughter. Yes. Do you want more kids? Um, sometimes I know she's seven now and we talked about it for a while, but honestly I just, I got so busy with work and with my career and you know, my husband and I joke, we're like, well, we hit the jackpot with the first one. So Y gamble again, you know? Um, so why roll the dice again? I don't know. I mean, sometimes I think I do, but I'm also older, you know, I'm in my forties and I don't know that nature will allow it. Uh, so , uh , it would be amazing if we did have another child, but I also am , would be perfectly happy. Um , if we didn't so cool. Yeah. Nice. And I think I saw a cat in the background earlier . Oh my gosh.

Speaker 4 31:00

Yeah . It was probably like 20 minutes ago.

Speaker 3 31:05

Think you're so Gracie. I love you is my very , uh , famous cat and uh, no pun intended. Um, she is , uh, we got her like three Christmases ago. I think it was now. And um, we surprise my daughter. We put her in a box. Um , here she comes, come here, Bubba. We put her in a box and right at , um, right at Christmas, we were like, here you go. And as my daughter was opening the box, Gracie jumped out really fast. And so when she went to open it, she didn't see the cat. So it looked like we just gave her a big box and I happened to be filming. Cause our , the grandparents helped us , um, get the cat and pay for all of the supplies and Suffolk . So it was part of their gift too . So I was still filming it. And it was such a funny moment that I just posted it online and people were like, Oh my God, this amazing. And it went viral. They were like, you have to put it on YouTube. And overnight on Christmas, the day after Christmas, I woke up to millions of views and I was like, Oh , what's happening? And everyone's like, you have to be on Ellen, you have to do this. And I was like, nothing is in production right now. It's Christmas shut down. Um, so we had a , this viral video with my cat and she's, that's why I call her my famous cat. Gracie. I love you. It's a really funny video. If you want to look it up, it's on YouTube. I've got to look that up. That sounds so we have Gracie and then we have, we adopted a pandemic puppy. I think I probably mentioned it in the comedy thing last night, but her name is Luna and um , Oh, there she is. And when we , um, we adopted her, she was six pounds. She was like, just fit in our hands like this, just the cutest little squirmy little thing. And they told us that she was a cattle dog mix. And we were like, Oh, that's cool. Catalogs are great. They're beautiful. Dogs are so loyal. And they were like, she'll probably be about 30, 35 pounds, like fully grown. And we were like, Oh, that's perfect. She's almost 40 pounds right now at six months. Yeah. We'll find out he's a cattle dog or no , and not just cattle dog, but she's also Doberman. She's a catalog Doberman and a little bit of , um, terrier.

Speaker 2 33:13

I was going to say, great Dane. Yeah .

Speaker 3 33:16

She's huge. She's huge. And she's when she jumps up fully like her Paul's reach my shoulders . Like that's how tall she is. And she over, she can overtake my daughter a seven year old. That's no match for Ryan . She's like, I got this. Um, but she's just, she's a sweetheart, but she has the personality of a terrier. So she's got the look of a Doberman and a cat , a dog, but she's the personality of a terrier. And she is, she gets the zoomies like crazy. She runs all over the place. She doesn't listen. Like if she could flip us off, I think she would. She's like, I don't care what you say. I'm going to do what I want to do. And we're like cuckoo cocoa, cocoa. So it's been a lot of fun. I'm trying to balance this life with this new, crazy dog. And then have my daughter get set up with like distance learning. You know, the cat hates the dog and the dog just wants to like play with the cat. Um, so it's been a little bit nuts around here. So that's why I'm like, I don't know if we would have another baby. Yeah . If we did, it would certainly be a big adjustment. But , um , but yeah, so we have pets, pets make things. Do you have dogs?

Speaker 2 34:30

I have two dogs. Yeah. I have two dogs. They are chihuahuas. They're not your typical little shivery chihuahuas though. There one is a Chihuahua terrier mix. He's all black. And his name is Vader because we're huge star Wars fans. And then we adopted Chewie who is Brown and he's scraggly. Cause his dad was long hair and his mom was short hair. So he's just like this fuzzy little Shabaka mess.

Speaker 3 34:55

So you're a big star Wars fan.

Speaker 2 34:58

Huge . Oh yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 35:00

What did you think about the latest star Wars? There was a lot of scuffle about it.

Speaker 2 35:06

It's I just, my heart is with all of the old classics. All the new ones are great. I think they're trying, but I mean, yeah.

Speaker 3 35:15

Do you think it was necessary, do you think they needed to expand the world and continue these stories? Okay .

Speaker 2 35:19

I think they're kind of stretching it a little too much. I don't really think it was needed.

Speaker 3 35:23

Do you think they should have just left it alone?

Speaker 2 35:26

Yeah, I could have gone without it. It's always cool. It's like, Oh, cool. A new one, but then you're kind of like, well give me the classics any day. Well, I mean, there's that nostalgia, there's always a marathon on some channel of all of them. So I get my fill of all the originals anytime I want,

Speaker 3 35:41

You know, I liked the newer ones that they made. I , I also just love anything in that world, a scifi world. Like we love the Marvel movies. My husband's a big DC guy, so he's constantly disappointed in the DC movies .

Speaker 2 35:55

Oh , you're killing my child.

Speaker 3 35:59

Um, so , um, but I love all of those, the nostalgia of those movies. Um, and I want them to be better. I just don't know what I would do. Like it's hard, it's hard to armchair quarterback. I know a lot of, you know, a lot of fans do that , um, online, but it's like, what would you do different than , you know, like

Speaker 2 36:22

You can't really complain. Don't complain if you don't really have a solution. It's like, I don't know .

Speaker 3 36:26

Right. And the only thing I would not have done was have , um, re uh, and , um, Oh my God , I just forgot his name. Oh no. Adam driver. Oh God. What's what was his character's name?

Speaker 2 36:40

I just saw major brain fart. I'm like, this is Kylo Ren. I was like, if I can't answer, I'm such a horrible

Speaker 3 36:47

Was like, it's right on the tip of my tongue. That's so embarrassing. Yeah. I just wished that they would not have had Rey and Kylo Ren kiss. I just was like, no, I remember being in theater. Like, no, no, no, no. They don't. No .

Speaker 2 37:00

It's like, I felt like it was inevitably coming, but I didn't actually think they were going to go there. So when they did, I was like, ah ,

Speaker 3 37:09

It just felt like such a, like they sexualized a moment that didn't really need to be sexualized. Like there's not a lot of kissing in the original movies anyway. I mean, just between like Han and Leia and weirdly Luke and lamb , they weren't like making out. Um, but , um, it just didn't seem necessary.

Speaker 2 37:28

She could have done like a nice little kiss on the forehead. It's kind of like

Speaker 3 37:31

Last yeah. On the cheese , like on the hand, like something even just an embrace that would, that wouldn't have made it. Like everybody going wait. Wow. That was my only, my only really real beef with it. And I don't know if other fans felt that way too, but I, you know, it's nice to see the , anytime you see the star Wars logo backup on the screen, like we went to an event a couple of weeks ago, the Disney plus hosted they're doing a drive in

Speaker 2 37:55

The drive in. Yes. It looks it . Yeah .

Speaker 3 37:58

And that was the first time I think since I was a kid that I saw empire strikes back on the big screen and I just looked over at my husband and he's like,

Speaker 2 38:07

Right. Yeah, the music starts and you see the text , they just take it back in time,

Speaker 3 38:14

Getting a little emotional, a little, little carried away. And it was so sweet. We looked over the car next to us. They had brought an ad ads and they put it on their hood. So they were taking pictures of the movie on the big screen, through the ad. And it was like, I was like, I want to find that picture. I bet that turned out really cool, but it was really nice to see , um , the original, it has so much , um, charm to it and like hope and where I feel like some of the newer ones are just sort of lacking that.

Speaker 2 38:43

Yeah. They're very commercialized and just kind of like, Oh, we're just trying to make some more money off of this.

Speaker 3 38:50

It was just all action. It was action. There. Wasn't a lot of like, why do I care about these characters? So you didn't know we were going to dissect star Wars, did you?

Speaker 2 38:59

No, this is great. Also with the older ones looking back, it's just so amazing to see like the special effects of those . Like at that time, like all of the hard work that they had to do, there was no like green screen or anything. It's all,

Speaker 3 39:15

There was actually a person inside the R2D2 costume and yeah, just a different time, a different era in movie-making for sure. And I I'm, I just think that they should just let it I'm torn. I'm like, I love to watch it, but I also am like, just let it go.

Speaker 2 39:32

I would love for it just to keep going and going and going. Like, you never want a Sega or , um , a Sega. Am I trying to say,

Speaker 3 39:42

You never want to say, get, go for Nintendo

Speaker 2 39:46

A legacy. You never want to Lake , I don't know where it came from. You never want a legacy like that to die out. Right. It would be great if the story could just continue forever. But yeah .

Speaker 3 39:54

I just feel like Hollywood is getting a little bit lazy in that regard. Cause it's like, they're just digging up all these old properties and rehashing them and putting a twist on them, a monetary thing, whatever it's. Yeah. Which is so frustrating because I know so many talented writers and producers out here are desperately trying to get their original ideas made and created and they can't because, so, you know, they're , the studios are investing in old rebooting old property.

Speaker 2 40:21

Yeah. We need to see more original work.

Speaker 3 40:24

Yeah. Have you seen utopia on anyone ?

Speaker 2 40:27

No, not yet. I've yeah. I've definitely want to check that out though. It's it's with Rainn Wilson, right?

Speaker 3 40:33

Yeah. Randy Wilson and John Cusack. Yeah . It's, it's redone from a BBC show, but the BBC show was an original property, so it kind of counts as original, but , um, it's so bizarre and so violent. So I don't know if you're into that, but it's great .

Speaker 2 40:48

Yeah, that sounds great. You're like I'm in sign me up. Oh, well this has been great either . I don't want to take up too much of your time. Um, I'm also starting to sweat in the small closet. It's okay though. Um, yeah. Any message. Is there anything else you want to like promote a message for the Heather's a website you want to share anything like where can we sure . Tell us everything?

Speaker 3 41:09

Sure. Well, first of all, I just want to say I'm so proud to be a Heather and thrilled to be a part of this community. And I would absolutely love it if everyone listening, whether you're a Heather or not a Heather , um , follow me on Instagram and Facebook at the Heather Brooker and also on Twitter at Heather Brooker and my podcast, you can find it@motherhoodandhollywood.com and you can follow along with my acting stuff at , uh , Heather

Speaker 2 41:34

Brooker.com. Feel free to reach out. I love to interact with people as much as I can. And , um, would just love to stay in touch with all the Heathers . Yeah. The Instagram page is it's getting there. We're getting a lot of, Heather's going we're up to like 1500 followers. And like I swear, they're 99.9, 9% Heathers . So it's really cool. It's like this community is coming together and that's so great. We'll keep at it. Keep posting, keep reaching out. Um, and you'll just continue to grow and I wish you all the success in the world and thank you again so much for reaching out and including me and part of this, you're a Heather, so we gotta have, yeah . Cool. All right . Well, thanks so much for your time, Heather. Um , yeah, everybody follow her on everything that she just mentioned. I'll put all of that info in the show notes and on the website so people can find it and we'll keep in touch. Oh, bye kitty. Yeah. Now she comes up. She's coming to say goodbye. Yeah , she is. Yeah. Thanks so much for your time. Have a great day. And we'll talk again soon, Heather. All right. Thanks Heather. Bye

Speaker 1 42:35

Bye.

Speaker 2 42:37

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed our show, please subscribe. You can also sign up to receive updates and other podcasts news on our website, the Hey Heather podcast.com or follow us on Instagram at the Hey Heather podcast .

Speaker 1 42:52

I knew a few Heather's now I know a lot of Heather's . Let's get to know one more. Hey .