Teri Hatcher Inside 2006 - nice and beautiful!

[Music] tonight's guest has won a Best Actress Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild Awards - saluting the ensemble and one saluting her as outstanding female actor in a comedy series for her portrayal of Susan Mayer in Desperate Housewives we know her as Lois Lane in Lois and Clark the New Adventures of Superman and have seen her in soap dish Heaven's prisoners two days in the valley fever and Spy Kids in 2005 she received the world actress award at the Women's World Awards in Leipzig Germany and was named one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world by People magazine she is the author of burnt toast the Actors Studio is very proud to welcome Teri Hatcher you better stand up again other than that I feel like we're on a first date if anybody asks you saw me on a date with Terry actually and I admitted it on national television and I'll brag about it for the rest of my Terry joins one of the largest contingents of our guests the Californians where are you born I was born in Palo Alto but I grew up in Sunnyvale California what is your father's name Owen your mother's Esther and what is your lineage on both sides my mom is French German Syrian and my dad is Welsh American Indian it's surprising how many of our guests are of Native American descent I was chopped up and I think I maintained a sixteenth of it which is just shy of being able to get any tax credit which you can open again later this week I don't need so it's all right but I'm proud of it too you know it's a distinction what was your father's profession when you were a child he was an electrical engineer and a physicist at Advanced Micro Devices in Silicon Valley I and my mom worked at Lockheed for 25 years on satellites and lots of top-secret things she was never allowed to tell me about so I grew up in a very intellectual math oriented household right I can't imagine a cheerier name than Sunnyvale now it's certainly off the charts after Silicon Valley and all the computer industry boom it's it's a very you know expensive place to live but when I grew up there the highlights for me really were apple apricot cherry orchards everywhere you were an only child I wasn't only child and still am an only child I was also an only child and my mother worked my father the poet vanished I spent a lot of time alone did you me too in my closet why were you in your closet well it was very safe I would put towels in there and a flashlight and little pillows and a book and then I remember I would get one or two saltine crackers and I would sit in there waiting for someone to come home and I would have these stories about how I lived in the North Pole and this was the last piece of food ever and you know how would I ever survive and then I take one little chip off the saltine cracker and you know think like oh I probably ate too much I won't have enough for the next hour and I just had these stories these these you know crazy right I just have these stories that I would make up in my closet you lived in your imagination I did what grade school did you go to gosh I don't even remember the names I went to a lot of public schools there was a moment when I went to a private school and then back into public school but mostly public schools in and around Sunnyvale I just really wanted out of school I hated it did you study dance as a kid I did all my life there was a really significant moment I think when I was about 16 I was a pretty serious ballerina and doing duets at that point but I was critical enough to be able to examine it and say you're not going to be the best ballerina in the world you don't have it and I just stopped cold turkey and I never took another class but you are the best ballerina on this stage [Laughter] I wouldn't be a ballerina anyway I'd be a producer ha ha ha the reason I mention it is that we have a tradition on this show I wonder leave a note she's clapping she knows so much she knows so much about the traditions is clapping I wonder if you would just any kind bust any kind of move on this yeah I don't I I don't know what to do I'm I'm I can do the positions no you are first position that's very boring second position second position demi-plie and second place position demi plie there you go fourth position please perfect this is the preparation for a pirouette and look at the porta bra and fifth position are you going to do a pirouette God well god bless us all you don't have to be another thing thank you very very much that was really pretty nobody abt was watching because I'll never be hired yeah okay what high school did you attend I went to Fremont High School what were your principal interests there were you good academically out but what are the feather ads I was on the dance team which was called the feather ads yeah they were a big feather they did wear a big feather headdresses while we danced if you can imagine that and we traveled all over the country competing against other high schools what was the most likely title conferred on you by your Fremont class most likely to become a solid gold dancer you've described your parents marriage as John past juice yes I used to joke that you didn't have to set an alarm clock to go to school in my house you could just wake up to screaming at like seven o'clock in the morning you said that you were always trying to fix things between yeah well you know and as an only child that really did all come down on me as an adult I've really learned to back off to be able to appreciate my mom and dad individually for the good qualities that they have and and take that and so we have a good relationship can you remember when the impulse to act was born a one summer break between math College I'd sort of just got a bug of like I'd like to explore acting and the best place in where I lived was a CT the American Conservatory Theater Annette Bening was actually my teacher which was probably one of the greatest things that ever happened to me because even within that six-week program I felt enlightened to explore a part of myself and understand something that I would have never understood if I hadn't met and that one of the things I remember her saying about comedy is about how it comes the best comedy comes from the most serious place and sometimes I think that's why I'm pretty good at it because I'm in a lot of pain you know my life has been filled with a lot of secret pain and I'm the best one to be there and then turn it around into something funny weren't you going to college at that time as well I was about to go to San Luis Obispo Cal Poly to finish my math degree how did you become a mermaid first job I ever had was on The Love Boat and it was called a Love Boat mermaid they did this nationwide call to sort of get promotion for the last season of The Love Boat I went to the audition and they picked eight of us girls and I ended up being one of them we handed out towels on the Lido deck we were the crew piays in the casino I learned how to play blackjack on The Love Boat let's see we laid around in our bikinis and then every week we did a dance number in the lounge and one episode they decided to give my character an actual name because up until then it was just mermaid one mermaid to mermaid three and it was Amy and they wrote me a storyline an agent which at the time I didn't even know what an agent was I mean that's how naive I was you know called the studio said who's she does she have an agent and so I went with that agent and then when the Love Boat ended I got another pilot and got another pilot and then you know just kind of slowly started to piece together a career there was a while there where I used to think what kind of karma is going on with me because there were so many jobs like the big picture my first movie which I still think is one of the best it's been a skew I've ever had why is it a favorite of yours so many things I mean I I love Christopher gal so I mean I just think he's brilliant and he created such a safety net where I think when you're working especially in comedy you really have to be able to give over the trust to try things and know that there's somebody there with a reasonable good eye that's going to say to you you're going too far you're not going far enough I've had so many experiences the big picture soap dish a couple of their movies like that where I felt like it was like training ground what good is sitting alone in your room come hear the music play here's an odd at all trivial trivia question okay beginning in 1993 and for the next several years what was the most downloaded photograph of a woman on the entire Internet that's it it was our guest wearing nothing but the Superman cape right arrived at Lois and Clark The Adventures of Superman it's significant I think that after decades of the comic strip and movies called Superman this version bore the name Lois and Clark and Lois got first billing how did it come about well it was created by a woman it was created by Deborah Levine who I just adore it was her intention to tell a more romantic tale about two people who have something that keeps them apart since satisfaction is the death of desire the advantage of this Lois and Clark is it's infinite foreplay I'm so completely in love with you I can't do anything else without know [Music] I was I do care for you but there are things about me that you don't know that you may never know it doesn't matter I know you I don't mean you the celebrity or are you the superhero if you had no powers at all if you were just an ordinary man leading an ordinary life I would love you just the same can't you believe it I wish I could Lois but under the circumstances I don't see how I can [Music] [Music] in Heaven's prisoners you appear to have a tattoo yeah tattoos are a sacred subject on this stage and that is because my wife won't let me have one but that's another story is that a real tattoo that I saw no I don't have any tattoos I have a belly ring that's not the same as it tattoo I don't want a belly ring I want a tattoo okay now speaking of my wife my wife appeared for a fleeting instant in a James Bond movie not long enough to be a Bond girl but you have that distinction thank you what did you play in Tomorrow Never Dies I played Harris Carver yeah there's this odd things about my memories of movies that wouldn't necessarily be what people would think my memory of that movie was that I was four months pregnant when I shot it and so I had really big boobs and they looked really good in that dress why did you marry him he told me he loved me Louis sounds been do you know I used to look in the papers every day for your obituaries well I'm sorry I keep disappointing you what was it James did I get too close did I get too close [Music] yes [Music] what prompted you to make your stage debut in 1999 in cabaret yeah John Hickey is a friend of mine and he was in and he played cliff and I was talking to John about how the pain of Sally Bowles really resonated with me and I just felt her in me you know I I just I was so moved by her story and the play in a deep way and you know Rob Marshall's and Sam Mendes as presentation of that play was very dark and very deep and they were auditioning for the national tour of it and I auditioned and and I got it and it was incredible probably one of the most amazing experiences of my life never one to lose an opportunity to take advantage of a guest since she's danced for us and since you've not yet heard her sing [Music] I placed beneath that cup the lyrics of one of the songs of cabaret and if you join me in inviting her maybe she'll sing a few bars that's he's sitting alone in your room come hear the music play life is a cabaret old chum come to the Cabaret and as for me as for me I made my mind up back in Chelsea when I go [Applause] like LC and then it goes on [Applause] between 1998 and 2003 you did what actors are advised never to do you took a five-year career break well I had my dar and as you mentioned I was alone in my closet a lot as a child I mean I you know was raised with two working parents and I just always said to myself that if there was any way that I was lucky enough to be able to afford it I wouldn't work while I raised her and so I pretty much didn't and it was great the best thing I ever did best choice I ever made were you were able to afford it I was thanks to RadioShack commercials and I'm not ashamed to admit it what happened in 2003 that changed everything well I got this little script called them Desperate Housewives and I don't think they were that hot to hire me for Susan I was you know maybe on a b-list certainly not on an a-list I was able to get into a meeting but they weren't even sure if it was Susan maybe it was Lynette maybe it was you know they didn't really know and and I just started talking to Marc Cherry and trying to not be what I thought they wanted me to be trying to finally let go of that and just be me and embrace an idea that you have to let it come to you you have to trust that if it's right it will come to you and so I was very much in that space through all the meeting and auditioning processes and and it worked out didn't Desperate Housewives arrive shortly before a milestone birthday yeah right before I turned 40 yeah I mean if you want to talk about your life just turning around on a dime you know that's what happened to me but the greatest thing about it is two great things having a second chance at being 40 and having lots of ups and downs both personally and professionally allows you such perspective to be so grateful and enjoy what you have hopefully formed was Susan Mayer when the journey began how much did you know about her how much did the writers know about her at that point I don't think a lot and I think there are pluses and minuses in that certainly as an actor it might be easier to play something if you knew where it was going yeah and we don't I mean I love being Susan and I know that all the other girls feel strongly about being part of the show also so maybe that's why it can it continues to work but since I haven't been able to from the writers get a history a homework of Susan a journey of where she's going in the future you know I ended up really creating some stuff for myself did you write about with you everything I did I did and I and I don't know if it's right or not and I guess ultimately it doesn't matter because it puts a choice in me that informs stuff that I do I have an intent and it would be hard for me to do it if I didn't have some sort of intent which they're not always capable of supplying so we do a lot of our own work as Wisteria Lane ever been given a geographical location it hasn't I think it's the Eagle State which isn't really a state there is no Eagle State even though it seems like there should be and there's no weather that's right it has no location where does it actually exist where is that street that we see it's right at the top of the hill of universal it really does truly look like a neighborhood beautiful neighborhood with beautiful colored houses and all the flowers are fake so they're always in bloom does ABC standards and practices ever raise any objections to the show's content all I know is that the whole first season thousands of dollars were spent digitally erasing my nipples really are they still erased or I don't know I need to watch in real life they are not erased I think Grey's Anatomy gets to have nipples and I have you know a little beef to have with the network about that then again they are on at 10 o'clock and 10 o'clock you can have nipples at 9 o'clock no nipples this is different from any show we've had in 12 years leave it to me Desperate Housewives is sometimes laugh-out-loud funny and that puts it into the rather murky TV category of dramedy yeah when you're dealing with a mix like this are there ever debates about whether something is meant to be serious or funny there's a fairly big mandate set by Marc Cherry that everything is supposed to be funny I mean I think from Marc Marc comes from comedy Marc wants there to be funny and so even within whatever might be the saddest most dramatic scene he would like there to be funny but again you know what I said about in that Bening saying to me a long time ago you know that the funniest truest things come out of these very serious desperate dark places so I think those are concepts that can meld together this scene from the series third episode which was aptly called pretty little picture sums up several of the elements we've been talking about comedy drama and well you can put a label on it [Music] [Music] [Music] lying naked in her shrubs it occurred to Susan this could be the most humiliating moment of her life Susan she was wrong what you doing knock myself out naked oh and then I fell will you naked oh no I was very close to naked I was pretty much naked when we shot that whole thing I mean I had like just a tiny thing of gaffers tape sort of like right here and then just sort of a strip of nothing you know kind of like right there because the thing was you had to be able to shoot me from the side so I couldn't really wear underwear and and you know you had to be able to shoot this so it was just I felt like I had to trust that because it was the network that didn't want to see my nipples anyway yeah I had to trust that I had to trust that they weren't gonna see something that they weren't supposed to see so it was just easier to you know the most embarrassing thing was we started shooting that scene at 6:00 in the morning and I'm all in my little tiny pieces of tape and I had my robe on and I went up to Wisteria Lane and the whole crews there and I just stood up and just went okay everyone's seen it now we can move on you know like I mean it was just cuz it was that moment of anticipation where you feel like you're just gonna be that way but I trust I mean I would jump in front of a bus for my crew I mean I trust them so much so it was my favorite scene in the show ever I think I'm very fond of it before we leave Wisteria Lane I'd like to take a look at one of my favorite scenes it's from an episode called every day a little death for some reason Mark show name's most of the episodes after Stephen Sondheim's songs oh yes that's right which I admire him he's a big musical theater person marching in this scene Susan and Edie take a rowboat out to spread the ashes of the murdered Martha Huber guess is their favorite once again we have the rare mixture of melodrama and mirth mayhem and merriment you stepped up with nobody else wouldn't Here I am thinking you have an ulterior motive oh god Susan you're such a good person and I'm such a well Edie you're not that bad and and and believe me I'm not that good oh yes you are oh please don't do this Martha may be gone but the good Lord above show me that I'm not alone I am so grateful that I still have a true friend Thank You Susan Edie I burned your house down huh I was scared that you were sleeping with Mike and so I let myself in and I I snuck around I accidentally knocked a candle over in the hole just I'm so sorry can you ever forgive me yeah when I see scenes like that I just think I'm so lucky to even be in this show I just I can't it's really it's a dream job I'm so lucky it's hard as a child to understand the predator his mentality is set up to make you feel that way and that's why you don't tell in the midst of Terry's dazzling success she chose to go public in Vanity Fair with an experience that began when she was five years old what happened on January the 18th 2002 that prompted you to disclose something that you had kept hidden for 33 years you mean that girl yeah I always stumble as I tell the story yeah I was we were having a garage sale at my my parents house because they were moving down south and my mom gave me some old Sunnyvale newspapers that she had kept and said there might be an article I wanted to read in it very kind of nonchalantly and I showed her to read this article and it was about a little girl who was 11 named Sarah who had killed herself and she left a note implicating that an uncle of mine had been molesting her for three years and he had also molested me as a child how old were you when he began to molest five how long did it go on I think eight ish my mom remembers um that I she invited them to dinner and I sort of went into like a screaming fit about how could she invite them to her house and why would she think I would want them there for dinner and had you told them what was no no so she just instinctually sort of felt like that was weird and so she stopped our contact but you know this was in that dawn at that late 60s early 70s and nobody really talked about this then like many of us I've heard of similar situations so I'm gonna ask the stupidest possible question because I know how important the answer is hmm why didn't you speak to anyone your family during the time that it was going on well there are layers to which you feel as as the victim that you don't understand you're the victim that you feel like it's your fault and you feel like you made it happen and you feel like you were an equal participant in it somehow does he make you feel that way well there is a part of you that enjoys the attention and the affection and that makes you feel like you were responsible and it's hard as a child to understand the predator mentality is set up to make you feel that way and that's why you don't tell because you feel so much shame and so much conflict about what's happened but you know it's wrong why did you decide to intervene three decades later because I felt like I was being blessed with an opportunity to not only possibly help this family but to revisit my own personal basically you know strings that were just left hanging that were never dealt with in my own issues so I called the DA and I was very scared that people would find out who I was and I wasn't working and that I would be identified as the abused actress you know and this was just before desperate I was like two years before or a year-and-a-half before yeah and you know you don't want to be identified as anything as an actress you just want to be an actress and let people be critical of your work you know you don't want to be the sexual abused actor and so I didn't want people to know and define me that way and so I called him I told him my story I said if your case is sewn up and you can put him behind bars and you don't need me I think I would just as soon stay out of the limelight but if it's not I really need to see this man go behind bars and he deserves to and if he did it to me 30 years ago and her two years ago then he's been doing it to people all along and that makes me sick and this man needs to be in prison and he said well you know ironically enough he was about to go free in two days so can we get your deposition because there was no one to testify to testify because she was dead and so they flew down and got my deposition which was very thorough and very painful and they showed it to his lawyer and he pled guilty and so he's been in jail for 14 years he'll be in jail the day after the article came out 25 victims called that DA's office you know in one day I've had thousands of emails from around the world of women who even the the statute of limitations is up in their case they went down and they filed a police report because it just made them feel like I can be empowered and if by me coming forward by me being successful it empowers other people to feel like they can have that too so it's really turned out to be a great experience for everyone will it ever be gone from your life I don't think so I don't think so I think that whoever ends up in my life my girlfriend's a man who I might be intimate with I think they'll have to want to embrace it as part of me I think it's better to embrace your experiences as a part of you then try to compartmentalize them and pretend that they don't exist but it doesn't dominate me why is this book called burnt toast if metaphorically you spread out breakfast for your family the bacon and the eggs and the golden toast and there was one that was burnt it just naturally seems that it's the woman that goes oh yes I'll take that one you know I'll just take that worst thing I'm not talking about going out and buying yourself a car or whatever I'm talking about the little ways that we can find time to take care of ourselves through the day to not eat the burnt toast so that you know years from now you feel like you've lived your life your life hasn't lived you recently when Dave Chappelle was in that chair as some of you may remember he talked about why he had gone to Africa and what he had found there he told our students to find their Africa and you say to your readers in your book follow your chosen path and when the time is right you'll find your Africa that's really interesting what did you find there as Emerson and I would drive around in the Jeep on our safaris I would do this meditation where I would blow all the years and years and years and years of anger and pain and regret and leave it and I left it there I and I didn't feel guilty about it because I knew Africa could take it because it was just this massive beauty and God and ancientness and everything and that's what I mean by finding your Africa finding your place where you have the most real depth of inner peace and that you can let everything go we're going to begin our classroom session with the questionnaire that was used by Bernard people what is your favorite word hired an actor speaks what is your least favorite word fired what turned you on touch love being touched what turned you off lies what sound or noise do you love I love the sound of my daughter's laugh boy can she giggle what sound or noise do you hate I know because it happens every Saturday morning at 7 o'clock those leaf blowers [Music] just want to yell out my bedroom window isn't that illegal what's your favorite curse word oh can I say it yeah really did you say it 12 years we've been saying it well I'm just such a simpleton it's just I mean just I guess that I just you know good kind of humorous line you just I mean somebody's finally gonna say I can say it but I'm just no it's just fun I never get to say it I don't get to say it very much because I'm a single mom and of course I don't talk like that in front of my daughter chorus what profession other than yours would you like to attempt I love writing um we are working on the writing producing and I think I'd like to open a little tiny diner in Montana what profession we do not like to participate in politics if Heaven exists what would you like to hear God's say when you arrive at the pearly gates you made it here are your students class will begin hi I'm Jamie Lee and I'm a first year acting student hi and I was just curious there's a lot of Susan based on not only your personality but how you're feeling that particular day in that particular moment in time not really I'm actually a big believer in leaving my personality at home which is really hard to do especially when you spend a couple of months crying I mean I've gone through some emotional journeys and the people on the set know that you know they see it they see it coming oh boy it's been a bad night so you want to try to be I think as even as you can when you arrive to do a piece I'm a really fast study I make good instinctual choices I've honed my short-term memory to a place where I can't tell you what I was doing yesterday I mean it which is the good and the bad I'm extremely quick but as soon as I do it it's gone and when I'm working with comedy that kind of comes out of the dance background like that almost feels like choreographed you know 1 2 it's funny or like I'll you'll hear me say on the set it's funnier if I walk two steps save the line and then sit down then walk one step sit down say the line so I would say more of and drawing on just kind of basically a show up on the set MV Terry I think I I think really fast and I find the right way to make the right acting choices and put them into the scene thank you sir hi Terry my name is Anthony Lozano I'm a marketing major here at pace and my question for you is in the industry there are peaks of highs and lows and if when you take off for that peak how do you take your whole personal self with you as you move up hmm well it's easier to do the second time which is sort of why I think I'm enjoying this second chance of success because I'm older and you know I think that you learned to recognize what you want out of your life who you want to be and you begin to own that in a more responsible way I feel like if anything's changed me more than anything it's having an opportunity to be a mother which you won't have so sorry I can tell you not to be hard on yourself I can tell you you know to believe in yourself and try to be positive and to spend most of the time figuring out who you are not who other people want you to be not trying to fit in but to find yourself the opposite of fitting in find yourself you know okay so we were talking about my belly ring which happens to be a skull it's a little a little black diamond skull and one of the things my daughter actually has sort of brought skulls into our life she yeah she wants to paint a room black not happening anyway but she brought skulls into her life and and rather than being a mom where I just go you know no you can't have skulls that's creepy you know well I said let's see what-what are skulls you know and so we started looking into what's the symbolism behind skulls and skulls really are about mindfulness and mindfulness is about being where you are not where you've been and not where you're going and recognizing that all things will pass meaning that joy will pass sadness will pass and your life will pass and embracing that mortality and being in that mindful place I think gives you the freedom to just enjoy and be where you are don't don't think about so much the future or the past or the mistakes know that every experience good and bad painful and joyful is adding up to you and being your life and that's good

Channel: Theodor RanD

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Rating: 4.9166665 out of 5

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Id: JHN4VXHq2Vk

Length: 43min 50sec (2630 seconds)

Published: Fri May 15 2020