July 11, 2023 • 34 mins
Singer, songwriter, actor, producer... the whirlwind that is Rita Wilson joins us on LOVE SOMEONE today, and wow, do we have a lot of catching up to do!
We're talking about "A Man Called Otto," the charming movie she produced starring handsome talented hubby, Tom Hanks, her recent single with Emily Shackleton, "I Loved You First", and her new album, "Now & Forever: Duets" featuring an amazing lineup of collaborators - and, as always, so much more! Pop in those ear buds and get ready for a treat! ~ Delilah
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
School's out and there's a lot more young people in
our midst than during the fall or winter months. Maybe
they're in your kitchen demanding snacks like Oreo cookies or popsicles,
or they're in your home office demanding your attention. Maybe
there's a team knocking on your door to see if
you need your lawn mode. If they are, take them
(00:27):
up on it and give them a tip. Maybe they're
starting their first real summer job. Or maybe they just
graduated from high school and are packing up for college
and your heart is breaking. Or maybe they just finish
college and they're taking a job out of town or
out of state, or maybe, gasp, they're getting married. Summer
can be such a time of transition, and transitions can
(00:51):
be so bittersweet. Big events like these make us long
for the days that they just wanted you to put
your work aside and go jump through the sprinkler with them.
If you've got littles, go jump through the sprinkler with them.
I promise you you will not regret it. Today's podcast
guest has a knack for tapping into the emotions of
(01:12):
our life, whether it's a song she's written or performed
through her acting career or film production. She'll get you
right in the fields. As they say. Her latest musical
single is so perfect for all the graduation and wedding
rehearsal slide shows you'll be watching this summer. Multi talented singer, songwriter,
(01:32):
actor producer Rita Wilson is joining me today. It's been
a while since she and I were able to catch up,
back when she wrote and recorded Throw Me a Party,
another tear jerker, but it's her most recent single, written
and recorded with Emily Shackleton. I'm referring to I Loved
You First celebrates the deep and complex connection between a
(01:58):
mother and a child. Fittingly, it was released for Mother's
Day this year, and it's the very definition of bittersweet.
Rita calls it a love song between mothers and sons,
quoting the line of A Shell's Silverstein book. And she
loved a little boy very much, even more than she
(02:20):
loved herself. I'm so looking forward to talking with Rita
Wilson and getting the low down on all she's been
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(03:27):
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Speaker 2 (03:33):
Hi, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Really, oh my god, we have so much to catch
up on, so much to catch them. So I haven't
talked to you since, uh since you made me cry
with the song that ripped my heart out?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Which when was that?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
The Don't cry for Me song?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Throw me a Party?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yes, yes, it was so sweet. Well let me introduce
you here before I start asking you a bazillion questions
and catching up with me. I love someone today is
the multi talented whirlwind. You are a whirlwind, Rita Wilson.
You're a whirlwind of sparkly joy.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
But don't you think most, at least in my experience
from all over my journeys, I think most women are whirlwinds.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Most of us are taskers.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
They do a lot of things. They're incredibly creative, and
it's just I think it's something we're good at. I've
always thought I wish there were more female contractors because.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Because houses would have better kitchens.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It's true really quickly.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Yeah, the house I grew up in was so tiny,
and my mom and dad, I don't know how they
did it, but they cooked in that little tiny kitchen.
And back then we didn't know this, but my mom
would go to the market every day and just get
what's fresh. And she was Greek, so that was what
(05:11):
she was used to. The concept of like buying and
storing or freezing just didn't compute to her. So, like,
you would open up the refrigerator and I'd be like
embarrassed when friends came over because there would be like yogurt,
a couple of cans of seven apps so they could
make their cocktail vo and.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Seven at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
And feta cheese in its own sort of liquid, which yeah,
so ugly and some constractive.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I mean, can you imagine a friend going, yeah, let's
have some ice cream.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Or some you know, coke or something like yeah, and
we could have some feta.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, here's an olive, stinky cheese. Eat this.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
My girlfriend Didi, her mom was the cookie mom. Her
mom bought real cookies, she bought oreos. The cookie jar
had store bought cookies in it, and we're like, oh,
this is so good. We don't have to eat those
stupid homemade things like our mom.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, how d that's right. Some animal crackers, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, and some popsicles please mom. Your kids are big
now they're grown. But were you the homemade popsicle mom?
Or were you the let's go buy the box of
the plastic sugar water things and just stick them in
the freezer.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
To this day bought the popsicles, but always always made
the birthday cakes.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So I want to talk about music. I want to
talk about your songs, but right now I got to
talk about man called Ato. Yes, I cried, I laughed,
I cried, I'm gonna be honest with you. I started
watching it two or three times and I had to
stop because I lost a son to suicide and that
(06:58):
opening scene opening five minutes just I couldn't do it.
But somebody that I love told me, please please watch this.
I know why it's triggering you, but please, if you can,
you know, go past the first part because it will
enlarge your heart ten times. And I'm like, okay, deep breath,
(07:20):
I can do this. And I did it, and Rita,
it was so beautiful and this simplistic way his life
was transformed and his heart was healed. My love imperfect, loud, noisy, obnoxious,
(07:42):
you annoy the hell out of me. I ain't going away. Love.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Yeah, just non judgmental too, because culturally, I don't think
she realized that she was being that kind of I
don't want to say intrusive, but just herself, and that
in America maybe.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
We're not so used to that. You know, I grew
up in.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
A very loud Greek Bulgarian family, so I was used
to that. But for me, it was about the community
that you can find if you're open to it, and
that we all shut down when things happen to us
that make us feel like we'll never find our way again.
(08:25):
And sometimes it takes somebody getting you out of that
comfort zone, dragging you, dragging and screaming out of that
comfort zone so that you realize again that you know,
every day is a gift when we're live, and you know,
it was important to me that story was very it
(08:47):
was very beautiful. And also it was based on a
book called A Man Called Ova, and that was a
huge bestseller in the United States. But I had seen
the Swedish film made from the book, and that's what
inspired me to do this as an American version. And
in case your audiences don't know, I produced it. And
(09:10):
luckily the actor that I went to, Tom Hanks, was available.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Was available. He said, listen, baby, you're not getting you're
not getting the pinata cake this year. If you don't
agree to do this with me exactly, no care, no cake,
no cake for you, baby.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
And our director Mark Forrester, who's just done so many things.
He's done things. He got halle Berry and Oscar for
Monsters Ball, which he directed, He directed the James Bond
movie Quantum of Solace, and he did Stranger Than Fiction
that great.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Movie with Emma Thompson.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
And Will Ferrell, and I just loved his sensitivity and
his sensibility of how he handled things that there was
still humor, but it was all very grounded and very real.
So and we shot it in Pittsburgh and it was fantastic.
I loved Pittsburgh, loved the people.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
The setting, and the row houses and the way Otto
leased the row house. There was just so many little
nuances in it, you know, from repairing the dishwasher, just
so many sweet little nuances, even the cat.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Everything was so everything. You know, it's.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Almost like a nod to an era that is fading.
You know, someone who gave their life to a company
and then you know they're kicked out because things are changing,
or forced to retire. Let's say, people who were good
with tools that could fix things. I know that people
still can do that, but even from my mom who
(10:51):
used to sew and crochet, and my dad built like
a whole section onto our house when we were kids,
I don't know if the average person knows how to
do that anymore. Do they still have shop in junior
high I mean we used to have shop in middle
school and homemaking, so we would learn how to sew
and cook. I know it sounds crazy, but there's something
(11:13):
good in learning how to do all of that stuff.
I think a lot of those crafts are fading, but
you are very crafty. Like honestly, I'm like, please do
another tiling project.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Because that bathroom was incredible. I was following that whole process.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Oh my god, that was so much fun. But I
was obsessed. I'd get off the air at midnight and
then I would start the tile, you know, start the floor,
and I wouldn't come to bed until like four o'clock
in the morning. And then I've got all these kids.
My husband was like, what is wrong with you? Just
put tile down, Just put go to home depot and
(11:50):
get some tile. And I'm like, no, I know exactly what.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
It is, though, de Laila. It's a quiet time. No
one is going to distract you out the phone, not
an email, not a kid, not a husband, not a anyone.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
It's your quiet time.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
And it's also I think when you do anything creative
with your hands or yeah, let's just say, or even
for it can be sometimes just driving you're doing something
with your hands, but that's when my mind gets creative.
That's when I get to listen, that's when I get
to have my conversations with God. I that's when I
(12:29):
feel it's good time, you know. So it's hard to
say no to that, even though you know you should
be sleeping.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
So when you're writing a song, do you write it
or do you let God just write through you? I
know that's a weird question.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
No, I it's I always call it miraculous because you
go into the room you're writing with somebody and this
song at that moment does not exist. And through the
conversation and through the ideas, through the creative process. I
don't know how it happens, but it does happen, but.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
You give birth to the song.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Once I said, I don't know if I told you
this before, but I've said songwriting is like this because
I co write. You walk into the room, fall in
love with the complete stranger, make beautiful musical intercourse, and
give birth to a gorgeous song.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Baby.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
So I loved you first, I knew you first. I
was the first love in your life and you were
the ultimate love and mine. Right, how long did it
take to birth that song?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Well, my co writer Emily Shackleton had approached me about
singing it with her, and the version that she had
and gave me was already the concept, but it was
written when her newborn was six weeks old, and it
felt very much like you were singing it to a
(14:07):
little little baby. And having grown sons, the one who's
married to who are a single, I said, would you
be open to thinking about it in a way that
is for an older child too, an older son, and
she was like yeah, So rewrote some stuff, sent it
(14:30):
back to her and we just it all moved pretty quickly,
and we recorded the song and got it out for
Mother's Day. But in case your listeners haven't heard it yet,
it's really a song that you write as a mother
to your son as he's getting married or as he's
starting his life, because you, I mean, I still remember
(14:53):
to this day the moment of childbirth, the moment they
first put that baby on your chest and in your arms,
and the overwhelming sense.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Of love that you have is just enormous, and.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
It's sort of like that will never go away, That
will never go away.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
You will always say.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I remember my one son chat when he got his
first tattoo. I cried so badly because I thought I've
bathed you.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I have inch of that skin, an inch.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Of that body and that skin and oh, it's just
it was just, you know, one of those things. And
then you realize, yeah, you got to let go. They
had their lives and their adults and they can do
what they want to do, and you have to let go.
And you know a lot about letting go.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I suck at it though I've never let go of
anything that didn't have claw marks. I do that. How
can I orchestrate things so that I don't really have
to let go? You know, like they'll go to college
down the street. Yeah, that's it, that's it.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, And they're like, uh no, Ma, that's it's nothing.
And you know what it's. It has been this year, Rita,
that I'm talking to my sister, that I realize how
horrific I was to my mother to not understand that
when when I flew the nest, because I flew pretty fast,
pretty hard, pretty far. I mean I wasn't that far away,
(16:32):
but I was emotionally right, and I didn't even realize
how that ripped her guts out here I am, you know,
at this age in life, cling she's been gone for
almost thirty years going, ma, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
If we're going to get older, at least we got
to get something in return.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
And it was done.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
I think that you can only realize that at a
certain point in your life.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I was cold blooded, Like you know, it was the seventies, baby,
in the eighties, and I had things to do.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Yeah, I'm out.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
There are discos to go to.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
There's koloa and cream to drink.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
If you do the vodkatonic, do not finish the night
with a koloa and cream.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Oh my god. The disco era, for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Did you have the dress, the dress that spun, the
little lycra dress that spun with the.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Disco No, oh, that sounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah. I had a purple lycra you know, the little
circle skirt. So when I would spin on the disco floor, Oh.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
My god, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Yeah, it was, well, you know, it's I really still
think growing up in that era was kind of amazing,
particularly like I think the music from that time is incredible. Like,
I don't know if you know, but you I think
you would like this album. It's called Now and Forever Duets.
It's my duets album. That came out last September. But
(18:08):
it's all covers of seventy songs sung as duets with
Keith Urban, Smokey Robinson, Jackson Brown, Elvis Costello, Vince Gill.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Josh Grobin.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
You know, it goes on and on, but it's all
those songs that we love and grew up with, and
all duets envisioned as duets because those songs weren't sung
as duets. Willie Nelson and I do slip Sliding Away,
and there's something like super poignant about hearing Willie Nelson
sing the nearer.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Your destination, the more you're slip sliding away.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
However, I think if anybody is going to break the
sound barrier of living forever, it's Willie.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, it's definitely Willie. I actually was telling there's a
young couple that lives on my property that both are
very musical, and so we have bonfires in the backyard
and they have my young kids out there and you know,
they'll sing. And I said to them the other night,
I feel so bad for you kids, and they're like, why,
(19:13):
I said, you missed the era of the best music.
And I was talking about that album, those songs that
magical place in time where there was an innocence. Even
though some of our songs are a little naughty, there
was an innocence.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
I think like that era of music was kind of
coming out of the sixties where we had writers like
Carol King, but they were writing for other people, they
were writing for groups. And then there was this emergence
of the singer songwriter, and you had Joni Mitchell, Harold King,
Stevie Nicks, Carly Simon. Linda Ronstadt didn't write that much,
(19:57):
but she was an amazing interpreter. You had Crosby Stills
and Nash Jackson Brown, Neil Young, all of these people,
and they were telling their own personal stories, and that
is I think what we related to so much is like, wow,
they're saying what I'm thinking.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
And it felt very real and very intimate.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
The older I get, you know, the wisdom comes. One
thing I realized I was listening to some great music
the other day, and in my mind, if it's a
great song, it's gospel. When a song resonates in your
soul like that, yeah, it's gospel. To me. It's like,
you can't refute this, you can't argue this.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
That's a fact.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, like slip sliding away. That is gospel, that is wisdom.
That is a whole sermon wrapped up in a three
and a half minute song.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
That's right, that's right. That's what I love about songwriting
is the storytelling. Is how are you going to tell
this in three and a half minutes?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
To condense down the truth? Yes, about loving a baby
first and loving them with every fiber of your being
and knowing you would trade places with them in a heartbeat.
There's something bad, it happens, Yeah, And being able to
tell that in a three or four minute song, Yeah,
(21:37):
that's your gift. That's your magic, is being able to
preach the truth of love, to condense it down till
it's just pure.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
It's pure. I think that what you went through is
maybe the hardest.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Thing a parent can ever go through, and you have
handled it with enormous grace, and I think you've probably
inspired so many people who may have been not able
to get out of despair. And I know that it
(22:17):
doesn't ever go away, but I know that it is.
It's there, and you've accepted and you live with it.
I don't know if you have read anything by Pauline Boss,
and she writes about ambiguous grief yep, an ambiguous loss.
That concept is, you know, we all think that we
should have closure.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
There is no closure.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
There is no clue.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
I'm glad that people are talking about that and recognizing it.
One of the sweetest gifts I got after losing my
first son, Sammy was somebody saying. It was Jill that
told me the whole doesn't get any smaller, but your
life will grow around it, your life will expand around it.
(23:02):
Right now, all there is is the whole. There's no
room for anything else.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
That's a beautiful, beautiful way to look, to see it
and to understand. Yeah, you know, it's also like I
remember after nine to eleven, we were all questioned, like,
how could something that evil happen? How could something that
bad happen? How could that occur? And people were asking,
Where's God? Where's God in all of this? Like, you know,
(23:29):
how can if you pray to God, how did God
let this happen? And I read a piece by a
rabbi in the New York Times and he said, you know,
evil exists in the world just like anything, But where
you find God is in the aftermath, in the actions
of people in the love and the kindness and how
(23:50):
people come together and the unite in this goodness, And
that's where you have to look for it, because if
you stay in that other.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
World, you're going to just lose your mind, be stuck.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
And you'll lose your mind. You'd be on a hamster
wheel of grief and pain.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
And so read it. You had a song come out
a couple of weeks ago, right, Yes, and every woman
needs a Little Black Dress exactly.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
It's called Little Black Dress. I wrote it with Laurie
McKenna and Phil Barton. Laurie McKenna is an incredible songwriter.
She has her own albums, but she has written just
hit after hit when Grammy's and I had this idea
about a little black dress, because what's more universal than
a little black dress. But it was really about like
(24:39):
when you close have memories. To me, I can look
at something I wore and remember exactly where it was,
who I was with, what we talked about. It's like
this weird time capsule. So I thought, what if you
took a little black dress and put some memories to it.
(24:59):
So that's what it's really about.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
And are they your memories? Is there truth in the
air is there? Are they your memories? Are we going
to discover?
Speaker 2 (25:08):
No?
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Not yes, in some ways yes, I mean all songs
are truthful, and all songs are they come from your
own sort of like were.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
You wearing a little black dress the night that you
and Tom fell in love?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
No? I wasn't.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
But there was a design I had a little black
dress by this Parisian designer. She was American, but she
moved to Paris and she used to design for Elizabeth Taylor.
Her name was Vicky Teal, and Vicky Teal she said
to me once when I was buying a little black dress,
she said, whenever Elizabeth Taylor wants to close the deal,
(25:49):
she comes to me and I design her a little
black dress because her dresses were just like they take
advantage of the female.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Let's say, and she was a work of art.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
And she was a work of art. So I love
little black dresses. I still do now they're a little
bit looser than sometimes. But but no, there was truth
in it in that, you know, these little black dresses
can be alluring. And you know, we took the song
into a place that was sort of like, all right,
(26:27):
so this couple they meet, she's got the hot little
black dress on and flash forward now they're married, they
have kids, they have a house, and you know, she's
trying to put that little black dress on and it's
a little tight. But he there's a lot of the
song that I love. He still sees her like he
(26:49):
did that first night, and she still believes him even
if the dress don't fit just right, and that I love.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
It's that to me. It's about love.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
So it is about you and Tom, I still see
you that way.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
You know, you still look like that girl I met,
you know, very sweet.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
I was wearing sweats when my husband fell in love
with me. We worked out at the same gym. That's
how we met. He never saw me with makeup on
for six months.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Oh amazing. Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
It was because I had a dog, a yellow lab,
and I only owned black workout clothes. So not only
did I not have any makeup or a little black dress,
I was covered in white dog hair every time I
go to the gym.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
That was interesting is you weren't really lifting a a
bar bell, but you were lifting lit rollers.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, Oh my god, that's a funny scene in my
head now. Oh gosh, so Where would you like to
go in a little black dress that you've never had
a chance to go to because you've traveled all over
the world. I mean you were where were you in
(28:02):
Spain when COVID hit no Australia shut down in Australia, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
That was crazy. Where would I like to go to
the little black dress?
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Or maybe someplace you've been and would like to revisit
again in a little black dress.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
You know, when I think of a little black dress,
I really think of Paris. It's just like that kind
of romantic thing.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
I see myself getting dressed in a beautiful Parisian hotel
room and go walking to a little bistro down the street.
You know, just something very I see the street lights
that are lit.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Maybe there's a little bit.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Of a mist on the ground, like post rain, so
it's reflecting. The lights are reflecting. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
It just feels like that.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Little tables setting outside. Yeah, you cross your legs and
you wear in a little black dress and you have
to kind of scooch it down exactly. Yeah, Yeah, I
see it. I see it. Oh fun. We're getting to
know Rita Wilson a little better today and hearing about
the many, many projects she's been involved with recently and
(29:13):
what's been going on in her life. I am so
grateful to my podcast sponsors for helping to make this happen.
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Welcome back to love Someone, Rita. So what are you
doing this summer? Anything? Like? Are you planning a trip?
Are you having I want to have Grandma Camp where
(30:18):
I can have some of my grand kids come and
do just crafts for a few days.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah, yeah, oh gosh, that'd be great.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Well, so I did CMA Fest and the Bluebird And
you know, to me, when you get to perform live,
it's it's like taking a vacation.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I really really love it.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
We also have Asteroid City that is the new Wes
Anderson movie that I'm in, as well as Tom and
a cast of thousands, I would say, Scarlett Johansson and
Jason Schwartzman, Brian Kranston, Tilda Swinton.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
It goes on an on, Margot.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Robbie, So we had the premiere for that. That's super fun.
And then we always take time out. We'll do a
family trip somewhere with everybody, So we'll do that and
just relax. You know, there's I don't know if it'll
be done by then, but right now currently there's a writer's.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Strike, so we can't really work as actors. I'll still
do some writing, but I'm just also going to make
sure that it's good family time.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Well, have a blessed, wonderful, RESTful take a break. Like
you said, you'd take a family vacation. Do not work,
do you just?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
I am literally that concept, which I would like to
call a sabbatical, which is what people do, is they
take three months off. You know, it came out of teachers.
For every seven years of work, they would get one
year so that they could go out into the world
(32:03):
and take in so that they could bring these new
ideas and new interesting facts and stories to their classrooms.
And I feel like as creative people we.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Have to do that.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Sometimes you can't always just be in the output mode.
You have to have quiet time where you just are
out there absorbing and taking it in.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
And so yeah, I definitely will do that.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Road trip trip.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Nothing better.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
We should do a road trip together someday.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
We could be like Gayla and Oprah.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
We could be like Thelma and Louise, only not do
that last scene.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
The last scene for us, for me would be driving
through an in and out.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Rita Wilson, I love you, love you, love you. Please
give me my love too. You're happy in your family
and we will catch up soon.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Thank you, Thank you for having me. Really great seeing you.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Hye bye bite. Rita Wilson has been involved in a
non stop fluri of projects, her star studded album Rita
Wilson Now and Forever Duets, her collaboration with superstars Sebastian
Yatra Untill Your Home and Emily Shackleton on I Loved
You First, her new production company Artistic Films, and a
(33:24):
recent appearance at the June CMA Fest named just a
few of the iron she's had in the fire. Oh
and she's in the new Wes Anderson film. We talked
about that Asteroid City too. There's got to be at
least a dozen more projects you're gonna find out she's
involved with. That's just who Rita is. Crazy, talented, crazy busy,
(33:45):
a fierce family mama, a devoted life partner to her
husband Tom Hanks, and the kind, genuine friend you all
got to know a little better today. Whatever she's doing,
it's worth your time and probably a box or two
of tissues if you haven't done so already. Watch A
Man Called Auto, the American film adaptation of a book
(34:07):
from a favorite author, Frederick Bachman. Download all of Rita's
latest music and get out to see Asteroid City. Keep
up with Rita by visiting her official web page Rita
Wilson dot com, follow her on social media, and get
out and enjoy your summer. Jump through a sprinkler, take
(34:27):
a few minutes to yourself with a tall glass of
iced tea, Connect with friends at a barbecue. Spend a
hot summer evening in an air conditioned movie theater. Listen
to great music and make some homemade popsicles. I'll keep
your company every evening on the radio, and I will
continue to encourage you every day to slow down and
(34:50):
love someone
School's out and there's a lot more young people in
our midst than during the fall or winter months. Maybe
they're in your kitchen demanding snacks like Oreo cookies or popsicles,
or they're in your home office demanding your attention. Maybe
there's a team knocking on your door to see if
you need your lawn mode. If they are, take them
(00:27):
up on it and give them a tip. Maybe they're
starting their first real summer job. Or maybe they just
graduated from high school and are packing up for college
and your heart is breaking. Or maybe they just finish
college and they're taking a job out of town or
out of state, or maybe, gasp, they're getting married. Summer
can be such a time of transition, and transitions can
(00:51):
be so bittersweet. Big events like these make us long
for the days that they just wanted you to put
your work aside and go jump through the sprinkler with them.
If you've got littles, go jump through the sprinkler with them.
I promise you you will not regret it. Today's podcast
guest has a knack for tapping into the emotions of
(01:12):
our life, whether it's a song she's written or performed
through her acting career or film production. She'll get you
right in the fields. As they say. Her latest musical
single is so perfect for all the graduation and wedding
rehearsal slide shows you'll be watching this summer. Multi talented singer, songwriter,
(01:32):
actor producer Rita Wilson is joining me today. It's been
a while since she and I were able to catch up,
back when she wrote and recorded Throw Me a Party,
another tear jerker, but it's her most recent single, written
and recorded with Emily Shackleton. I'm referring to I Loved
You First celebrates the deep and complex connection between a
(01:58):
mother and a child. Fittingly, it was released for Mother's
Day this year, and it's the very definition of bittersweet.
Rita calls it a love song between mothers and sons,
quoting the line of A Shell's Silverstein book. And she
loved a little boy very much, even more than she
(02:20):
loved herself. I'm so looking forward to talking with Rita
Wilson and getting the low down on all she's been
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Speaker 2 (03:33):
Hi, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Really, oh my god, we have so much to catch
up on, so much to catch them. So I haven't
talked to you since, uh since you made me cry
with the song that ripped my heart out?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Which when was that?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
The Don't cry for Me song?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Throw me a Party?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yes, yes, it was so sweet. Well let me introduce
you here before I start asking you a bazillion questions
and catching up with me. I love someone today is
the multi talented whirlwind. You are a whirlwind, Rita Wilson.
You're a whirlwind of sparkly joy.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
But don't you think most, at least in my experience
from all over my journeys, I think most women are whirlwinds.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Most of us are taskers.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
They do a lot of things. They're incredibly creative, and
it's just I think it's something we're good at. I've
always thought I wish there were more female contractors because.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Because houses would have better kitchens.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It's true really quickly.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Yeah, the house I grew up in was so tiny,
and my mom and dad, I don't know how they
did it, but they cooked in that little tiny kitchen.
And back then we didn't know this, but my mom
would go to the market every day and just get
what's fresh. And she was Greek, so that was what
(05:11):
she was used to. The concept of like buying and
storing or freezing just didn't compute to her. So, like,
you would open up the refrigerator and I'd be like
embarrassed when friends came over because there would be like yogurt,
a couple of cans of seven apps so they could
make their cocktail vo and.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Seven at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
And feta cheese in its own sort of liquid, which yeah,
so ugly and some constractive.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
I mean, can you imagine a friend going, yeah, let's
have some ice cream.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Or some you know, coke or something like yeah, and
we could have some feta.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, here's an olive, stinky cheese. Eat this.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
My girlfriend Didi, her mom was the cookie mom. Her
mom bought real cookies, she bought oreos. The cookie jar
had store bought cookies in it, and we're like, oh,
this is so good. We don't have to eat those
stupid homemade things like our mom.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, how d that's right. Some animal crackers, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, and some popsicles please mom. Your kids are big
now they're grown. But were you the homemade popsicle mom?
Or were you the let's go buy the box of
the plastic sugar water things and just stick them in
the freezer.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
To this day bought the popsicles, but always always made
the birthday cakes.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So I want to talk about music. I want to
talk about your songs, but right now I got to
talk about man called Ato. Yes, I cried, I laughed,
I cried, I'm gonna be honest with you. I started
watching it two or three times and I had to
stop because I lost a son to suicide and that
(06:58):
opening scene opening five minutes just I couldn't do it.
But somebody that I love told me, please please watch this.
I know why it's triggering you, but please, if you can,
you know, go past the first part because it will
enlarge your heart ten times. And I'm like, okay, deep breath,
(07:20):
I can do this. And I did it, and Rita,
it was so beautiful and this simplistic way his life
was transformed and his heart was healed. My love imperfect, loud, noisy, obnoxious,
(07:42):
you annoy the hell out of me. I ain't going away. Love.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Yeah, just non judgmental too, because culturally, I don't think
she realized that she was being that kind of I
don't want to say intrusive, but just herself, and that
in America maybe.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
We're not so used to that. You know, I grew
up in.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
A very loud Greek Bulgarian family, so I was used
to that. But for me, it was about the community
that you can find if you're open to it, and
that we all shut down when things happen to us
that make us feel like we'll never find our way again.
(08:25):
And sometimes it takes somebody getting you out of that
comfort zone, dragging you, dragging and screaming out of that
comfort zone so that you realize again that you know,
every day is a gift when we're live, and you know,
it was important to me that story was very it
(08:47):
was very beautiful. And also it was based on a
book called A Man Called Ova, and that was a
huge bestseller in the United States. But I had seen
the Swedish film made from the book, and that's what
inspired me to do this as an American version. And
in case your audiences don't know, I produced it. And
(09:10):
luckily the actor that I went to, Tom Hanks, was available.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Was available. He said, listen, baby, you're not getting you're
not getting the pinata cake this year. If you don't
agree to do this with me exactly, no care, no cake,
no cake for you, baby.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
And our director Mark Forrester, who's just done so many things.
He's done things. He got halle Berry and Oscar for
Monsters Ball, which he directed, He directed the James Bond
movie Quantum of Solace, and he did Stranger Than Fiction
that great.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Movie with Emma Thompson.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
And Will Ferrell, and I just loved his sensitivity and
his sensibility of how he handled things that there was
still humor, but it was all very grounded and very real.
So and we shot it in Pittsburgh and it was fantastic.
I loved Pittsburgh, loved the people.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
The setting, and the row houses and the way Otto
leased the row house. There was just so many little
nuances in it, you know, from repairing the dishwasher, just
so many sweet little nuances, even the cat.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Everything was so everything. You know, it's.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Almost like a nod to an era that is fading.
You know, someone who gave their life to a company
and then you know they're kicked out because things are changing,
or forced to retire. Let's say, people who were good
with tools that could fix things. I know that people
still can do that, but even from my mom who
(10:51):
used to sew and crochet, and my dad built like
a whole section onto our house when we were kids,
I don't know if the average person knows how to
do that anymore. Do they still have shop in junior
high I mean we used to have shop in middle
school and homemaking, so we would learn how to sew
and cook. I know it sounds crazy, but there's something
(11:13):
good in learning how to do all of that stuff.
I think a lot of those crafts are fading, but
you are very crafty. Like honestly, I'm like, please do
another tiling project.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Because that bathroom was incredible. I was following that whole process.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Oh my god, that was so much fun. But I
was obsessed. I'd get off the air at midnight and
then I would start the tile, you know, start the floor,
and I wouldn't come to bed until like four o'clock
in the morning. And then I've got all these kids.
My husband was like, what is wrong with you? Just
put tile down, Just put go to home depot and
(11:50):
get some tile. And I'm like, no, I know exactly what.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
It is, though, de Laila. It's a quiet time. No
one is going to distract you out the phone, not
an email, not a kid, not a husband, not a anyone.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
It's your quiet time.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
And it's also I think when you do anything creative
with your hands or yeah, let's just say, or even
for it can be sometimes just driving you're doing something
with your hands, but that's when my mind gets creative.
That's when I get to listen, that's when I get
to have my conversations with God. I that's when I
(12:29):
feel it's good time, you know. So it's hard to
say no to that, even though you know you should
be sleeping.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
So when you're writing a song, do you write it
or do you let God just write through you? I
know that's a weird question.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
No, I it's I always call it miraculous because you
go into the room you're writing with somebody and this
song at that moment does not exist. And through the
conversation and through the ideas, through the creative process. I
don't know how it happens, but it does happen, but.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
You give birth to the song.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Once I said, I don't know if I told you
this before, but I've said songwriting is like this because
I co write. You walk into the room, fall in
love with the complete stranger, make beautiful musical intercourse, and
give birth to a gorgeous song.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Baby.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
So I loved you first, I knew you first. I
was the first love in your life and you were
the ultimate love and mine. Right, how long did it
take to birth that song?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Well, my co writer Emily Shackleton had approached me about
singing it with her, and the version that she had
and gave me was already the concept, but it was
written when her newborn was six weeks old, and it
felt very much like you were singing it to a
(14:07):
little little baby. And having grown sons, the one who's
married to who are a single, I said, would you
be open to thinking about it in a way that
is for an older child too, an older son, and
she was like yeah, So rewrote some stuff, sent it
(14:30):
back to her and we just it all moved pretty quickly,
and we recorded the song and got it out for
Mother's Day. But in case your listeners haven't heard it yet,
it's really a song that you write as a mother
to your son as he's getting married or as he's
starting his life, because you, I mean, I still remember
(14:53):
to this day the moment of childbirth, the moment they
first put that baby on your chest and in your arms,
and the overwhelming sense.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Of love that you have is just enormous, and.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
It's sort of like that will never go away, That
will never go away.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
You will always say.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I remember my one son chat when he got his
first tattoo. I cried so badly because I thought I've
bathed you.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I have inch of that skin, an inch.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Of that body and that skin and oh, it's just
it was just, you know, one of those things. And
then you realize, yeah, you got to let go. They
had their lives and their adults and they can do
what they want to do, and you have to let go.
And you know a lot about letting go.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I suck at it though I've never let go of
anything that didn't have claw marks. I do that. How
can I orchestrate things so that I don't really have
to let go? You know, like they'll go to college
down the street. Yeah, that's it, that's it.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, And they're like, uh no, Ma, that's it's nothing.
And you know what it's. It has been this year, Rita,
that I'm talking to my sister, that I realize how
horrific I was to my mother to not understand that
when when I flew the nest, because I flew pretty fast,
pretty hard, pretty far. I mean I wasn't that far away,
(16:32):
but I was emotionally right, and I didn't even realize
how that ripped her guts out here I am, you know,
at this age in life, cling she's been gone for
almost thirty years going, ma, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
If we're going to get older, at least we got
to get something in return.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
And it was done.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
I think that you can only realize that at a
certain point in your life.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I was cold blooded, Like you know, it was the seventies, baby,
in the eighties, and I had things to do.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Yeah, I'm out.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
There are discos to go to.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
There's koloa and cream to drink.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
If you do the vodkatonic, do not finish the night
with a koloa and cream.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Oh my god. The disco era, for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Did you have the dress, the dress that spun, the
little lycra dress that spun with the.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Disco No, oh, that sounds amazing.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah. I had a purple lycra you know, the little
circle skirt. So when I would spin on the disco floor, Oh.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
My god, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Yeah, it was, well, you know, it's I really still
think growing up in that era was kind of amazing,
particularly like I think the music from that time is incredible. Like,
I don't know if you know, but you I think
you would like this album. It's called Now and Forever Duets.
It's my duets album. That came out last September. But
(18:08):
it's all covers of seventy songs sung as duets with
Keith Urban, Smokey Robinson, Jackson Brown, Elvis Costello, Vince Gill.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Josh Grobin.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
You know, it goes on and on, but it's all
those songs that we love and grew up with, and
all duets envisioned as duets because those songs weren't sung
as duets. Willie Nelson and I do slip Sliding Away,
and there's something like super poignant about hearing Willie Nelson
sing the nearer.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Your destination, the more you're slip sliding away.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
However, I think if anybody is going to break the
sound barrier of living forever, it's Willie.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, it's definitely Willie. I actually was telling there's a
young couple that lives on my property that both are
very musical, and so we have bonfires in the backyard
and they have my young kids out there and you know,
they'll sing. And I said to them the other night,
I feel so bad for you kids, and they're like, why,
(19:13):
I said, you missed the era of the best music.
And I was talking about that album, those songs that
magical place in time where there was an innocence. Even
though some of our songs are a little naughty, there
was an innocence.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
I think like that era of music was kind of
coming out of the sixties where we had writers like
Carol King, but they were writing for other people, they
were writing for groups. And then there was this emergence
of the singer songwriter, and you had Joni Mitchell, Harold King,
Stevie Nicks, Carly Simon. Linda Ronstadt didn't write that much,
(19:57):
but she was an amazing interpreter. You had Crosby Stills
and Nash Jackson Brown, Neil Young, all of these people,
and they were telling their own personal stories, and that
is I think what we related to so much is like, wow,
they're saying what I'm thinking.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
And it felt very real and very intimate.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
The older I get, you know, the wisdom comes. One
thing I realized I was listening to some great music
the other day, and in my mind, if it's a
great song, it's gospel. When a song resonates in your
soul like that, yeah, it's gospel. To me. It's like,
you can't refute this, you can't argue this.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
That's a fact.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, like slip sliding away. That is gospel, that is wisdom.
That is a whole sermon wrapped up in a three
and a half minute song.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
That's right, that's right. That's what I love about songwriting
is the storytelling. Is how are you going to tell
this in three and a half minutes?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
To condense down the truth? Yes, about loving a baby
first and loving them with every fiber of your being
and knowing you would trade places with them in a heartbeat.
There's something bad, it happens, Yeah, And being able to
tell that in a three or four minute song, Yeah,
(21:37):
that's your gift. That's your magic, is being able to
preach the truth of love, to condense it down till
it's just pure.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
It's pure. I think that what you went through is
maybe the hardest.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Thing a parent can ever go through, and you have
handled it with enormous grace, and I think you've probably
inspired so many people who may have been not able
to get out of despair. And I know that it
(22:17):
doesn't ever go away, but I know that it is.
It's there, and you've accepted and you live with it.
I don't know if you have read anything by Pauline Boss,
and she writes about ambiguous grief yep, an ambiguous loss.
That concept is, you know, we all think that we
should have closure.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
There is no closure.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
There is no clue.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
I'm glad that people are talking about that and recognizing it.
One of the sweetest gifts I got after losing my
first son, Sammy was somebody saying. It was Jill that
told me the whole doesn't get any smaller, but your
life will grow around it, your life will expand around it.
(23:02):
Right now, all there is is the whole. There's no
room for anything else.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
That's a beautiful, beautiful way to look, to see it
and to understand. Yeah, you know, it's also like I
remember after nine to eleven, we were all questioned, like,
how could something that evil happen? How could something that
bad happen? How could that occur? And people were asking,
Where's God? Where's God in all of this? Like, you know,
(23:29):
how can if you pray to God, how did God
let this happen? And I read a piece by a
rabbi in the New York Times and he said, you know,
evil exists in the world just like anything, But where
you find God is in the aftermath, in the actions
of people in the love and the kindness and how
(23:50):
people come together and the unite in this goodness, And
that's where you have to look for it, because if
you stay in that other.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
World, you're going to just lose your mind, be stuck.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
And you'll lose your mind. You'd be on a hamster
wheel of grief and pain.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
And so read it. You had a song come out
a couple of weeks ago, right, Yes, and every woman
needs a Little Black Dress exactly.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
It's called Little Black Dress. I wrote it with Laurie
McKenna and Phil Barton. Laurie McKenna is an incredible songwriter.
She has her own albums, but she has written just
hit after hit when Grammy's and I had this idea
about a little black dress, because what's more universal than
a little black dress. But it was really about like
(24:39):
when you close have memories. To me, I can look
at something I wore and remember exactly where it was,
who I was with, what we talked about. It's like
this weird time capsule. So I thought, what if you
took a little black dress and put some memories to it.
(24:59):
So that's what it's really about.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
And are they your memories? Is there truth in the
air is there? Are they your memories? Are we going
to discover?
Speaker 2 (25:08):
No?
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Not yes, in some ways yes, I mean all songs
are truthful, and all songs are they come from your
own sort of like were.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
You wearing a little black dress the night that you
and Tom fell in love?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
No? I wasn't.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
But there was a design I had a little black
dress by this Parisian designer. She was American, but she
moved to Paris and she used to design for Elizabeth Taylor.
Her name was Vicky Teal, and Vicky Teal she said
to me once when I was buying a little black dress,
she said, whenever Elizabeth Taylor wants to close the deal,
(25:49):
she comes to me and I design her a little
black dress because her dresses were just like they take
advantage of the female.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Let's say, and she was a work of art.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
And she was a work of art. So I love
little black dresses. I still do now they're a little
bit looser than sometimes. But but no, there was truth
in it in that, you know, these little black dresses
can be alluring. And you know, we took the song
into a place that was sort of like, all right,
(26:27):
so this couple they meet, she's got the hot little
black dress on and flash forward now they're married, they
have kids, they have a house, and you know, she's
trying to put that little black dress on and it's
a little tight. But he there's a lot of the
song that I love. He still sees her like he
(26:49):
did that first night, and she still believes him even
if the dress don't fit just right, and that I love.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
It's that to me. It's about love.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
So it is about you and Tom, I still see
you that way.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
You know, you still look like that girl I met,
you know, very sweet.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
I was wearing sweats when my husband fell in love
with me. We worked out at the same gym. That's
how we met. He never saw me with makeup on
for six months.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Oh amazing. Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
It was because I had a dog, a yellow lab,
and I only owned black workout clothes. So not only
did I not have any makeup or a little black dress,
I was covered in white dog hair every time I
go to the gym.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
That was interesting is you weren't really lifting a a
bar bell, but you were lifting lit rollers.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, Oh my god, that's a funny scene in my
head now. Oh gosh, so Where would you like to
go in a little black dress that you've never had
a chance to go to because you've traveled all over
the world. I mean you were where were you in
(28:02):
Spain when COVID hit no Australia shut down in Australia, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
That was crazy. Where would I like to go to
the little black dress?
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Or maybe someplace you've been and would like to revisit
again in a little black dress.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
You know, when I think of a little black dress,
I really think of Paris. It's just like that kind
of romantic thing.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
I see myself getting dressed in a beautiful Parisian hotel
room and go walking to a little bistro down the street.
You know, just something very I see the street lights
that are lit.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Maybe there's a little bit.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Of a mist on the ground, like post rain, so
it's reflecting. The lights are reflecting. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
It just feels like that.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Little tables setting outside. Yeah, you cross your legs and
you wear in a little black dress and you have
to kind of scooch it down exactly. Yeah, Yeah, I
see it. I see it. Oh fun. We're getting to
know Rita Wilson a little better today and hearing about
the many, many projects she's been involved with recently and
(29:13):
what's been going on in her life. I am so
grateful to my podcast sponsors for helping to make this happen.
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(29:57):
at bigelot dot com. That's big oelo'a dot com. B
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Welcome back to love Someone, Rita. So what are you
doing this summer? Anything? Like? Are you planning a trip?
Are you having I want to have Grandma Camp where
(30:18):
I can have some of my grand kids come and
do just crafts for a few days.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah, yeah, oh gosh, that'd be great.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Well, so I did CMA Fest and the Bluebird And
you know, to me, when you get to perform live,
it's it's like taking a vacation.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I really really love it.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
We also have Asteroid City that is the new Wes
Anderson movie that I'm in, as well as Tom and
a cast of thousands, I would say, Scarlett Johansson and
Jason Schwartzman, Brian Kranston, Tilda Swinton.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
It goes on an on, Margot.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Robbie, So we had the premiere for that. That's super fun.
And then we always take time out. We'll do a
family trip somewhere with everybody, So we'll do that and
just relax. You know, there's I don't know if it'll
be done by then, but right now currently there's a writer's.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Strike, so we can't really work as actors. I'll still
do some writing, but I'm just also going to make
sure that it's good family time.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Well, have a blessed, wonderful, RESTful take a break. Like
you said, you'd take a family vacation. Do not work,
do you just?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
I am literally that concept, which I would like to
call a sabbatical, which is what people do, is they
take three months off. You know, it came out of teachers.
For every seven years of work, they would get one
year so that they could go out into the world
(32:03):
and take in so that they could bring these new
ideas and new interesting facts and stories to their classrooms.
And I feel like as creative people we.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Have to do that.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Sometimes you can't always just be in the output mode.
You have to have quiet time where you just are
out there absorbing and taking it in.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
And so yeah, I definitely will do that.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Road trip trip.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Nothing better.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
We should do a road trip together someday.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
We could be like Gayla and Oprah.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
We could be like Thelma and Louise, only not do
that last scene.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
The last scene for us, for me would be driving
through an in and out.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Rita Wilson, I love you, love you, love you. Please
give me my love too. You're happy in your family
and we will catch up soon.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Thank you, Thank you for having me. Really great seeing you.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Hye bye bite. Rita Wilson has been involved in a
non stop fluri of projects, her star studded album Rita
Wilson Now and Forever Duets, her collaboration with superstars Sebastian
Yatra Untill Your Home and Emily Shackleton on I Loved
You First, her new production company Artistic Films, and a
(33:24):
recent appearance at the June CMA Fest named just a
few of the iron she's had in the fire. Oh
and she's in the new Wes Anderson film. We talked
about that Asteroid City too. There's got to be at
least a dozen more projects you're gonna find out she's
involved with. That's just who Rita is. Crazy, talented, crazy busy,
(33:45):
a fierce family mama, a devoted life partner to her
husband Tom Hanks, and the kind, genuine friend you all
got to know a little better today. Whatever she's doing,
it's worth your time and probably a box or two
of tissues if you haven't done so already. Watch A
Man Called Auto, the American film adaptation of a book
(34:07):
from a favorite author, Frederick Bachman. Download all of Rita's
latest music and get out to see Asteroid City. Keep
up with Rita by visiting her official web page Rita
Wilson dot com, follow her on social media, and get
out and enjoy your summer. Jump through a sprinkler, take
(34:27):
a few minutes to yourself with a tall glass of
iced tea, Connect with friends at a barbecue. Spend a
hot summer evening in an air conditioned movie theater. Listen
to great music and make some homemade popsicles. I'll keep
your company every evening on the radio, and I will
continue to encourage you every day to slow down and
(34:50):
love someone
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