Episode 18 Featuring Vanessa Rodriguez Spencer

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The following is a paid podcast. iHeartRadio's hosting of this
podcast constitutes neither an endorsement of the products offered or
the ideas expressed. Welcome to Dear America, where your voice
matters and every vote counts. Join us as we explore
the power of black and brown communities and shaping our future.

(00:20):
It's time to make your mark and be heard.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to Dear America with Chanelle Barnes. Today, we are
joined by a true powerhouse in the entertainment industry, Vanessa
Rodriguez Spencer. For over two decades, she's been shaping the
faces and stories we see on screen, starting with her
groundbreaking work producing and casting some of the most iconic

(00:44):
music videos for artists and companies under Rockefeller, for example,
in the late nineties and early two thousands. So Vanessa, Hi,
how are you? Thank you for being here? And I
just want to jump right in. And you started as
an educator. Why did you feel the need to shift

(01:05):
into entertainment.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
You know, I grew up as a latch key kid
and my brother and I would often miss the US
or there would be a snow day, and you know,
my parents both worked in the city, so nobody was
coming home to get us, and nobody was coming home
to take us to school. So HBO had just hit
the scene, and we would be in front of the
TV all day, like on those miss school days. And

(01:31):
just fell in love with storytelling, fell in love with
the idea of how an idea from somebody's mind came
to fruition on a screen. And I was a voracious reader,
and I just fell in love with the idea of
telling stories. And more so, I have always been a

(01:52):
storyteller of you know, who loves to tell biopics, like
people's actual life stories. So that was it. I I
wanted to do it, and I thought maybe I would
be a lawyer because my dad is a lawyer. My
dad was like, maybe, you know, maybe I'll do like
educational law and children's advocacy. So I pivoted and went
into education. And early on I just realized, you know,

(02:16):
as much as I love this, I want to come
back to this, And and two friends who were already
in production and in casting started interning with them and
came out to LA about year and a half after
I was working in New York and never left.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yes, and a huge shout out to La. I know
there's been so much that it's happened there. So we're
grateful to be talking to you and also hugely, hugely
supportive of our audience in.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
La, you mentioned your father.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Can you talk to us about how your father has
influenced your overall trajectory.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Let's see, I grew up in a multi generational family
primarily of women. However, my know that I know that
story and women who were like in their own right,
just doing it right, like raising kids, having having a family,
having their own career. And you know, my dad was

(03:16):
always a staple in in in my life and an example.
You know, my dad went to law school when my
brother and I were little, So we lived with my
mom's aunts in the Bronx until probably about we were five,
and then we moved out to the suburbs because my
mom's company moved out that way. And you know it
was a struggle. My mom put my dad through law school. Sure, yeah, like,

(03:42):
and I admired that both of them for this tremendous sacrifice,
I mean literally a tremendous sacrifice that they they made
in order to create a life. And I was fascinated
with law. I spent lots of days in the Bronx
Day's office with my dad, and then my mom's sister
worked at the Manhattan DIA's office, and on the weekends

(04:04):
when I would go back to the Bronx to spend
time with my cousins and her, I would go to
work with her. So I was just fascinated by law.
So I really thought that that's how it would go,
and always had these conversations with my dad, interned and
worked at his law office, and so law has always
been a thing that my dad worked for Mario Cuomo,
and he worked for David Dinkins, and my mom's best friend,

(04:26):
my godmother was you know, the first Latina, you know,
a Secretary of State of the State of New York
for Andrew Cmo. So you know, there's like it just
I had all these incredible examples, and my dad was
always bringing me around to meet people and understand the
idea of community and network and a sense of responsibility

(04:49):
to community and your family and your people. So yeah,
my dad has always been a really shining light in
my life. And you know, my mom I've always known
has been the woman right beside him, not behind him,
you know, and certainly the most gracious person I know,

(05:13):
by having made lots of sacrifices of things she wanted
to do. He could and we could.

Speaker 4 (05:22):
So yeah, absolutely, I love that tribute to your dad.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
You've had an incredible twenty three year old journey in entertainment,
starting with producing iconic music videos. What was it like
being at the epicenter of hip hop culture during such
a transformative era?

Speaker 3 (05:42):
You know, it's funny, so I came into the production
of music videos by way of casting, and then I
started working with producers and I was their assistant and
you know, and eventually working my way through the ranks.
It was quite honestly, it was like the most magical time.
I think back to those days. Sometimes I think that
those days were just like a couple of years ago,

(06:04):
especially when I hear those songs come on the radio
right compared to what some of the stuff that comes
out now, And I'm like, God, can we just go back.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
To what's your favorite song? Can we just take a
moment like I have to know, oh, my favorite songs?
And I would agree I would have much rather have
gone back.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
I honestly, I I don't know if I could pick
one song. Okay, give me to let me think about
you think about the bangers of the late nineties early
two thousands, I would say that, honestly, lean back that
Joe was one of the most fun projects. I mean,

(06:47):
just absolutely incredible.

Speaker 4 (06:49):
So fun.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
What else they're just give me one more, give me
one more, one more, you know, creatively, I really love
I've always been a Roots fan, and then I had
the opportunity to work on the Roots project for low
and that was and that was that was a deal
project because it's creatively, it was really beautiful, and the

(07:16):
schedule was just ridiculous. I mean, the schedule on almost
every one of these videos done back in the day
was a herculean effort to get done what you know,
you want it, regardless of the size of the budget.
I mean, because some videos had tremendous budgets and other
videos had like a shoestring budget and you were trying

(07:36):
to make everything happen, you know, on the dime kind
of thing. But yeah, it was a really magical time
in my life. Like it was just it was I
was living, you know, as a city kid, you know,
running the streets of New York City and working on
the songs that were on the radio, right, like the

(07:57):
songs that were everybody heard in their car or they
were listening to on the train, or they were running
into you know, Virgin or Sam Goodie or to buy
like you know, Virgin Records to buy their the CDs
and stuff, and you knew what they were listening to
and real you know, I worked on that project or whatever.

(08:18):
You know, it just was such a special time. And
music and so many different times in my life, has
saved my life. It has always been the thing that
has been able to take me back to a bat like,
to ground me and to balance me out, you know, absolutely,
And so I've always been drawn to music in that sense,

(08:39):
and you know, working on the projects and on that
side of the business was really interesting and fun, and
it was a great segue into being able to come
to La and start in, you know, more in the
TV and film world.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, there's so many stories that are coming out now
about just entertainment, the entertainment industry, experiences, et cetera. I'm
wondering if there are any over the course of your
career that have brought you the greatest joy and or
deepest impact, and any that may have brought you the

(09:12):
greatest heartbreak.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
I would say, I think for me, the heartbreak is,
you know, where somebody has an ability and a gift
to find talent, see talent, cultivate talents, build a brand,
and build a dream for themselves, and yet they're their

(09:38):
greatest you know, the thing that destroys them as themselves
the greatest enemy and the idea of power of becoming
so disassociated with reality and humanity becomes astruction. That's that's

(10:00):
sad for me. You know, like we saw it with
with Robert Kelly, and we were unfortunately seeing a situation
unfold with with Sean Combs, and you know, I think
that it's just it's it's incredibly sad because both of

(10:20):
those men in their own right are so unbelievably talented,
and the talented is truly undeniable. The talent is undeniable
for the skill that they had. But there whatever trauma
they may have experienced as a child or even in

(10:41):
their coming up, was somehow something that they felt their
their avenge or their way through was to It feels
like inflict that trauma and other people sure, and and
and and in many cases where one is a victim,
then they tend to turn to victimize and you know,

(11:03):
and that's the sad part because you know so much
of the music that you know, I think back to
my late teens, early twenties. You know, they were part
of the soundtrack of my life. And you know, listening
to their artistry now is you know, it's conflicted. It's

(11:24):
like Mike. You know, it's like Michael. You think of
Michael Jackson and the same thing, you know. And some
could even overlay that question to Bill Cosby. Can we
you know, Bill Cosby part of my life? You know,
and can you separate the art from the art, you know,
from the man?

Speaker 4 (11:45):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (11:45):
And I you know, I think that that's a question
that so many of us in our community really wrestle with,
you know, like can we can we, in good conscience
and good faith, make that just is you know, like
disassociated like that?

Speaker 2 (12:03):
And so yeah, I imagine as you're you know, going
through this process and you know, just thinking about these
moments that you just captured for us, Uh, there may
also be some moments where you're reflecting yourself when you
know who you have had to be where you are
in your career, just as a woman, as a Latina woman,

(12:25):
can you talk to us a little bit about what
that experience has been like for you specifically and personally
from then to now.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Yeah, you know, like I have to say, in some ways,
like being in being in the music business, it wasn't
it wasn't a thing, right, like starting on that end
of things, on that side of production, you know, it
it wasn't. It wasn't a thing at all. You know.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Well, when you say it wasn't a thing, what do
you mean, well, what.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
Was it like? It wasn't like I wasn't a unicorn
in that space, you know. And and that was the
beautiful part about it. It wasn't like you know, working
working on those sets and working with those artists and
with those you know, record label companies. You know, there
were there were lots of young execs at those companies

(13:19):
that were black, that were Latin, you know, so it
wasn't as though, you know, they had a lot of
white senior executives. But for the most part, like Marva
Wainwright was like the video commissioner over at Universal and Rockefellers,
so like young black women. You know, you had Grace
Harry over at Jive Records, like she was the video commissioner,

(13:43):
you know over there, like you you I saw women
that looked like me that that I was like, Oh,
that's who I was aspiring to be in that space.
You know, a lot of the producers I worked with
were black and Latin, so it was like it wasn't
a thing like that was the best part about it
is that we were all we loved working with one another,

(14:06):
and we worked so often together that it became like
this extended kind of family and community, you know, especially
working with like Chris Chris Robinson, director Jesse Terrero, director
Paul Hunter, you know, littles like all of those people,
they were who we were working for all the time,
and so we had a shorthand with one another. So

(14:27):
that wasn't I never felt anything then, and I was
in New York, like being being Latin and being Puerto
Rican and you know, like mixed descent wasn't a thing.
I was not special, especially when like seeing the girls
that came on set, it was like, oh, you know,
everybody was had a flavor, everybody was something, So it

(14:50):
it wasn't. It wasn't until I came out to La
that it became a thing and I started to feel
that othering and that like separate.

Speaker 4 (15:00):
Tell me more about that part.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
And first of all, I want to say, I do
love I love hearing it wasn't a thing, because I
think so often it is a thing to be able
to have, even if it's just a snippet of time
in our careers where it's not, it's a beautiful moment

(15:22):
to have and we hope that that moment transcends across
our career and it quite frankly even personally. Tell me
what that shift looked like when you got to La.

Speaker 3 (15:32):
Yeah, So, I mean when I got to La, it
was different by way of you know, La is you know,
La is a segregated city, and very very intentionally it
was established that way. You know, the sixth ten and
the seventh ten and the one you know, the one

(15:53):
ten they all run the way they do for a
very specific reason, and run through the parts of the
city they do, and cut certain parts of the city
off for a very specific reason. And you know, Hollywood itself,
you know, is segregated, and you know there's Hollywood and
then there's Black Hollywood, and you know, and now there's

(16:16):
like you know, like Asian Hollywood and Latino Hollywood and
everybody's got their subset groups and that's fine. But you know,
overall in Hollywood, especially coming out in two thousand into
two thousand and two, beginning of two thousand and three,
you know, Hollywood was just straight Hollywood, and Hollywood was
still very very Caucasian, very white, you know, and that

(16:40):
that was the dominating drive and forced you know, and
they were like, you had your big black stars, like
your Denzel's, your Sam's, your halle Berry's, you know, you
had those people, right, you know, but and Jamie Fox.
But it wasn't like in the casting world. It wasn't

(17:04):
like everybody was looking to put Sam and Denzel and
how you know, Hallie and Jamie and every one of
their movies, Like movies weren't being written that way then,
you know, unless unless it was a very specific film
for a Screen Gems or a Lion's Gate, you know,
and screen Gens and lions Gate were very very friendly

(17:27):
black studios. You had studios that were very like black
film friendly because at that time, those studios understood the
buying dynamics, the power of the buying world that we had.
They recognized hip hop culture. They recognized that hip hop
had a huge audience and had audiences that were not
only buying music, but were spending money at the theaters

(17:50):
and buying tickets to come see movies over and over again.
So you know, they were making movies. They were making
movies like deliver Us from Eva, you know, from my favorite,
like they had all of those brothers the Wood, like
all of them. They were catering to a very specific

(18:10):
audience because they understood that that audience was there, and
that audience wasn't just black and brown. It attracted other people,
but the black and brown audience was big enough to
cater to that specific time.

Speaker 4 (18:25):
Absolutely absolutely.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
And you you mentioned a few legendary casting directors that
you've worked with, and I want you to describe a
little bit more of some of the pivotal roles that
they've played and your ability to grow as a casting
director as the professional that you are today.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
So when I came out to LA in two thousand
and three, it was I was still I was working
in a preschool the Upper East Side, and I had
come out to visit my brother who's already living out here,
living in working out here, and I got a call
from my friend Lyncietererra, who I was working with in

(19:06):
New York for several years, already in casting, and he
was like, yo, Jesse's movie got the green light. Over
at MGM, I'm going to cat they want to hire me.
But I got a co cast with Sheila Jaffey and
I was like, okay. It was like that's cool. He's like,
do you want to work with me? And I said yeah,
it's great, like for sure, and he said, all right,

(19:27):
well the Catches, you gotta go interview with Sila. I
was like, oh, I gotta go in because Sheila Jaffie
her business partner at the time was Georgia Ane Walking
and you know, they they had done like a bunch
of movies that most won't know, but they were big

(19:50):
and they were the biggest thing they had done was
like Red Shoe Diaries and they were doing the Sopranos yes,
And so I was like, oh, okay, so let me
go interview. I go interview with Shila. I was like
twenty minutes late because I couldn't figure out how to
get from Big Santa Monica to Little Santa Monica. And
it was like, you know, in the movie, uh National

(20:14):
Lampoon's vaker European vacation where like they keep driving around
bag Bay and I was like, hey kid, that's Big Ben.
Hey kids. So I kept driving in the loop, like
I see Little Santa Monica, I see the building. I
have no idea how to cross this big Median. Finally
figured it out. I get there. He's like, you're not
very good with time, are you. No? I was actually

(20:34):
like forty minutes early, but I just couldn't figure out
how to get here. So she's laughing and she's like,
where'd you grow up? I said, I grew up in
the Bronx and that Thank god I said the Bronx
and not Queens and not Manhattan, because we would not
have hit it off.

Speaker 4 (20:48):
Shout out to the Bronx, that the Bronx.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
I could not have hit it off. She was a
Bronx girl and that sort of melted the edge off
of her. And uh, we were together or over a decade,
like even till this day. I still consult with her
and she is like, she's like my other mother. She
never had kids, didn't want any, but like we just

(21:12):
hit it off so well. We were so similar growing
We had this I guess because we grew up in
New York. We grew Bronze girls had a little edge
to us and had a lot of hustle. Like we
just knew that the job was never done ntil the
job was done, and that was something that always that
we always connected on. And so she had great taste

(21:33):
and talent. She you know, she knew names and faces
and just she was such a perfectionist. And we always
laughed because I was a slow typer when I first
started with her, and she could type like without looking,
and she pounded the key. So I always used to
laugh and get nervous typing in front of her. Right.

(21:56):
She was always I'm testing you, I'm testing you, I'm
testing you.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
But but I'm sure you were fine. I'm really sure
you were five Vanessa.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
I've hearned really quickly to get fine because then you
were like I had to, I had to pick up
the face. But yeah, it was amazing. There were three
of us in the office. It was Shila Jaffe. She
had an associate named Meg Mormon, who was super super sharp,
super super smart. And what I really appreciated was that
they knew I didn't come from the world of casting,

(22:26):
and knew I knew a lot of faces and I
was actually an interesting piece to the puzzle for them
because I knew all the black and brown faces and
that wasn't a world that they knew, right and I
knew it. So for me, they were like, we'll loop
you in. And you know, I knew a lot of
white faces, but didn't necessarily know the white faces name.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
So you knew the black and brown and I knew.

Speaker 3 (22:50):
The black and brown faces, knew their names, knew what
they were in, knew how to tap them.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
And what a contribution that must have been, especially to
an industry that you were naming, you know, is a
bit segregated and had a moment where they weren't actually
casting roles for black and brown folks right.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
Exactly, And so it really shook like I was able
to really shine on the first project that I worked
on with her, which was Soul Plain, because that I
knew it was the world that I knew, So it
was like coming from the music world, that being my
first project, it was a perfect fit. And then from
Soul Plane rolled into a movie at Paramount call without

(23:32):
a Paddle, and then from in the middle of without
a Paddle we started working on Entourage. Yeah, and that
that became I love it.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
Can you just while we're on this track, can you
share a story of an early casting decision that proved
particularly significant.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
Yeah, So, like I would say, I mean with Kevin
Hart you on Soul Plane, it was we were there
was you know, there were names thrown out in really
like the director was like, oh, you know, I've seen
him and he's really really funny. And Kevin had been
in a couple of small films that Rockefeller had produced, right,

(24:16):
and you know, Kevin was like, I think he's really
it and so we we Sorry, Jesse was like, Kevin's
really it. And so we brought Kevin in a bunch
of times, and we really had to fight for him
because the studio didn't get it. They didn't understand him,
and they were like, yeah, I'm not sure, not sure.
We were like, no, he's the it guy. So we
took the studio out a bunch of times to see

(24:37):
him perform live and you know, showed them his tapes
and then there was obviously unfortunately, there were some buzz
around town that like he was getting this big deal
over at ABC. So it made it even more attractive
for the studio to want to sign him. So we
locked Kevin in amazing that that was great. But film

(24:59):
is a different beast than TV. So when we were
doing Entourage, Entrage was a nightmare. Like Entrage took us,
Andrage took us three and a half months to cast
a pilot, and that's just unheard of. Sure, we read
every single person, some of them twice, maybe even three
and four times over before we were able to put

(25:20):
our cast together.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
I want to dig into the details of that because
I think so much of our audience either is specifically
thinking maybe they want to become a casting director and
or they are looking to be cast. And so what
is what was and what is your approach to identifying
not just talent, but that special quality that makes someone

(25:44):
right for a specific role. I know that's broad because
there's so many you know.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
I mean, it sounds broad, but that's really it. I
me know, those are the two questions you ask a
casting director.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
Right, because that's just that's the thing the casting is.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
You know. It's I know that people are going to
roll their eyes when they hear this because they're gonna go, oh,
it's such a cop out answer, but it's not. It's
actually with Kevin. Kevin has a natural charisma to him,
a natural kindness, a natural funny to him that draws
you in and makes you like him. Yes, he immediately

(26:24):
is true like him, he immediately make disarms you and
makes you want a care And so that that was it,
Like it never felt like Kevin was performing when he
was auditioning and when you gave him notes, he listened.
When you gave him notes, he would ask questions for clarification,

(26:48):
and when you gave him notes, he would go, Okay,
I'm gonna do that, but maybe I might want to
do this after and we were like okay, and he
would do it and he would give you what you
want and then you go. But I was actually thinking,
you know, maybe we do it this way because it
feels like, instinctually, that's what I want to do right.

(27:09):
And so you immediately recognize that you're working with a talent,
with somebody who understands that this is a craft and
that they're in this role because they respect and love
the craft and they're a performer and they want to
perform and they want to get the performance right, as

(27:31):
opposed to somebody who comes in and wants to be
a star.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yes, and for those who are just tuning in. This
is Dear America with Chanelle Barnes, and I am sitting
with the incredible Vanessa Rodriguez Spencer, who is an incredible
casting director and just giving us some insight here. I'm wondering,
just having worked with major networks and studios like HBO, MGM,

(27:58):
Paramount and others. Hell, have you seen the industry's approach
to casting and content creation evolve over the past two decades?

Speaker 3 (28:08):
Wow? I will say this, certainly, it's it's had to
catch up to technology. I mean, the industry right now
is dominated and following the trends of tech and what's
happening on your phone, what's what? What? What content creators
are doing from their homes. The industry is trying to

(28:29):
catch up on with without. You know, the advent of
streamers has changed the opportunity for creatives, you know, certainly
film directors, writers, producers. It's it's opened the door to
allow more projects to happen. Even with networks like to

(28:53):
Be and Roku and freeb and all of those, there
are all these new places for people to park projects.
So you know, that's a beautiful thing. But the studio
system in some ways is still the studio system, and
the studio system is you know, I think it's trying
to to reset and find itself by way of you know,

(29:17):
studios are making movies, but they're making most of the
studios that are making movies are making franchise films. They're
they're movies that either have very heavy IP footprint, where
people are so familiar with a title, right they now
want to see that book title, that super wild article

(29:39):
from a magazine, you know, translate onto screen. So they're
they're trying to stay in the realm of something that
they know could be a short thing, whereas your streamers
are a little more flexible with trying new content and
creative content, you know, and streamers for a long time
for Questions day long, but a couple of years were

(30:01):
really offering big deals and bringing in big writers, big producers,
big directors to big talent like you know, Layne rock
Johnson and Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg and you know,
Halle Berrys to do movies for let's say Netflix, you know,
and give them big deals and produce x amount of
movies for said price. And you know, that was the

(30:24):
way in which they were going because they were recognizing
that people we are now consuming film differently, right, and
so that was the way they were doing it. But
you know, I think in general there are more opportunities
for people to jump into the business and be creative.
They're just there were one there.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
It sounds like there are more opportunities for people to
jump in, be creative, get their things out there. Are
there still enough opportunities for people to make strong financial
gains in the industry or is the industry in your
opinion and we had to go there and your opinion

(31:04):
is the entertainment industry taking a bit of a down term?

Speaker 3 (31:08):
Yeah, I mean the industry is at a tremendous inflection point.
And you know, I think we came off of COVID,
and COVID was COVID was a hiccup and it brought
its own sense. It brought its own bag of problems

(31:30):
by way of like making COVID accommodations and in adding
an additional on most projects, adding at a minimum five
hundred thousand dollars to you know, a million and a
half to depending on the size of the project for
COVID accommodations. You know, that was a real strain on

(31:54):
studios and productions, budgets, you know, like you had to
do it in order to get in insurance and and
so that that was a strain. But we people figured
it out and projects got majoring COVID. Lots of projects
got majoring COVID, and you know, the system was able
to put things out and and pivot and it works.

(32:16):
And then after COVID came a strike, not just one strike,
but two strikes, right, and so the industry took another hit.
And during that time, you know, you had studios trying
to go really hard in the space of all right,
well now we'll figure out AI right, like they don't
want to do it some we'll figure out how to

(32:37):
do it.

Speaker 4 (32:37):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
And you know, the industry has been changing dramatically for
years where you started to see more shows pop up
and do shorter seasons.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
Right, you know, it became not that it's just like
maybe four to six episodes especially.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
You'll see you'll see that on streamers. But you know,
there there are a series that you know that are
on linear TV. Still in linear TV would be like
your basic cap on networks, you're abbs, you know that
whole thing, your Fox and all that. And they started
to have shorter seasons, right, and so yeah, you know,

(33:23):
things things have changed. Like I think about people in
the industry, like my brother's very good friend David Milch,
a giant in the industry, created Hill Street Blues and
Law and Order and you know, yeah, NYPD Blue and
a gaggle of others. You know, those guys lived that

(33:47):
off the land because you had twenty two episodes. You
were the creator of the show, you were the producer
of the show, you were writing the show, and you
got paid in every which way. And nowadays, yeah, it's
not happening, you know, It's just things have changed, and
it's sad.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
This is really sad, painful, yes, of course, And we're
talking about change, and so let's go there. We're seeing
so much change in the industry. We're seeing so much
change in America. How is the state of the nation
impacting the entertainment industry and or your work? How are

(34:27):
you seeing where we are in potentially even where we're
headed making those shifts?

Speaker 3 (34:35):
Yeah, I think that, Like, and I will say this,
I see a tremendous shift starting to happen in the
entertainment business where sports is becoming a focus because sports,
I see that one thing that people continuously go back
to to spend money on, and sports has become more

(34:57):
seems to be the sort of great equalizer in people's minds.
You know, like if we want to talk about the
idea of meritocracy, r right, you know, that sort of
false notion of you know, sports seems.

Speaker 4 (35:18):
To be very it's consistent in space.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
Yeah, or people that sports is a complete meritocracy. Absolutely,
that that becomes the great equalizer. And so you see,
you know, streamers like Netflix, studios like Netflix bringing in
all of these live events, you know, like what they
did on Christmas Day and now they've brought back WWE,
and you know there's another they did Formula one, and

(35:45):
there's a couple of other big events that they're doing
trying to continue to hold on to their subscribers because
the more subscribers that they have, and the you know,
if they can stave off attrition, you know, will continue
to be able to bring in money and then continue
to buy projects and make other projects. So so yeah,

(36:08):
it's it's everything goes hand on hand, you know, everything
goes hand. And I think that look, you know, LA
in particular is taking a real hit in terms of
entertainment because you it's been a long time since lots
of projects were shooting in LA and you know, and

(36:31):
enduring COVID. A lot of projects had to leave because
of the restrictions in LA. The guidelines to shoot in
LA were so specific and strict. So they were going
to places like Texas, they were going to places like Louisiana.
They were going to places like Florida and Georgia where
you know, anything goes because they were their governments that
were running, you know, running those states were like, oh,

(36:54):
I don't I don't know that COVID is a thing,
you know what I mean that's able to shoot in
places and production is cheaper, life is cheaper in those places,
you know. So LA took a hit and LA is
still taking a hit, and hopefully it'll bounce back, but
we'll see. I think the way that the nation is
going in terms of the cost of living of things,

(37:20):
like a lot of people voted for their eggs and
gas to go down, and that's clearly not happening, and so,
you know, I don't know how much longer people are
going to be able to sustain their way of life
When people aren't even interested in raising the minimum wage sure,
and since that's not an option, and since the new

(37:40):
tax credits that are coming are not going to support
and benefit people below a three hundred thousand dollars threshold,
you know, I don't know how much extra money people
are going to have to spend. So I think we'll
see how that begins to really impact entertainment. Business is

(38:01):
really shifting, and so we'll see how it is able
to roll with the punches over the next you know,
I'd say, I think the next year, we'll really start
to figure out where where the industry is going and
how it's going to kind of balance itself out. You know,
I will be honest. I think the fires also bring

(38:24):
another layer of complications to LA rebounding, because even with
the tremendous tax cuts and of tremendous tax incentives, I
should say that the governor has offered to bring production
back to LA to try and support all of the gaffers, electricians,

(38:45):
you know, below the line, talent from makeup artists to hairstylists,
to costumers to you know, to everybody editors and everybody
that are all part of making films and TV that
we see. You know, I don't know what the fires
were going to be able to do that because a

(39:05):
lot of the places that we would have shot in LA,
let's say for a high glossy, flossy, you know, projects
along the coastline, along the beach along Malibu. Sure, you
know that community has been decimated. It's it's it's really hard,
and you know it's it. We'll see, we'll see what
kind of impact it has yet too much.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
But the impact is still there. I'm wondering, because we're here,
are there any ways that I find that when uh,
tragedy happens in a way that it happened in La,
you know, everyone's like, you know, let me help, let
me help. But then eventually that kind of dies down,
but the impact still exists. Are there still ways that

(39:51):
our communities who are listening that want to support l A.
Are there ways that they that we can get involved
and we can support LA during this time?

Speaker 3 (40:02):
You know, there's so much I will say this. I'm
We're so moved in LA. How many people have continuously
reached out and how many organizations are jumping into help.
I think that the greatest help that LA could get
in this moment is to really for people outside of

(40:25):
Los Angeles, to speak the truth and to understand that
what happened was genuinely an act of God, was a
natural disaster. There have been fires, let me just say this.
There have been fires that have been set by arsonists,
without question. But when we are talking about the most

(40:47):
two devastating fires that took place at the top of
this year that started on January fifth, we are talking
about the Eton fire, which like kicked off because of
so Cal Edison power line and the winds that from
early in the day had already been you know, thirty

(41:08):
forty fifty miles an hour, and by the time the
evening fell, you were talking about dusts of like seventy
miles to one hundred hour mile per hour winds that
were taking place. So the Eton fire was not set
by an arsonist, nor was the fire in the Palasade. Sure,
And I think when you know, what we in LA

(41:29):
really need are for these stories and lies to stop
so that we could really start having the conversations of
like our climate, our system has changed, like our weather
patterns have changed, and we need to really talk about
what's really happening, you know, and how dramatic it is,

(41:52):
and how we've been living for the last seven to
ten years with these brush fires happening because of how
dry our land is. You know, like deserts used to
have a rainy season. The rainy seasons were from December
to February. I learned that in the third grade. I
learned that in the third grade it rains in the
deserts in the winter and posts that it is super dry.

(42:15):
When I first moved to la in two thousand and three,
you could set your watch to December when it would
start to rain, and basically you could count on the
rain once or twice a week from December through February.
Sometime around two thousand and ten twenty eleven, that really

(42:37):
started to shift dramatically, dramatically and we would not see
rain but for maybe two or three times in a winter.
And that's where we are now. Like it hadn't up
until Saturday, it had not rained in Los Angeles in
nine months. Like that's what we're dealing with. So I

(42:59):
think the best thing that people could do is really
just speak the truth. And it snowed in Louisiana, it
snowed in Houston, and it's knowed in Florida, Like let's
talk about what's really to talk about, and let's help
people across the country in all ways and in all
industries really like talk about what's really happening. Sure, as

(43:21):
far as helping people on the ground, I think that
people really need like gift cards. Everybody wants to give clothing,
and we've all like you know, rushed and bought items
and brand new items and things like that. But I
really have to give a lot of credit to all
these companies across the country, big vendors, big box stores,

(43:42):
who have like shown up with big palettes of brand
new socks and brand new underwear and brand new sweatpants
and items that they have been able to give people
to replace some of their basic needs. But it's hard
to People were saying that right now, as we're figuring
out a more permanent shell like home living situation, as

(44:06):
we sort through the insurance and all of that, the
best thing for us would be gift cards or cash
just because I don't have a place to put the
items that you're giving me. Because we're in temporary situations.
There's just not enough room in the hotels that we're
at or you know, the airbnbs that we've been able
to find and Rent.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
I'm so grateful for us just having this time, Vanessa,
and we absolutely here at Dear America with Chanelle Barnes,
are going to make sure that we spread that information
and continue to spread it above and beyond the moment.
Looking back at your twenty three year journey from music
videos to casting, development, production, what advice would you give

(44:51):
someone just starting in the entertainment industry.

Speaker 3 (44:55):
I buck a app embrace yourself and just recognize that
it's a long road. It's a long road, and I
know that there are you might read the trades and
you might see all these young execs you know, in
different companies and that's exciting, but and it should be right.

(45:17):
But just take your time and know that everybody has
to earn their place like I. You know, I went
recently through my own experience where you know, I think
people wanted to jump the shark that they felt they
deserved to be in a place that hadn't necessarily become

(45:42):
the position they had earned and a cost friction. You know,
I've been in the business for twenty three years on
all sides of the business, and I grew up at
a time in the business where you know, it wasn't
always right the way that people spoke to us. Right,
people came out their face, and you know, agents weren't

(46:03):
always polite on the other end of the phone. Sure,
you know, Shila had some bad days, and you know
producers that I worked with had some bad days, and
you know try to you know, say things that were
a little off color, and you know it was sort
of what it was. And that's cutting your teeth and
learning what it learning what the business is. You know,

(46:24):
now things have shifted because obviously you know, norms are different,
and that's a great thing. But you know, I would say,
just be be hungry and be curious, like curiosity is
a beautiful thing, and be curious about this job, and
be curious about that job. Because the more jobs you try,

(46:46):
really the more jobs you know on all sides of
the business, and it really allows you to make yourself
sort of indispensable because you know a lot about a
lot of things, you know, and then just to really
like hone in on one thing, especially if you're not
looking to be an agent, right Like, if you're looking
to be an agent, that is a very specific job,

(47:10):
very specific job. If you're looking to be a manager,
you might start out as an agent and then segue
into management. You're looking to be an entertainment attorney. That's
obviously very specific. But if you are really looking to
be more on the creative side of the business, like
a producer, a writer, a director, you know, an actor,

(47:33):
like you know, a music supervisor, an editor, learn a
lot about a lot of things so you are familiar
and understand how all of those roles work together.

Speaker 4 (47:45):
This is this is great advice.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
And I have to say, I've never in my lifetime
seen so many people from the industry become so vocal
about how they were coming civically engaged. Uh, And we're
in a place now where I think I'm still seeing
so many people who are being very vocal about what

(48:09):
civic engagement truly means for them.

Speaker 4 (48:12):
What is your.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
Mandate to those in the industry and even to our
listeners about how we should be continuing to think about
civic engagement over the course of the next four years.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
Yeah, I would say.

Speaker 4 (48:28):
And then that's a big it's a big question.

Speaker 3 (48:30):
It is, you know, because I want to say that
so many people want to let me. Let me start
off by saying this, I have always been civically engaged
and everything that I have done, whether it was education,
whether it was working, you know, in production and in casting,
like I have always spoken my mind because I have

(48:52):
never been afraid to lose a job, because I will
never be without a job, sure and I will. I
will roudly clean bathrooms and sweep them up floors before
I allow somebody to be little me, be little somebody else,
or put me in a position where I am so compromised,

(49:15):
you know, my integrity is compromised. I can't do that
and I can't watch that happen. So you know, I
would say that my career, I have always made sure
that the places that I'm in and the places that
I have people in with me have a moral compass
and know that people are watching and we're taking care

(49:38):
of each other because I'm creating community within that space.
But over these next four years, I think it's incumbent
upon us to remind people that we can't get exhausted
by what's happening, because that is their plan, is to
exhaust us, to exhaust us to the point where we
want to give up. And I think we have to

(50:01):
remember that this isn't just a fight about this isn't
really a fight about politics. This is a fight about humanity, morality,
and a clear understanding of what this country was founded on,
who founded this country, and who this country really belongs

(50:25):
to when you get back to its history and its core.
And so what we need to do over these next
four years is to continue to speak truth and to
power speak the truths and to push back.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Vanessa, thank you so so much for taking the time
to be with us. This is Dear America with Shanelle Barnes,
and we are excited to slate some time to have
Vanessa come back and join us so that we can
get some updates. This is real stories, real people. Talk
to you soon.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
Bye.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
This has been a Project Ready and a Freedom Studios production.
To learn more and effect change, log onto Project readyenja
dot org or listen anytime on all major podcast carriers.
The proceeding was a paid podcast. iHeartRadio's hosting of this
podcast constitutes neither an endorsement of the products offered or

(51:21):
the ideas expressed.