Mariette Hartley and Jerry Sroka

Original Air Date: January 28, 2024

Mariette Hartley and hubby Jerry Sroka wrote and co-star in the now-streaming “Our (Almost Completely True) Love Story”.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio,conversations about issues that matter. Here's your
host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein. I want to introduce
you to a household name and herhusband, and I'm sure you won't take
offense to that. I'll introduce thehusband first, Jerry Soroca, who is

(00:21):
married to the wonderful Marriette Hartley,who is known for just so many roles.
But I have to tell you,Marriette, the one that stays in
my head the most is the commercialseries right the Poloid, where you were
so convincing everyone thought that you weremarried to James Garner because it was because

(00:45):
you had such chemistry. Actually Iwas married to James Garnett. So anyway,
the reason that Marriette and Jerry havejoined me is that they have a
movie that is just absolutely infectious.It hits a nerve. It's called Our
Almost Completely True Love Story, andit is basically the story of their love

(01:11):
story. And you can see itis streaming now. You could see it
on Prime Video and I so enjoyedit. But before we get into the
heart of the matter here, Ihave to ask you my husband and I
always put on the close captioning.So were all the mistakes in the closed
captioning a joke? Or was itjust really bad close captioning? Because they

(01:36):
didn't even get your name right,Marriotte, and every time it was spelled
differently, it was like, ohmy god, this has got to be
a joke. We didn't even knowthat. I'm glad you mentioned it,
but it was funny. So itsort of worked because we're actually watching two
things at once. We're watching yourmovie, your love Story, and that
we're watching the closed captioning. Ihave never seen such a and it was

(02:01):
funny. Don't have your mouth openlike that. It was funny. Okay,
okay, trust me. All right, So did you too really meet
like close to twenty years ago ata bird store. I'll say yes because
it makes us liars, but itwas almost no, It's almost completely true.

(02:27):
Do you have an orchestra that I'mwondering? I'm just I'm Jewish,
I talk with my hands. Whatcan I say? I never would have
guessed anyway. No, we bothgot elected to the sagboard out here in
LA and first meeting national meeting,everybody's in from and she walked in and
I knew, of course. Isaid, oh, that's James Garner's wife,

(02:49):
And I said, uh who?And I watched her and my friend,
who was sitting with me, thewonderful Tony Roberts from New York,
said, what are you even lookingat She's so far above you in more
ways than one. And I said, about to make myself a pest,
which I did. Every time sheturned around, I was there tugging on

(03:10):
her coat saying things like you're gonnaeat all that. And by the end
of the day she came over tome and said, look here, you're
going through a difficult divorce. Ifyou want a couple of laughs, you
want to go see a movie,call me. I said, I don't
have your number, and she gaveme a match box and I wrote it

(03:34):
down on a match and that wasit. We went to one movie,
had some sushi. Yes, yes, that was it. Wait a minute,
what was the movie? The moviewas Bowling for Columbine Funny. Yeah
right, Oh my god, he'sfound out what he was really like politically,

(03:55):
Yeah, which was important to me, you know, like you wouldn't
know looking at me. So Iwas okay, Marriotte, what attracted you
at that at that sag board meeting? What won you over? Lie?
This is when I lie? Okay? Because he was tall and handsome.

(04:15):
That's enough. How much taller areyou Marriette? Then Jerry Foot, I'm
five eight to three quarters and he'sfive to four so that will give you
an idea. Okay, okay,So was it true? Did you both
do I can't even remember when onlinedating started? But did you both dabble

(04:38):
in online dating or did you throwthat in there? No? I did,
yeah, but it didn't work.After the shag meeting. I didn't
have to do it. I didit a little bit, and I had
a couple of dates and and thenI met Marguerite, Marguerite heart Child and

(05:00):
Marriotte. You didn't do the onlinedating? Yeah? I mean you kind
of always have to. I mean, oh, so you did. I
was single for ten years and oncein a while i'd meet somebody and you
kind of try to date. Andif it's awful, it's awful. You
know that? Well you yes,I do know that. Yeah, yeah,

(05:21):
I do. I try that too, But it's different for you because,
like I said, you're a householdname. So how did that work?
Didn't everyone know who you were,and how can you just kind of
right? And how did you knowif they were Oh, they just want
to say they went out on adate with Mariette Hartley, or you knew

(05:45):
that they were genuine. I mean, it's got to be even harder.
But I never knew that anyway.I don't think you can know that until
you go out with somebody and say, wait, the guys are phony?
Who wants that? I can't standAnd it took me time, it really
did. It took me time todisengage from the husband that I was married

(06:12):
to and the other of my children. That was a devastating divorce. So
I really took my time. Andthen when I came into this convention hall
of actors, and I did seeJerry. I saw him. His head
was just above one of the tables, and that's true. It really is

(06:38):
a very high table, it was, And I kind of walked past him
and he told me later what hesaid. But the funny thing was that
he was taking a turn with JamieCromwell. Jamie Cromwell couldn't make it,

(07:00):
and Jamie Cromwell is about six seven. So when Jerry stood up and introduced
him, I do it on mychair and she laughed and I saw her
out of the corner of my eyeand I went, Okay, strike one
baby now in the movie, andthe movie has called out almost completely True

(07:27):
Love Story, which is streaming.You can see it now on Prime Video.
Marriette doing your online dating, youwere specifically looking for a Jewish man
though you are, as we say, a shiksa, because you had heard
that Jewish men make the best husbands. So do they? Well, for

(07:50):
me, they do. I mean, what kind of question did she just
say? Well, I you know, I made that list. Yes,
have a list. I did havea list, and it was because I
was studying to be a spiritual guideat a particular church and I had to

(08:11):
have I had this test and itwas you know, do you what is
it like? I mean, doyou want to be married? And what
is marriage to you? And onand on and I had to answer those
questions. And I was kind ofsurprised by my answers. But they were

(08:37):
important to me. I mean theywere they were very important. You forgot
height well, but that's at theend of the movie. Why do you
do that? You give it away? Oh, we've only got fifteen minutes.
I am speaking with Marriette Hartley andher husband Jerry Siroca, and they

(08:58):
not only wrote our almost completely truelove story, but they star in it.
And not only do they star init, it is just so enjoyable
because you get to see Tess Harper, you get to see Morgan Fairchild,
you get to see Bernie Coppel ofthe Love Boat and more and like the

(09:20):
more cameos you had. My husbandand I so enjoyed this movie. But
getting back to your list, MarietteHartley, so what was on you?
Do you remember everything that was onyour list for online dating? Because when
my husband was doing online dating,he also had a list, but he
couldn't find it when he met me, you know, when he met me

(09:43):
or when we got together in reallife. But he swears that I hit
almost everything on his list, buthe can't find the damn list. And
I want to see the list.But he even had five foot six,
which I am. So what wason your list? I know, isn't
that bizarre? No smarter than mebecause that was the thing I forgot.

(10:03):
Totally. Oh good, I mean, that's that's true. What was on
your list? Do you remember?I think Bernie goes through, it doesn't
He watched the movie again. Okay, watch it again. All right,
Well, I don't self supporting,self supporting through his own contributions, which
was very important to me because Ihad been a Dutch treat all my life

(10:26):
with your husband and before with datingand all that stuff. Right, what
was the other one? There areabout ten things able to give and receive?
Oh? That's was it? Ableto give and receive love, not
just to not just to give it, but to receive it, which I

(10:48):
think is sometimes really hard for certainmen. And not you. No,
you would look up at me andI could tell that you yeah, yeah,
oh yeah, go on, no, I'll forget it, so go
ahead. Well you know all right? So how did you get the idea

(11:13):
to make your love story into amovie? How did this all happen?
I had a movie I wrote tenyears ago about senior softball, and it's
exactly a lie, the same thing. She was the umpire And it went

(11:33):
along and it was going really well, and I had Don Scardino, who
directed our film, ready to directit, and Gary Marshall was behind it.
Wow, Gary passed ye softball actuallywith Gary, and everything fell through,
And I thought boy, is thisis some business we had never neither

(11:58):
one of us had ever produced anythingthing. Uh. And then I said,
why don't we write something that wecan put the money up for.
So Mariette went ahead and got asecond mortgage for our neighbor's house. But
she didn't tell me that until lastweek. Figured, no, this is
true. Oh no, you can'tget a mortgage and someone else's Well,
you can get it and you cancon them into what now you tell me,

(12:24):
but you put your own money.So I said yeah, I said,
well, so we ran into afriend who said, I have a
banker, and she and we wentto the bank and they gave us the
money, loaned us the money,which we're still paying back. And that
of course was after we wrote it, and Don said, this is wonderful,

(12:46):
let's do it. Do it.So we we got the money and
started putting it together, calling ourfriends and it was just a case of
the stuff that I was going upfor the last audition I had that I
remember, I was. I wason a step ladder changing a bulb.

(13:07):
That was my scene talking to someone. So for the audition, because you
do it at home now, Igot up on the ladder and put a
bulb in my mouth and did thescene. And then I said, you
know, I'm seventy five years oldand I'm on a ladder with a bulb
in my mouth trying to get this, you know, eight lines. So

(13:28):
we sat down and I remember thewriting is really high. I remember the
writing as really easy, and itjust kind of flowed. It's wonderful,
wonderful to do. So so that'show it happened. And then once Don
Scardina was a board, you know, I mean, it all happened.

(13:52):
And I'm just finding out now thatthe work kind of never stops though,
you know. I get up andI go, oh, I got nothing
on the schedule today except the softballgame. And all of a sudden,
I get these emails and I've gota you know, you know when you're
an executive producer. Yeah, youwouldn't understand this, Shelley. But it

(14:16):
doesn't stop. But that's good.But we have Okay, we have one
minute left. So whatever you needto say about our almost completely true love
story, which you can see onPrime video, say it now. Well,
there are more places you can seeit, Okay, all right,
I'll tell you one, which isa ship a boat. No, no,

(14:37):
no, yes, yes, Iknow, but we had how many
people are going to be on aboat A lot? You're doing a cruise.
Yes, someone was on a cruiseand when they got off down the
rhine they must have seen it onAmazon, you see. Oh wait a
minute, my husband and I tooka cruise doing that. So it's crazy.

(15:00):
All right, we are out oftime, but I'm telling you you
will so enjoy our almost completely truelove story. It is streaming. I
want to thank you Mariette Hartley andJerry Soroka. I'm so glad you two
found each other. You are justperfect together and like I said, the
movie is it's a hoot. Ijust loved it. Thank you so glad.
We're glad we found you. You'vebeen listening to Sunstein sessions on iHeartRadio,

(15:26):
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