How Rude, Tanneritos!Judy Savage: the infamous talent agent that represented Jodie Sweetin, Andrea Barber, Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong... Basically, all of your favorite child stars from the 90's! We're speaking to the legend herself, who reveals what it was like working with these actors, what her most memorable moments are (both good and bad), and the instant she knew these kids would make it to the big leagues. It's all right here on How Rude, Tanneritos!
Hey there, Fana Ritos, Welcome back to how Rude Tanner Ritos. We have an extremely special episode for you today. We are so excited to interview a woman who single handedly changed both of our lives. The talent agent who represented Jody and me as child actors, the fabulous Judy Savage.
Yay.
Judy was a trailblazer who founded the Savage Agency over forty years ago. She represented some of the biggest child actors of the eighties and nineties, including Daniel Fischl, Writer Strong, Danica mckeller, Kelly Martin, Laris Olennick, Elizabeth Berkeley, Hillary Swank, and Emma Stone, just to name a few. Judy is a legend in the entertainment industry. She always put the kids first before productions or parents. She was a unique combination of being a bulldog when it came to negotiations with the studios, yet at the same time, she was like a mother who focused on her kid's emotional wellbeing above all else. She is proof that you can be super successful in this business and treat people well. Our love and appreciation for Judy knows no limits. It is our honor to welcome to the pod the incomparable Judy Savage. Oh she's connecting, she's connecting.
I hear it.
Oh we're getting there.
Yay, yay, here.
We are you tube look fantastic.
Great to see you.
Came in this morning and said it all up.
Oh are you guys? Where are we?
It's great to see you.
Oh, thank you. Where are you?
I mean, I'm in the valley and she's.
I'm in Orange County at home. Yeah, we do this from home. We get to see each other every week like this and talk about full House and our childhood's growing up.
It's a blast.
Yeah, Yeah, we do, Yeah, we do. We do a couple episodes a week. Yeah, Andrey and I have we we have so much fun. And we have mentioned you so many times on the show and what an amazing impact you had on our lives and like just you as an amazing character of a person and just all of the things that we love about you.
So we're really excited to have you.
We are. We're really excited to have you on the podcast, like you were.
I was on once before on Ours. Yeah wasn't it wasn't yours.
It was you did you did right? Or Strong? And Daniel Fishle's podcast.
Yeah, you did writer and Daniel's.
Yeah, this is a different podcast.
This is this is a different podcast. This is the full house one.
They produce our podcast, so like they they are involved. Jensen and Danielle and and and stuff helped produce ours. But yeah, no, no, they're not different. Yeah we keep similar told Yeah, similar format, just a different show.
But yeah, I know you had so many kids that were acting in the eighties and nineties, it's hard to keep them all straight.
I haven't lost my marbles yet. I can remember who they all were. When I retired in twenty seventeen, I still had thirty six kids on series. And the whole business has changed. There's yeah, there's no long term series anymore.
No, it's streaming. You're lucky if you get eight or thirteen. You're right, thirteen's nice, a nice season.
Now the year starting?
Yeah right, Well, do you guys know that you too were two of my first clients, and it was the first client that got a series on.
Chad Me and Chad Allen were your first two clients who got who got on series? So he was on our house oh days more lives.
Yeah, that's right, remember that?
Yeah?
Oh, do I remember that and Jody, she.
And her mother came in and.
I think I was about four.
Oh, you were three or four, and you were amazing. And Andrew was like that young I was.
I was probably four, yeah, probably four. And I booked days more lives when I was five.
Yeah, that's crazy.
Jody started book booking commercials like right away.
Mm hmm that similar commercial eyes your wide eyes didn't need fried trip for years. You. I remember, like I remember going to your office, to your bungalow and banner.
I loved that office.
I remember that the little waiting area with the shell Silverstein books that's I read like the giving tree, like these are the things I.
Can remember the sound of the creaking floor in that office.
I know.
Ye do you know that I bought that in two thousand wait a minute, no, nineteen seventy seven for forty thousand dollars, and when I retired in twenty seventeen, I sold it for a million dollars.
Oh my god, well that's easy. Yeah. Yeah.
It was only because and I sold it. Nobody could come in and look at it. They had to just drive by. But it was the land, the land.
I was going to say, that land now is like, you know, because I remember going I remember going.
To Judy's office.
Judy's office was like Santa Monica and Vine.
Yeah, yeah, Santa Monica and Invite.
I drive by it all the time, but on that street anyway, And I remember going to Judy's office before, like before Hollywood was like.
Nicer than it was. When it was like we're going to Judy's office. You were like, oh, okay, We're gonna like pull it back, and you know, it was, it was.
It was an interesting time in Hollywood.
It was. But I were robbed on my street.
Yes, yes, yeah, you had like the gate in front of it. Yeah, like you had to protect the bungalow yep.
But going back to back in the beginning of everything, I know that you know, you had been a stage mom, But what was it that made you decide that you wanted to be an agent?
All my life growing up, I grew up in Michigan in a small town. I had to go to church in the morning with my grandmother, so I could go to the movies in the afternoon. And in this small town there was one theater and the movies changed on Saturday, so every Sunday I could see a new movie and I'd come home from the movies and pray and wish that I could go to Hollywood. I took singing lessons, dancing lessons, acting, I couldn't do any of them, but I just wanted to be in Hollywood. So it was my kids. It was actually Mark who got started, and then Tracy and then Brad and they got me into Hollywood.
So I was. I loved being an agent.
And by the time I got the agency started, my kids were growing up and going off to college.
And so you were all my new kids. Yeah, I felt like an aunt to all of you.
Hey, fan Ritos, don't forget to check out our merch at howarudemerch dot com.
We knew everybody it was, you know, And and that was back in the days of like everything was a phone call with no emails or anything, you know. So it was right, but a lot of a lot of carphone conversations between my mom and you or or sell or carphones right that had to be installed in the in your trunk because they they it was basically a small satellite that you had to carry around.
Yep.
And I talked to each one of your mothers probably every day.
Oh, yeah, yeah, Emily, guys, you.
Guys had interviews all the time. Yeah, not even that many interviews anymore for you.
No, no, well we always joke that no one needs to, you know, use a Thomas Guide anymore. And by the time we were five, we could have planned an entire cross country navigation route on the Thomas guy.
Yeah. Yeah, and Andrew, do you remember when I got remarried.
I married his father. It was.
Harris col He was out in the lobby and he was asking you questions and said, I'm Andrea Barber and I'm with the Salvage Agency.
I said, Average, I'm Andrew Barber, and I'm from the Average Agency, the Average Agency. Yes, I was learning how to slate and yeah, you're teaching how to slate and so I was like, okay, that was four So of course, and Barber and I'm part of the Average Agency.
By the way, for those who listening and don't know what a slate is, a slate is in the top of an audition. You go in and you say your name, usually where you're from, and how tall you are or some weird sort of like or something like that, or some or your shoe size.
I don't know.
Whatever they ask you for at that point. But yeah, now what are the average agency? What are you two doing today?
Well, I mean today I went to the gym. I like, I mean like moming, acting, producing, podcasting, still still auditioning, but it's all you know, it's all self tapes now.
Yeah, so different, it's very different. But yeah, no, we're.
Just all the cast inductors that I knew have all retired. I mean, yeah, very few are still around.
Oh yeah, who was the first child actor that you represented?
Oh I heard it was Chad Allan.
Well, it was Chad Allen was the first. I had a few, but Chad was the first one that got started. Okay, chat and Charity, but Charity was shy, so Chad was the one. And YouTube.
Yeah, it's the early days, you know. You know, it's funny.
I wound up working with Chad Allen years later in treatment. He went on, he went on to get his I believe his doctors PhD or something. He yeah, he got back in school and he and I, for yeah, a brief time worked together when we were working in treatment.
We worked at the same spot and it.
Was just so lovely to oh oh yeah, it's such a sweet well.
He decided when he was probably about twenty eight. I think that this business was not he didn't choose it, it was chosen for him. So he decided to go back to school and get his masters and his PhD and be a psychologist. Yeah, about three or four other clients ended up being psychologists. So there's something something about being an actor.
Well, you have.
To be crazy to get crazy, you know what I mean, to understand it and work with it.
You're like, ah, yes, I can relate to that.
Yeah, And I think it's I think it's because I that's what I exactly what I would be doing. If I weren't continuing to act, I would have gone back to school and probably gotten my master's or PhD.
Right, it makes sense because you're as you're when you're when you're creating a character, you're thinking about their motivations and their emotions, and there it's very it is very it's a psychological.
Study exactly, we're fast. It's a psychological study, and so it's sort of like a natural offshoot of that.
M Yeah, it seems like a natural a natural link.
Yeah.
I mean you've represented you shan Lee Woodley and Emma Stone and like people that have now gone on to win Academy Awards, Andrew and I in the next ten years obviously, But how could you tell when, like what was the it thing that you just saw? Like how did because you were so great at seeing it and finding it and like what.
Was was it? Just there was just a certain spark.
I didn't know they were going to win Academy Awards.
I thought everybody I represented was going to be a star. I mean, that's that's just what I went with Diane and I would Diane Harden and.
I would say, they're going to be the biggest star.
Yeah.
And Diane Harden is Judy's best friend who was also an acting teacher or.
Yes, and almost all of my clients after I met Diane, I sent her to send them to Diane for training.
Such a great teacher, smart am well.
She had been an actress, her husband is an actress, her daughter is still an actress.
And most remember.
Aaron lare at all.
I don't remember.
I got him when he was six. He was in a Broadway show and he was my client until he turned twenty or twenty two. And he's married to the singer from not Ariana Grande but from Wicked, the first, the first Wicked, not.
The most a Dina Manzell Mademoiselle.
So he's married to Adana Mozelle. Okay, he's a psychologist. He runs the place in Malibu, you know that place in Malibu where all the.
I mean I might know a few of them, list of some names.
Pass just promises that's where I went.
Promises.
Okay, probably it might be well, I don't know who knows.
Anyway, he's the director of that and so but she just now got a Broadway show and she's going to New York for a year. So he'd like to fly to New York every almost every weekend.
Wow, I mean it was so much fun.
I mean, you really were such an amazing agent for young people because you were so maternal and warm and kind, and there were a lot of agents and managers that we know of that were not.
And you were.
Always like you just made us as young performers and our parents feel like we were safe, you know what I mean, Like you we knew that, like if something happened, you could called Judy and Judy would be on it.
Well, you know, one thing, there was an agent in town who is no longer with.
Us, I remember, and she would say the worst things to kids, like one little one child drove all the way from San Diego dressed like Annie and stood outside Iris Burton's window and sang tomorrow tomorrow, and Irish opened her window and said, kid, for you, there is no tomorrow.
And she was just mean.
Yeah, And so when I started, I said, I don't want to be the kind of agent that has her clients on the couch when they're the psychologist's clouch with couch when they're forty years old.
You asked me, how did I know?
Yeah, I thought everybody was going to be a star, and I just happened to pick people. Almost everybody I picked worked because they got training. But the fact that you win an Academy Award is that you get a certain role.
Right.
You know, either one of you could have gotten an Academy Award if you've gotten a role because you're talented. And Emma Stone just happened to get all these roles that were weird and she went with it. Yeah, shy Lee, well Shale, it's never gotten Academy award, but she's worked movies.
But she's done a ton of stuffy Yeah, I loved her in big little life.
So what was your process, Like, I'm trying to remember when we first met and we would come into your office and you would have us read for you, right, what what specifically were you looking for? Was it like a certain skill or a mindset or a look?
Like?
What what were you looking for in these kids?
Cute, short, talented, and personality, because that's what they want when you're little, and they all, I just want a six year old to play for a ten year old to play.
The tea works in your favor.
If you're older and look younger, Yeah.
That worked in your favorite.
But as you grew I that it's not. It doesn't matter. Once you get into be a teenager.
Well then they want you to be Just have your GED and be over eighteen so they don't have to school you.
You play sixteen, right, But neither one of you had to do that.
I did my GED. I took my GED in high school. I think whatever, fifteen and a half whenever you could do it. I still graduated, but I had it in case I ever did work or a lot of times it was like if you were auditioning and you were fifteen sixteen, like a big piece of it was like, do you have your ged?
Because they that was what they wanted.
So yeah, so I did it and I don't think I ever needed to use it on anything.
But did you, Andrew?
Well, I didn't because I was on Full House till I was eighteen. I was in college when Full House ended. Okay, so I had already graduated from high school by the time I was getting ready to retire from acting at least for twenty years before I came back to it. Yeah, there was no need for me to get my GED. But yeah, that's fast. I didn't know that about you, Jody. That's you learn something new every day.
Yeah, yeah, I got that to, you know, just make it easier to work more easily. But then I was in high school and I was like, I don't really want to work all the time. I was kind of enjoying just being a you know, quote unquote normal kid. Hey, fan, rito's make sure that you go to our merch website, how rude merch dot Com, where you can see all of our fun T shirts, sweatshirts, crazy ideas that we have and.
We'd love to hear from you about more. So how Rude Merch dot com well.
And that's an important point, Judy. You let kids be kids, like you never pressured us to work more than we wanted to. I remember personally, when I was in junior high or maybe like a freshman year in high school, I was just done. Like when we were in hiatus from Full House, I didn't want to go out on auditions. I didn't want to do and I just wanted to be a kid and hang out with my friends after school. And so my parents, my mom and dad were like, Okay, just call Judy and tell her. And I was so afraid, and I was like, oh god, what was she going to say? But no, like you were just like, great, let me know when you're ready to come back and go out for auditions again. And I was like, oh okay. So I was just a kid for six months and you were just like whatever, whatever you want to do.
That was you remember Krista Dan she was anyway. Christa was very religious. She would get a callback, but she'd have to go to some Christian camp or something, and she absolutely would not go.
On the callback.
So I would call them and I'd say, I'm sorry, but Christa can't come in for this because she's got a previous engagement, or she's going to a Christian thing.
It never happened with other people. They just wait for her.
I find that this business often it like if you just say, hey, I just need another day, or like can we do oftentimes.
You people will work with you.
And maybe that's because we've been in the business forever, so it's a little more accommodating.
But but yeah, you never.
Met like because you were well known.
Yeah, you were well known.
So they would wait for you. If you were new, they wouldn't.
I make Andrea wait for me all the time.
I do. Are you still good friends?
Yes, my gosh, yes.
I was just down at her house the what like two weeks ago because my older daughter, Zoe was playing a soccer game at a school five minutes from where she lived in her new house. So I went over there and we had Mexican food and oh, yeah, Aby and I are we're quite the duo.
We're still close, just like we were growing up on full House.
Yeah yeah, yeah.
And what are your children doing now?
Well?
I have I have My kids are almost grown.
Like.
I've got a twenty year old son named Tate. He's in college studying psychology. And then my daughter Felicity is seventeen, almost eighteen. She does show choir. She never went into acting, but show choir. She's got that performance gene, you know, the genet active and so she loves singing and dancing for her show choir.
Yeah, yeah, I have Zoe, my older one is you know, soccer, like she's my athlete. And then be definitely inherited the performance gene. She is in musical theater and she's an incredible singer. She's really talented. She's just started a band with some friends. And she also is doing cheers. So yeah, she anything that's like forward facing and requires a lot of enthusiasm and rhythm and coordination, she's in it.
So it's fun.
Long have you guys been doing this podcast.
Year and a half a year and a half, two almost two years.
So we're watching the entire series starting at full house all the way through because we never watched Oh my god, that's right, we didn't watch it. We were like, who wants to watch that? I just did it last two weeks ago.
Right.
We were always we were doing live shows. We were doing live audience shows on Friday nights when the show.
Was airing right, right, So we were you know, and also like we were in school when scenes that we weren't in were happening, so we didn't see a lot. So it's been really fun to go back and watch the show and be like, oh my gosh, I didn't remember this, or this is something I do remember about this that's like weird behind the scenes, you know, and have all those memories. Yeah, it's really incredible, really incredible, very fulfilling, very fulfilling for both of us. So what did do you have any favorite stories of your incredible career as an agent? Is there anything that sticks out to you as either ridiculous, outlandish, or or just something that you were really proud of?
Well, I was proud of all my kids. But one time, do you remember, way way back in the beginning, when Monica was working with me?
You might Monica, I don't know, vaguely remember Monica, she.
Was only the first couple of years. Well, she was a really bad influence on me because with old days that there was nothing going on, she would bring out the wine and she would light up a cigarette, I mean a marijuana cigarette.
Right.
Oh.
I was not good at marijuana. I coughed and choked. But one day.
It was long. In the beginning, it was very slow.
I had to bang for interviews, and so we had this long period of time when there was nothing to do, and so we started drinking wine and doing.
Smoking pot little pot right.
And Trudy Booth, I don't know if you remember, Trudy Booth called and asked me to send her two boys for this role. And I was high as a kite, picked up, picked out two boys, had no idea if they were right, and she would tear your hair out if you sent her the wrong people. And I sent them to her. And then when I got sober and I thought, oh my god, you know they had to go in at four o'clock in the afternoon. They're both wrong. What am I going to do? They both got the job, and it was like not nothing scientific about it at all.
It just it just worked out, just worked out. That's easy.
That's how talented you were. I love that you could pick out the right talent no matter the circumstances.
Circumstances and by the way, I don't do pot.
I don't even drink anymore because it makes me, gives me a headache. And my son bought me some gummies one time, like ten years ago, right, and he said, just take a little bit. So one night I took a little bit, thinking it would help me sleep. I didn't do it. The next night, I took a little bit. Follow the third night, I took a whole one and I fell asleep. And then I got up in the night to go to the bathroom and I just went into a circle and fell and hit my head. Oh no, no more gummy. Yeah.
Well, it's like it's like when you think you're taking a five milligram and someone gives you fifty.
Yeah, we're not talking about Jody Sweeten.
Let's just say.
Let's just say, let's.
Just say we have a very similar experience, me and ab and but it's a story we're going to tell on.
The podcast at some time, but to save it, let's so, yeah, don't ever let your first pod experience be influenced by Jody Sweeten.
All Right, this wraps up part one of our fabulous interview with Judy Savage. Being able to see her again after so many years. Just it really made me smile. It was lovely and I can't wait to continue our conversation. So we absolutely love Judy and we hope that you will join us for the next part of our interview with Judy Savage. In the meantime, make sure you're following us on Instagram at how Rude Podcast. You can send us a Gmail at how Rude tanner Rito's at gmail dot com, Like and subscribe all the fun stuff, and of course go take a look at our merch. We have merch now merch. We're official with merch and so you put how Rude merch dot com and you can see all the fun uh ideas and and things that we've come up with on there. Andrey and I were heavily involved in the choosing of what of what we put onto shirts and sweatsh So it's basically what I'm saying is it's brilliant and you should go.
Check it out.
Yeah, if you need a turtle on a skateboard on a shirt, boy, do we have you covered. Everyone needs literally covered from like neck to like roughly your waist area. All right, you guys, thank you so much, And remember the world is small.
The house is full.
Of marijuana, cigarettes
Of the pot, the pott, the pot
