Table for TwoIt’s hard to forge your own path in Hollywood. It’s even more difficult to do so when your aunt is Julia Roberts, you rose to fame as a Nickelodeon star, and executives seem to think of you only in terms of one role: “the girl next door.” Emma Roberts faced all these challenges. But because of a single show (American Horror Story), and a single producer (Ryan Murphy) who saw untapped potential in her, Roberts was able to transition from child stardom into a wide-ranging career that has spanned over two decades. That she balances rolling out new projects—her latest, Space Cadet, comes out July 4th—with her book club, Belletrist, and raising a son makes it all the more impressive. On this episode of Table for Two, the actress joins host Bruce Bozzi and discusses how Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop inspired her, the importance of financial independence, and her lifelong love of reading.
Hey everybody, thanks for pulling up a share Today on Table for two. We're back at my favorite joint, the Sunset Tower here in Los Angeles on this incredible summer day.
I'll take some water please and can Arnold Palmers.
As today we're having lunch with a young lady who's been in the business since she was a young kid, so she has seen it all and she's only in her early thirties. She's a single mom. She's clearly the muse of mister Ryan Murphy. She has started in many of his American horror story seasons. She's also coming out with a movie called Space Cadet. She has a book imprint, so we're going to be talking about her love of books and reading. She's an all around incredible person and super fun to hang out with, so this lunch is going to be a lot of laughs. We were having lunch with this incredible woman who's walking towards me right now, Miss Emmory. Hey, I'm Bruce Bossi and this is my podcast Table for two. Okay, so if you've pulled up a shirt today, as I was saying, we are having lunch at the Tower Bar. It's a beautiful summer day.
It is a beautiful day.
We're having lunch with a person that I hold very close to my heart. I know you since you bore in your twenties. Yeah, a young woman. I've seen you grow into the woman you are beautiful as we all know, missus Emma Roberts. Hi, Hi, welcome to the table for two.
Thank you for having me. I was just saying that I feel like I've been with you all week because I've been catching up on your podcast. So hearing your voice is just like comforting.
That is sweet. Did you eat? I mean assume we're going to eat.
We can eat. I usually get the chop salad here.
I usually get the chop salad here. You put a protein in it?
Yes, I do. I put chicken in it, really really really fancy.
So we're gonna talk about Space Cadet because I know that's coming. That's dropping soon July fourth, July fourth.
Even if you just watch the trailer, you can see that it's like a super feel good, fun summer movie.
Well you get a script like that, is that your basis for choosing it is? It's like, okay, like I just want a fun summer easy groove.
I mean for me, it's actually funny because Space Cadet. First of all, the title. When it came into my email inbox, I was like, Okay, I know I'm gonna love this so much that I don't even want to read it because if I can't be in it, I'm gonna be bombed. Yeah, because it wasn't a straight offer. And so I met with the writer director, Liz Garcia, who is absolutely amazing, and we've for like a decade almost worked together, you know, haven't, and so she wrote this, was directing it. We met, and then you know, they were like, they're gonna look at some other people and take some time. And so year went by and I had forgotten about it, because you have to kind of purposely forget about things that you don't get always. Yeah, it's too disappointing. And so yeah, my agents were calling me, and they were calling me in a group, and you know, when there's a group calling, you either got a part or you're in trouble. And so I was no thing I had gotten.
Apart, and so right, you don't know where it's going to go.
I was like, if there's three of you on, that's so down.
We need to have a conversation with you.
So they were like, remember that movie Space Get Ahead, and I was like, stop, shut up, and they're like it's you. So they we're going to shoot this summer and I'm like, oh my god. And I was just so excited because when I read the script to go back to your original question, it was just like I was smiling the whole time. I was laughing. It just felt really kind of like fresh and original, but also nostalgic in the ways that like legally Blonde and Private Benjamin and kind of those fishadow Water stories. Yeah.
Yeah, and your character is that you really embody that sort of like there's a bubbliness too. Yeah, there's like a real energy.
And they're the unlikely and intelligent, like intelligenctly street smart, not necessarily book smart, and then that turns into them being BookSmart. And so I think it's a very I liked the messaging a lot. I feel like for young people, and I just hadn't seen this kind of story before. Like I love space movies, but you know, there we do.
I like which ones, like what are the faiths?
Interstellar okay, CRMB my Eyes Out Arrival okay, my favorite movie ever with Amy Adams.
Okay, but my.
Point being that space movies are it's pretty sad or dark or so this was kind of I liked that we were taking kind of a genre making it younger. It's like four younger people to watch. Like, I mean, if your daughter's like, hold her daughter, now, I've scared you even.
Out turning seventeen.
No, in my mind, she's taen.
I know. I mean, you know from the Begame. It's crazy. But yeah, yeah, it goes that fast.
Okay, well that's frightening. We'll circle back to that. But my point is a ten year old could watch this movie. And so yeah, I feel like there'st have a lot of movies where you can watch with your mom and not be like cringing. Like I watched The Sultfurn with my mom. Love, loved the movie, didn't love watching it next to my mom.
That is really tough to watch with your mother.
I honestly think someone needs to start like a blog that's like movies to not watch with your parents, because especially with like streaming now, like you click or you.
Don't know, right, you don't know, and all of a sudden you're like looking at that scene in your bathtub and you're with your mom and you're like, oh God, how do I get half of this room?
So yeah, so anyone else there that wants to start a blog about that, really should?
I think we'll do well. I think that's great. So okay, so that movie, So that resonated and it hits this summer. So that's how you sort of now hitting the circuit of promoting it and just that like so that's like the jam.
Well, we're doing some promotion. So we're having a premiere in New York, which I'm really excited about because I feel like people don't really do that anymore.
That's exciting. End of June.
At my favorite theater. I love to give a shout out to a good theater, the Metro Bra. Yes, they play old movies, new movies. They have amazing concessions, a great restaurant there. So anyways, that's like my hang in New York. So it just happened to be word of doing the premiere there. So I'm really excited.
I love that. I love I love a shout out to a place that you love. I was really upset with the Ziegfeld Close in New York. That was like I kind of I saw the movie Hair there in nineteen seventy, and I like, there are certain places like I totally remember where you were so to have like the bookstores like and stuff. I think there's people that are listening love these like yeah.
Tonight, I'm still upset about the arc Lay closing. I mean I would go there like at least once a week, if not more, with my mom or racistter.
We're talking to one on in West will Yeah, yeah.
It's so and the one there. There's a bunch of them, but they're.
All closed now they're all closed. FYI you say it, so I'll share. But that's where I saw your aunt's movie. Can tell you when I was sitting in nineteen ninety one, when you were being done born, I could tell you the seat I was sitting in. Because there are movies that you as a natural, So you do those movies as the viewer when you're doing your job, and you do it so beautifully. You remember where you're at.
Do you know that Legally Blonde made me realize my own mortality? Which sounds crazy.
It does because I saw me it does.
It does. I saw it so many times and for some whatever reason, it hit me where I was like, what if this movie came out? I was dead, like what would I do? And it made me realize that one day I would die, Like how dark is that? But that's how what movies can do. Were I'm not I would have I would die if I couldn't have seen this movie because I loved it so much. I saw it literally five times in theaters.
What do you think resonated with I'm gonna get it the character's name? Okay, what resonated as a young girl with you and that character?
Well, first of all, I just loved that I hadn't seen a character like that ever before for me and with Reese, with There's been the way she did that, and Elle Wood's the character itself. She was like the unlikely hero of the one that people also didn't believe in that people kind of wrote her off as one thing. And I think like, as a young woman and growing up, it's like I've felt that way before, where it's like people think you're one thing and won't give you a chance to be something else.
Felt that because you not only are beautiful young, which in this industry sometimes can be sort of pigeoned, you also have come from the sort of and I've you know, sat with King. You know, families that have like lineage, So there's that. So people like have a lot of things. So how did you navigate that?
Yeah, you know, because it is people definitely have preconceived notions of you. I think there's two sides of the coin. You know, people like to say, oh, you know, you have a leg up because you're a family in the industry. But then the other side to that is, you know, you have to prove yourself more. Also, if people don't have good experience being to be with other people in your family, then you'll never get a chance.
That's true.
And also I think there's something to be said where everybody loves the kind of overnight success story and so if you're kind of not the girl from the middle of nowhere that broken Hollywood, you know, there's kind of an eye roll of like all your dad was this, And I always joke I'm like, why is no one calling out George Clooney for being a neo baby. It's very true, But I feel like also the point is, like young girls, I feel like, get it harder with the like everything with the with the nepo baby thing, Like I don't really see people calling out you know, sons a famous actress. It's that they should be called that. I don't think anyone should be called out wanting to follow their dreams.
Again the male female thing they did. But you know, I do think to your point, and like this whole phrase that sort of just paraded recently, the NEPO baby thing. You know, you know, it comes from a place of resent you as we know from people like oh, look at that. But I often said, you can get in the room maybe because you're related to someone, but if you can't deliver, you're not staying in there. So okay, yes, and that and that, you know, and we look at it from like the actors standpoint, because it's there's such a public figure and celebrity about it, but it goes on across all fields.
Oh totally.
So it's like, okay, like I can get my kid into whatever she's going to be interested, but if you don't have the goods, you know, I could say, like my nephew who went through the program at CIA and now he's a big, you know, a very successful sports agent, so he got a leg in to have that interview, but if he sucked, yeah, totally beyond total No.
I mean, I I can like, oh, put in a good word for me on this, and haven't booked things. And I think that's the thing that I always talk about, is like people kind of only see your way because they only see, you know, when you're on the poster of a movie. They don't see yeah, all the like rejection along the way. That's why I'm always very open about things I've auditioned for and haven't gotten the part for, right, And like, I think it's important to talk about because otherwise people just think, oh, you know, everything's been so great and linear and easy, and it's like, no, it's been not at all. But of course it looks like that to the outside perspective or to the naked.
Eye, right. And I think a lot of people who started young, like you, they weren't able to navigate it.
No, it's crazy and and honestly, you know, there are moments in time where I'm like, maybe this isn't for me, or maybe either because I decide it's not, or because the industry will decide it's not, you know, like either way, and I feel very lucky that you know, I was able to navigate you know, being a teenager and being in my twenties and you know, going through emotionally hard things and still being able to kind of show up for myself and work. But yeah, it's been totally crazy in the sense of I feel so lucky that I get to be thirty three and still get to be doing things that I love. And also now I'm much more like thoughtful about it. I think in my teens and twenties, I was always just like, you know, going from job to job to job to job and kind of not really being present. And that makes sense, yeah, And I mean, now it's nice to be able to feel like I'm more present for the experiences because also it's taking time away from my son, and so jobs have to kind of have more meaning. And whether the movie or the show is a hit or not, I at least want the experience to have been something like has either enriched me or taught me something, or I don't have to work with friends or you know, it.
Has to be much more discerning, and there's there and as one as it happens, the it's just more factors in life that present themselves because you're creating a.
Life, you know, and the other thing that I think must have been hard, And you tell me it's natural for all of us in our teens and twenties.
You know, we were living, we're going through stuff and those are so like, but you're now being looked at and it's also being looked at this social media. How did you navigate that and get through that because that's tough.
Well, I think it's harder now, honestly, Like I always say, if I was like a teenager or even twenty now who was social media and everything, like, I don't know how I would be able to do it. Because luckily, I agreed, social media had like just started really becoming like you were able to kind of quantify your fame on social media. Yeah, when I was already in my early twenties, because I remember specifically. I think that was when I was filming an American horror story in New Orleans, and I just remember because I would always be taking more pictures down there because I was like, oh, social media. So that's when it kind of became I became more aware of it. But now even now, like I find myself getting into the scroll on there where I'm like, I need to get off of this.
I do too anyway sucks you in and I.
Feel like and I feel bad about myself, and I'll get into like talk to my mom about it, and she's like, oh my god, you have to stop. She's like, it's not normal for people to be looking at themselves this much, like you have to know that. And I'm like, you're so right here.
Yeah, it's really hard. It's like, you know, and I think I think we are culturally now in a conversation, especially with that age group, to understand when should they get smartphones? How do we all sort of break this addiction. And then also without too much judgment, I think like sometimes I'll get lost in the scroll of the wheels and people are doing funny and entertaining stuff. Totally okay, this is I'm just I'm having fun right now, judge it, you know. But when it becomes too much, Yeah, and you know, when it becomes too much, totally, I got I got it. I gotta get off there.
Well for me, it's it's even more so, not even like what I'm consuming, but I just feel like it's short circuiting my brain in a sense of topic jumping in a way. But then when I'm off of it, I feel like I'm a little scattered. I'm a little disconnected. So that's what freaks me out is I'm like, are we like short circuiting our brains? Like you have to be one hundred percent? Can't We're not meant to consume this many different things in one sitting.
It's right, I'm a doctor, you know that I play on TV. Mean the thing that is an I find that attention span at the level of anxiety because like, oh wait, all this stuff is coming in. It's coming. It's like it's the text, it's the social media, it's the emails, it's just this. It's taking care of the kid and said, hey, what's that schedule? Okay, he has to be here. Oh I have to make sure I apply there.
You then you just want to read where there's twenty seven people on it, and I'm like, love you guys, please taking off the thread. You can't call me, call me or like send me an email. But I'm like this text thread, I'll.
Learn every two seconds you're like and you don't know, you're like, oh, okay, okay. And especially with all due respect when it comes to like kids and the parents, totally, they want to discuss everything at every single so it's you got to for your own sanity. I also think you're very like curated because you know, you've also done something that I find and there are other people that I admire, like yourself, who're able to parlay your acting career, your work to also your love of literature and what we'll talk about, to being brand ambassadors for companies for launching things like becoming the sort of corporation that you can be like the CEO smart, you know person I even hate to say woman, just person. You know that you know, and that's not everyone can do that. Thank you, Angel, you have done that early on. This is is that something you enjoy I mean totally.
The thing about that that's so interesting is like I didn't even know that it was possible. Like I remember being in my teen years and being like, wait, I love this book, how do I make it into a movie? Or wait? I at the time was a brand am master for a makeup company and I was like, I want to do my own line of lipstick within within the company? Can I do that? And the answer was always kind of like uh no, or like that's not what people aren't really doing that And so then now it's like you see, you know, like when it's Power trop for example, when I'm her biggest fan, Like what she did with Goop, I remember like really inspired me to be like, wait, I don't have to be just one thing in Resa with her book club and production company, and I'll never forget you know, the story where she was supposed to be in Gone Girl and then stepped just as a producer on it. I read somewhere and I was like, wow, that's so cool, Like I didn't even think that's right.
I don't have to be an actress in that. Can iually produce it?
And so like I I give credit to those women who I feel like, you know, we're obviously and still are some of the biggest actresses. Yeah, and they did that, and I remember me seeing it is what made me think that I could.
Like do that right.
And and also just like you know, passion, like I really like love, love, love, love, like putting shows together and movies together, and I love curating with what you said, and I love to read and.
So the love of reading and books first all, I don't want to Mispronouncedelladris Beladris. Yeah, starting this company? When did that? Like when did that Aha moments you say, oh, okay, wait, I'm going to do this because it also must help you with identifying projects not only for yourself but to.
Totally right, I mean for me. I wanted to start before Instagram existed. If you guys can believe it, then I remember then that I remember then, which is grating. But no, I wanted to start a blog called Beauty in the Book where we talk about beauty products and books like. That was my dream, and so I kept talking about it with my best friend Kara Price was the co founder of Bellatrist, with me, and eventually Instagram launched and there was a handle taken Beauty in the Book. Oh, and so we were like okay, and we also weren't quite ready and didn't know what we were. And I think it was twenty seventeen where we'd come up with the name Bellatrist, which is like a word from the sixteen hundreds that means like a writer of flowery words, and it was kind of used like derogatory. So we kind of liked the idea of having it be like a ton in cheek, kind of like like someone who's not super serious about reading, but it sounds.
Serious It sounds very serious, right, because that's.
Always been kind of our thing, is like we don't care what you're reading as long as you're reading, because I don't like this kind of judgment of like you have to be reading something cool or something literate or something this like like I love a great memoir, I also love a trashy be read like I love it all and I think, no judgment. So when we were picking the name, we wanted to keep that in mind, and in the beauty in the book was kind of that that's important.
That's important. It's important to remember them because you do, you can get stuck like in mud because you're like, oh, I'm not supposed to be reading, or I should be reading this classic and I you can't get through if what you got to read, what you just love and reading is and you know and you're doing it in Sar Jessica, who's a big advocate of.
My other queen Die For Sara doesn't Parker too.
And she is a big advent supporter of libraries, local bookstores and reading and reading and reading.
And totally, I think it's so important because to me, I feel like one book or one story can really change the trajectory of somebody's life. As cheesy as that sounds, Yeah, but like especially having access to like certain stories and certain writers. I don't know, I feel like reading the right book can make you feel seen in a way that is so important.
Can you give me an example of a book that story that that has happened with you totally?
First, I just want to say that my sister was twenty three. She when she was sixteen and seventeen, she'd just say I hate reading. And I'm like, don't ever say that to me again. I was like, don't you know, I don't say that to people either. I was like, that's not a good look. Fine, And so she kept saying it and saying and finally I was like, Okay, I'm going to be proactive. I was like, maybe she just hasn't found the right book. So I would give her book after the book after book, never would finish, never would finish. And funny enough, the book that we both read together and loved in literally a week was Daisy Jones and the Sixth which then rest made into the show, which is amazing. But that book brought us together in a way where like she would literally come to me and be like, Okay, what am I reading next? And I was like, I'm gonna cry, Like is this someone who said I hate reading to now is like what are we reading next? Like it's right, and you know it's and again it's not like I was like, you here read War and Peace? Like what it was Daisy Jones in the six It was fun. It's fun, it was romance. We cried, laughed and like the fact that's what we bonded over and that was the first book we read together.
And two that it really is and we're back. In twenty thirteen, our guest Emma Roberts joined the cast of American Horror Story for its third season, entitled Coven. Since then, she's worked closely with creator Ryan Murphy, appearing in multiple seasons of the show as well as on screen queens. I'm curious, what's it been like to work together for over a decade. You know, there are people that have like their troops, so it was very clear. I would argue that you were Ryan Murphy's or have been his muse for many many years.
He's my music. I just mean like he inspires me.
He's right, man, is so talented and the American horror.
Story franchise, franchise show, I mean a franchise, so it has become that.
How did that sort of change the trajectory of you, Yeah, to short of be able, because I think it must have not the answer for you. But I am a little bit no kind of layering the pieces of Emma Robert totally me. So how was that experience, you know, to be the muse? Because I always like and it's like Cassavetti's had his troop, you know what I mean, Woody Allen has his troop. You know what I mean. It's like, yeah, that was his true you know, Peter Falk. Those are the people that I he continually worked with. Clearly Ryan loves working with you and writes for you.
Well, I love him and he really, I mean even he changed my life. I was twenty two years old. I you know, it was so funny because I would, you know, I would audition for things and go up for things, and everyone always saw me as kind of like the girl next door or they like, you know, we're kind of putting me in this category of like a teen actress, you know, not letting me kind of do anything edgy. And he but what he does for so many people, by the way, women especially. He always sees something in someone that other people don't, and that is like one of his superpowers, I think. And not only does he see that thing, but then he trusts you with it and is like, okay, go right, Like there's no doubt that he gives me this confidence that like you can be this thing, and like I'm going to show you what that is. And he did that for me with American Horse Story Covin Madison Montgomery. I was I was supposed to go down there for like three episodes and you know we've been working together now for ten years.
Right, Oh really, Covin, you were only going to be three episodes.
It was maybe not it was three. It was definitely not the pore time. And that's why they killed me and they like being brought back. That wasn't originally the plan, right, And I think the reason that people love it is because it was just so authentic, because I felt super confident. I was so excited to play a role that no one had seen me in. He really trusted me and wrote for me, and it was just I had so much fun and it was unexpected. Yeah, it was really unexpected. And I remember he called me and he's like, look, I don't know if this is for you. It's definitely a little edgy in the pilot. There's some a lot of traumatic things happened, so you know, let me know. And I was just like, you know what, you fuck it?
Yes, yeah, well you're well yeah, well, I mean, what's very clear about you. You are a risk taker, and you also you have you have a very strong voice, very strong presence, meaning so like I think I can understand why he would say that, but that your reaction be like bringing up well, I.
Mean this Partony was like, you know, a little scared. Of course, I'm not gonna lie. But when you know, when Ryan Murphy calls calls your landline and has to be on a show, you say.
Yes, did you answer that landline on a ride? Did you know?
Because landlines are scary now that they You're like, no, I was prepped beforehand that I was getting a call that I needed to answer, so I was I was, I'm quite literally waiting by the phone. But I was so excited because I remember watching the pilot of a marm Harror story the night that it aired. Remember when we used to watch things weekly once a week or it aired, and I was like, I love this show. I was like, I'd get anything to be on a show like this, but it would never put me on a show like this. And I remember like second season as well, I was like, I'm like, you know, I just would love the chance to be on something like this, And so, I mean, I think I may have manifested it a little bit, but no, it was cool and living in New Orleans, I was twenty two, and yeah, it changed the trajectory of my career and as an actress definitely just gave me a whole new experience and different level. I mean, the the people that he works with obviously, the writers and the directors and everyone was just such an amazing caliber that it makes you a better actor.
Right, he sees something in you. You get in the room, and then you deliver, which is why then consistently you're part of his troop, because if you don't deliver, he's not bringing you back.
No, He's I mean, and that's and that's I mean, I've gotten the chance through working with him. The fact that I got to work with like Sarah Pulson and Jessica Lang. I still do this day, like, think about the days I had with Jessica Lang, because she's such an icon for me completely.
Were you surprised when Kim Kardashian came into the conversation like, oh okay, because I mean she's an incredibly talented sort of very smart human. I never thought of her as an actress.
Well, I was just blown away. But then also, I mean so because Ryan and I were talking about American horror story Delicate, which is the latest season which has already aired on Effects and now is streaming Undulu, and we have been talking about casting, and I just remember like I kept just coming up with horrible ideas. We'd like I want to stop, and I'm like, I know these are bad ideas, are like what's wrong with me?
And is never a wrong answer in a group think tag totally.
You know you know what I mean? The point is like I just I was like what I'm like, let's all like clicking, Like I'm usually so good at coming up with ideas. I'm just and so anyways, he called me one day and he's like, Kim Kardashian playing your publicist. I don't evenk he's an hide to me. And I was like this is why you're you. I just like that is a genius because what I loved about it is like obviously when you watch the season, you find out that you know, she's not just a publicist, but the point is like putting her in the role of like a publicist and me being an actor, like already, that's just so such a great dynamic to play with, right, And let me tell you, she is one of the most prepared actors I've worked with.
Really.
I mean I've come I've come to work sometimes and you know, people that I won't name, but you and know who they are, like don't know theirs at all, which whatever, it's fine, we all have those days. But like she do every single like mine. And she also she just looks you in the eye and do it. And I'm like, wow, like to be that kind of open and vulnerable at some like, you know, I still get embarrassed sometimes and I've been acting for twenty something years. Yeah, and you know, she just she's she's super professional, confident and just the way that she carries herself. She doesn't have a huge entourage. She's very normal, and that was also really inspiring to see.
Yeah, you know, coming from the family and the level of success that that family has had. You can only get there by doing shoop of professionals, So that doesn't surprise me. And I was just wondering, you know what it would be like, well, what your thoughts were on that, because I had to say I.
Was totally something. I used to buy jeans from them at Dash in Calabasas their store, So that was the other thing too. We were laughing a little, like I was like, wow, and look at look at now, like you're you and I'm on this show with you and we're together, and I'm like, I used to buy seven jeans from you in Calabasas, like.
Literally, I mean literally from her working in the store, be in the store.
I think I was like twelve or thirteen. This was right before they did their show and I had a show on Nickelodeon, you know, and with yes, like was like, thought, it was so cool that like I could afford to buy like seven jeans that Dash from working, so like it's just so funny that then now you know, this much time later, at the end of the day, we're just two girls from Calabasas.
You know. You bring up another point which I think is also empowering, is becoming financially independent. She's a very powerful thing that you know, must have felt great.
I love that you bring. No one's ever brought that up to me, I think in an interview, No I did, and I remember, yeah, like ever since I was very very very young, just wanting to like be self sufficient. I think, seeing like you know, my mom and a lot of her friends go through a lot of really bad divorces and breakups and stuff, and just knowing from a very young age, especially being raised by a single mom who like is the best, Like, I never wanted to have to depend on anyone and almost to probably like I shouldn't have like known that so young, but I'm glad I did, and I'm glad that you know. I like it was never a motivation to necessarily act for money, but even like I would do like lemonade stands or like you know, like even to my mom if I wash the windows, can I have five dollars if I do the like, just wanting to kind of have that that's freedom that depends totally. And so it's been nice. It's nice now that I have been working so long where you know, I can support myself and can tell about other people. And also with my son, like to just know that I can always support him on my own is a very freeing thing that I know is a huge It's it's a it's a privilege, like you know, and and and some people can't. And I just always want to encourage people to know that they can.
Yeah. I think it's you can try. Yeah, they could try, you could try your best. I was watching Goldie Hawns speak once years ago. She was on a panel and she was there with people asking her like, you know why she married Kurt Russell on that and I was she were talking about the relations, but she also talked about the importance and especially of her generation specifically because women didn't have financials becomes that the freedom she had that and because she worked and because she was able to like make decisions that she wanted to make that I would. It's a gift. And it's also a gift that you knew that early and had that drive totally because saying you know, mom, can you get five bucks to wash the windows means like would people? Yeah, I'm trying to instill that with my kids to say, oh, okay, like this is the deal, Like, if you want to do that, you have some money saved.
Yeah, it's just like I just yeah, I think it's it's it's just important to because what I was trying to say be words. I know not everybody can, but I want everyone to feel inspired to because I feel like a lot of times, people, especially women, feel stuck. I mean, like I like I said, I saw, I mean, I saw my mom go, you know, go through a breakup and you know, be a single mom. And you know, I'm so lucky that she could be a single, full time mom and not have to leave me at you know, a daycare, and she could spend spend all her time with me. But even now, like I have such mom guilt. We're away from I'm away from my son.
You know.
Yeah, you're always working for twelve hours a day and then on the weekend, I'm so tired, and I feel like I'm not being my best self right and so, but the other side that coin is like I know that he will always know that, like his mom works really hard and loves what she does and therefore will always you know, be able to support him.
Right.
Welcome back to Table for two. For someone in their early thirties, Emma has already had a long and successful career. She starred in the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous as a teenager, and she has appeared in countless films and TV shows since then. What was it like to start off in Hollywood at such a young age? That must have been tough too, because you had to navigate adults in working situations who I'm sure were just complete assholes.
You know, I feel like I was. I mean, I feel like I've encountered more assholes as an adult as a kid, which is really a good thing. But no I will they you know, it is really interesting because I felt like I was almost like more mature as a kid because I had to be where like now sometimes I feel I feel like younger than I am, where back then I felt older than I was, if that makes sense, And so kind of like navigating that now we're like when I was, you know, younger, everyone who I worked with on set was older than me. And now a lot of people I work with are way younger than me. And so that's really interesting because I was always the youngest person in the room and now I'm not. And so it's just really interesting to kind of I don't know, like like see how that feels and figure that out, and like, also, I don't know if you experienced this, but like now that I'm in my thirties, I literally don't know how old people are, to a point where I'm like, I'm like, how old are you? And they're like, I'm twenty one. I'm like what, Like, I have no concept of what seventeen is, I no concept of sex, zero none, what's the zero?
And I take it a step further because I still feel like I'm looking out of the lens of a your age. Yeah, this is kind of where you get you kind of settle into an age. And I always say to Brian, I'm like, I look exactly like that, like when they would like but they always have the new school that starts at the end of August and all these kids in their twenties, and I'm like, if I walked into that room they went on think twice and I was like, you're so old and you look so old, but you get stuck I am, you know, which I also think keeps you kind of like yeah, funny, but yeah, I have no sense.
My mom always says, she's like she's like my mind is twenty, but my body has betrayed me.
It's true, it does true.
And she's like it's She's like, do you know how unfair it is? She's like, I feel twenty and I look in the mirror and.
I'm like, you do you go? Who is that?
Like?
Why is this right? I'm like, oh my god, it really it's And yet there's a freedom that you get as you get older, and you're feeling it already in your thirties compared to who you were, and you were you know, when you or a younger actor even and it gets better good and you get to know yourself better and you get free. So do you care less about Well?
I like myself more now than I have at any other point about right, So I like, you know, I wouldn't trade the.
Isn't that nice? You like yourself totally?
But I mean, I mean it's obviously it's still like a process, but I'm just like, I'm so much happier with who I am and I kind of know more like what it means to be me and what I stand for than when I was twenty three. Like I don't even think I was in my own body like I was around like.
No, little just we were reacting and.
Doing, reacting and doing totally.
That's how we were, that's where we lived our lives. You're like, okay, I'll take that out now. There's more intention, Yes, and especially because you're a mom, there's intention, And because you also are a you're a business person. You're an actress, but you're.
A business person, always trying.
It's just sort of like maybe like an esoteric question, what scares you and what advice advice for young actors? Shorting out? But I kind of want to put that aside. I want to over at you.
Wait, I mean what scares me? I guess I mean on an emotional level or a literal level or both both. Okay, Well, literal would be I'm very claustrophobic. Okay, Like last night I didn't get on sleep because I kept having this dream that I was stuck in an elevator, which I'm sure I can dig into on Monday with my therapist.
Yes, elevator stops for a second, I can't it.
Panic, Yeah, small spaces, overcrowded like that's I don't know, it just freaks me out. And then I mean emotionally, it used to be like being alone. Which I can tie that into advice to younger people, which is, like I had spent my twenties I feel like, you know, constantly like surrounding myself with people and work and you know, getting upset over things didn't matter, and standing too long in relationships and worrying about you know, guys that did not even deserve my attention instead of like getting to know myself and sitting with myself and being alone with myself. And I really wish upon people in their twenties, like my sister, I'm like, go, like, spend time with yourself, travel with yourself, like spend time alone, Like I spent not that much time alone. And now I have a kid, and I'm in my thirties and you know, I quite literally, you know, will never be alone after your kid.
You're never alone.
And I don't regret it, but like, I just wish that I had spent more time with myself, traveling and just like getting to know myself.
Yeah that's a big one.
And so now, like you know, it's taking a lot of time in therapy, but I'm not scared of being alone. And it feels so good to be able to say that in a minute, because like I mean, from when I was, like, you know, however long till I was, you know, thirty one years old, like I was definitely like scared to be by myself and spend time with myself.
I agree. I think that's a really important and I love that that's what you're saying, because I think at the end of the day, all we have is ourselves. You know, you want to love yourself, you want to be with You will never be alone because he is in your life, but he will eventually be in his life. Really that's what you want. But like that, and you're and I understand completely because what young people also don't realize is, you know, your twenties, it goes away, so all of a sudden, you're not like to.
Your mother's point, to my point, he's fifty eight years old, you go, oh wait, damn, you know, like I was in that body, I had that time and like I didn't, you know know too, because and it's just you learn it as you go.
And you're certainly, I mean supremely young enough to still have all this time to yourself and to explore the world with him, because twenty the world with your son is going to be one of the most amazing things.
That's already the best. I mean, we we recently went to Disneyland, and everyone told me, like, he's too young, he's three, wait till he's four or five, is a waste of time. And I was like, you know what, I want to do something special with him that I've been working a lot, like, I want to I want to do it with him, so whatever, So we went. He had the best time ever, and like a week later, he just woke up and in his crib when I picked him up, he goes, I want to go to Disney And I literally started getting to your eye kids. I'm like, oh my god, you remember right, And he's you know, he's talking a lot now when he was a delayed talker, and so it's just meant so much on so many levels where I'm like, you know, and again as a mom, always like I'm going out with my gun and took him Like everyone it's not a waste of time when we have you have such a special time, and it keeps bringing it up, and I'm just so glad that I got to share that with him, and I was the one to take him. And it also gave me confidence to do more stuff like that, because I feel like sometimes as a parent, you're like, I guess, I guess we'll just stay home. Y, I guess we'll just you know whatever, And it's like, you know what, No, Like my mom would always be like get in the car, like we're wan to o high or like you know, we're gonna go the farmer's market, or we're gonna go to the beach, and just those little things add up to so many memories.
Completely, And I think to your point, it's to your point of the concern of like your working mother, you have a lot on your place, so you're not always going to be able to be there because you're working. So it's not necessarily about the quantity, it's about the quality totally. What brings you joy?
I mean joy? I would say what brings me joy is having free time and not being in a rush, And like obviously that you know, so many things fall into that category, and like of also you know, spending time with my family, my friends, you know, being with my son. But I think overall, like not feeling like I'm in a rush, because so much of my life I feel like I've smith trying to get somewhere at a certain time and accomplish something and do something right and say the right thing and look the right way, and so like to me to wake up and not be in a rush or have and to have a free day. It's like it just makes me so right, right do.
You looking at you and you know you have everything it takes to be like a massive movie star. Not to say you're not a huge star, okay, but you know what I'm saying.
I know what you're saying.
Is that something you want? I mean, you've seen it, it's around you.
Well, it's so interesting because I always say, like, you know, I think I saw very up close what that really looks like with my aunt Julia. It's obviously, you know, it's fun and it's great, but there is a part of it that's really scary. And so I've always wanted to kind of carve my own path of not just like straight ahead, oh, be a big movie star, but like, you know, do stuff that's like creatively fulfilling, because to me, fame has never been the goal because fame at a certain level is kind of scary. And I remember as a kid, even as in my later teens, I was like I never want my fame to outweigh.
My work, because there's nothing scarier to me than being so famous that you're never left alone. But also you're not getting good jobs. And that was kind of like happening to a lot of people I think when I was in my teens in early twenties, and that really scared me, and so I always I never wanted that to happen to me. So I was very conscious of like just not wanting to be in it for the fame. And like I said, when you've seen fame like that up close and you see what that really like does to people onto to their family and and and like it's it's scary sometimes. I mean, I'm just like had a weird like stalker situation a few weeks ago that I can say because it got leaked to the press. And even that alone, the fact that was leaked into the press, I feel like such a violation because I was, like, I was just so scared.
Yeah.
So anyways, Yeah, to me, I want to keep doing things that are creatively fulfilling, things that are fun, work with friends, and you know, if other things come along with a great but like you know, I'm trying to just take things a little bit at a time, and thank you. I am I'm trying. I feel like this last year something has clicked in, so I'm really excited to kind of see how that affects the reats to all other aspect of my life.
Well, I'm very thankful that you join you today. I was able for two and I'm really looking forward because I have an up close personal scene to seeing all the next chapters of your life. I love you with the mob, I love you so much. Thank you for joining to thank you Brews. Table for two with Bruce Bosi is produced by iHeartRadio seven three seven Park and Airmail. Our executive producers are Bruce Bosi and Nathan King. Our supervising producer and editor is Dylan Fagan. Table for two is researched and written by Jack Sullivan. Our sound engineers are Meel B. Klein, Jess Krainich, Evan Taylor, and Jesse Full. Our music supervisor is Randall Poster. Our talent booking is done by Jane Sarkin. Table for two's social media manager is Gracie Wiener. Special thanks to Amy Sugarman, Uni Scherer, Kevin Yuvane, Bobby Bauer Alison, Kanter Graber, Barbara Jen, Jeff Klein, and the staff at the Tower Bar in the world famous Sunset Tower Hotel in Hollywood. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
