This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Hello, welcome to this week's episode of Odd Woman Out. My name is Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo, your host of Odd Woman Out. Hey, my Odd Squad. Thanks so much for tuning in to this most iconic episode. You know, we're here talking with badass boss women about what it is like to feel like the odd woman out talking about career, talking about life. We get real, real, real deep, but we have so much fun while doing it. So thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to like and subscribe and follow. I'm so grateful for you for tuning in. I'm also so grateful for the supporters of the show including Flying Whale Wine, John's Pizzeria of Times Square, Bar Lola, Balloons to Go, Billy's Bakery, and La Vue Photo Booths. If you don't know what any of those things are, please check them out because they are just as iconic as the show. Thanks for listening. Love you my Odd Squad. Enjoy this episode. Hi, Chyler Leigh. Welcome to Odd Woman Out.

[0:25] Chyler Leigh: Thank you so much, Samantha. I appreciate you having me.

[0:57] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Oh my god. I'm so happy to have you. We have so much to talk about. I'm a psycho Grey's Anatomy fan, eh? Like we'll get into it. Not a psycho. Who's a psycho? Not me. But also we were just gabbing about how much we love Broadway. So we'll definitely talk about all of the things. Okay. Yes. Buckle up for buckle up Broadway babies because we got some tea coming in.

[1:25] Chyler Leigh: Yes.

[1:26] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: But the show's called Odd Woman Out, obviously. So I always love to kick it off. And I want to know about a time in your life or in the industry where you have felt like the odd woman out. And what does that mean to you?

[1:36] Chyler Leigh: There is no singular circumstance or answer that I could give you. Right. Ever since I was a little one, I knew that I was like, you know, the whole one of these things is not like the other. Right. That's me. I've always known it. I don't know. I've always said, you know, beat to my own drum and like that kind of thing. And it's I think it's something that I had to really kind of come to grips and understand and like embrace and appreciate. Right. Over time. Because I was kind of always the like, why isn't anybody else thinking the way that I'm thinking? Or why are these people not saying the things that they shouldn't be saying out loud? And I am. Right. And it's kind of always just been some sort of like footprint in there.

And, you know, I got which in some ways is really great, because when you can take that feeling, you can take what ultimately I feel and believe are like gifts and talents that can come from that oddness, and use it in a platform like what we get to do, you know, and like being a creator and being a storyteller in one way, shape or form, like, what a great way to use all the little things flying around in your head, right. And, and sometimes it's, it's can be crushing. Because you just don't feel like you ever really fit in somewhere. Or you, you know, you can't regulate things the same way that other people can, or, like your emotions, your thoughts, the way you speak, the way you behave, like, I have ADHD and bipolar disorder.

And, you know, I'm now going to start testing. I'm going to I'm going to go in and test to see if I kind of fall on the autism spectrum as well. I have three kids. And this will come back, I promise. I'm here for I'm buckled up as I'm going. Yeah. My, my son, he's my oldest. He's 22. He has Asperger's and ADHD. And he is currently going to university for video game development, which I'm like, there you go. Yeah, that was seven years old. And he was, you know, solving serious like real-time strategy games. And people are kind of like, the other little kids are outside playing baseball and soccer. And he's in there like, No, I'm gonna tell you how to use this strategy. And let me tell you what, and I'm just like, that's amazing.

And I'm like, well, okay, we can see where some of that goes. And my 19 year old, she's gonna be 20. She is high functioning, autistic, and she has anxiety and some like OCD tendencies, and she wants to get into voiceover work. So all the little voices in her head can have a body somewhere. My youngest, she's 17. She's also ADHD. She has epilepsy. And she wants to get into musical theater. So you kind of take those things, I think, when you stop allowing people to beat them over the head with this idea that they have of what it means to be odd. And you can kind of go, all right, there's some things I got to work on, clearly, or there's some things I need to heal, you know, in this area, clearly, or just things to say, fuck it, and just like, take in the wind.

Yeah, I mean, go now. Yeah, like, you just get out there and like, and I think I think it's great. And I and, you know, I encourage any and everybody to find what their oddity is. I think it gives you that it's it's you, right? I love that. Yes. You exactly if other people don't like it. Okay. Oh, cool. No, actually, I'm making money for it. So that's it. And that's why I like love this show so much because everybody embraces their odd when we have these conversations. And it's just so important for other people to hear that and say, Oh, me too. And like, it's okay. And I can. It's not because I'm weird, or I look different, or I act different. It's it's a beautiful being honest, beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. I love that.

[6:01] Chyler Leigh: Now I want to talk about when you first discovered that you wanted to be an artist. Was there a woman influence either in your personal life or somebody that you admired, who was a working actor or something that really inspired you to go down this path?

[6:20] Chyler Leigh: So that's a rabbit hole. The abridged version of that would be actually I had nothing. I wanted nothing to do with the industry at all. Really? I didn't like attention. I didn't like to be looked at. I didn't like to be called out on things like I didn't like getting up in front of people and talking if I didn't have to. Right. I, you know, basically wanted to sign up at like five years old to go be part of Greenpeace. You know what I mean? Like, I was like, I'm animals or keeps referencing this. I'm like, so crazy. I was just like, I just didn't see that for myself. Yeah. And it was it was something that my mother wanted me to do. So yes, a woman influencer. Yes. I think it was a kind of, you know, not to shit talk really genuinely, but like, I think it was a live vicariously through kind of situation.

And so I got into like modeling at 12, 13 years old. I hated it. It terrified me. And, and then started doing some commercials and doing like auditions here and there and doing stuff and I'm just, I'm a professional people pleaser. So in my little brain at that time, like if mom's okay, if this keeps mom okay, then this is what I'm going to do. And in some ways, unfortunately, I was really good at it. And so I kept working. It's like, which is a wonderful blessing to have. But yeah, it's so it just kind of was just my life. There wasn't any part of it that, you know, I wasn't already kind of, I don't want to make it sound bad, but like submitting to I guess. And it's funny because you just didn't know anything else.

[8:09] Chyler Leigh: Yeah, I didn't know anything really. And I remember I had auditioned for the New World School. Oh my god, I can't remember the name of it in Miami. And like, they were like, Oh, no, she's, she's not gonna make it. She'll never make it. Like, look at me now, my jokes on you, big jokes on you. Yes, it took a while for me to like, find my own joy in it outside of what I knew, I was fortunate enough to carry through as a career. Like, I never took that for granted. Yeah. But I really did have to find to kind of like, scratch away a little bit at Okay, what, what is really fun about this? Or what can I learn about this? And I know I'm making it sound very like sophisticated in my brain. When I say that, because my emotions were obviously all over the place and whatnot.

But when I started to kind of be able to see that, okay, all this shit that I have bottled up in my life can actually kind of come out this way. And I don't have to sit here and like, go back. I know everybody has their own methods and how they, you know, prepare, do their work, whatnot. But I don't have to go back and think, Oh, God, I remember that time when I was, you know, five and, you know, so and so stole my baseball bat and, you know, like, just kind of, or really traumatic memories, right? I think I have such a wellspring of them already, that it just gives me a vessel, I get to have a vessel to like, let that go. And once I started to find that and feel that and go, wait, so all these emotions that I have right of me, when I allow them to, like, come out of my physical body, but as somebody else, I can actually release some of that.

And wow, that actually affects the people that are watching. They go, wow, I can actually relate to that. Maybe not the circumstance, but she's crying on TV. That makes me feel like, whoa, this is and I was like, starting to put it together in my head through my 20s. Honestly, through my 30s. I'm in my 40s. And I'm still figuring it out.

[10:36] Samantha Dawn Tuozzolo: Thank you for sharing all that, because it all is like, so true, like, how you can use art to heal. It's so important to have that. Absolutely. So when you first started working professionally, you were really young. So it doesn't have to be when you first started. But at some point in your career, is there a situation where that you can share where it was like, a woman supporting woman type of thing, like someone sort of taking you under their wings and showing you the ropes? I always like to ask this question, because I do feel like women get a bad rep for being bitches or whatever, and cutthroat. And so I love to hear the stories. Both things can be true. But I do love to hear the stories of like, women uplifting each other and like, what that might have meant for you or might have looked like for you.

[11:22] Chyler Leigh: You know, a really good example of that for me. Well, I could give two and in more recent years of my life. Because like you said, even when I was auditioning, like a lot and just coming out into the industry, it was like 1999 1998. So it was seventh heaven. It was Oh my god, Dawson's Creek, like all of those shows were out at the same time. So it was like, the competition on the other side of the screen was ferocious. And yeah, girls can say some really awful shit. So I've been I've, I've, but even not just as a teenager, I've seen it like the cattiness is so wild to me. But I went, I did a show called Supergirl. And when I got on that show, first of all, I never in a million years thought that I, after having played, you know, Lexi Gray on Grey's Anatomy, and like all these other characters that had a bit more like quirk to them was like, you know, how on earth am I supposed to make comic book talk sound real, and be like, you know, in the Department of Extra Extra normal operations and like, do all this stuff and, and rappel down helicopters and, and have all these like, huge choreographed, like fight sequences.

I'm just thinking, I'm just me. And, you know, so to step into it was terrifying. And the girl, so I played Supergirl's sister. So Melissa Benoist, she was, she played Supergirl. And, you know, I was I was a few years her senior, but we just kind of were like, okay, we're in this together. This is wild. Like, this is the first time you're working, you know, with an X on a green screen, and that's supposed to be a 40-foot monster. Yeah, I mean, like, you've got it like, it's just the craziest stuff where you feel so silly. Yeah. But she, you know, this was like her first big thing. And so I kind of had every fiber of my being was like, not that she needed it, but to protect her. Yeah. To help her understand and realize like, no, you actually they they're not allowed to come and knock on your door when it's lunchtime.

And you need to rest because you've been here 18 hours. Yeah, they're not allowed to do that. And I would stand outside of her door and say, leave her the fuck alone. The girl eats, let her eat some food, if anything, because people in the industry, they'll take advantage of it. Because no, she's new to the industry, and she doesn't know any better. And she doesn't know any better. And yeah, so it's like, and that's not a ha ha for me. I just think it's really important for, for when we especially as women, men, to be a really great example for a younger man coming up in the world, let alone the industry.

[14:36] Chyler Leigh: That's exceptionally important as well. Like, I feel there's not a lot of that in our industry. And it's important to kind of show why it matters. And so she and I were going through a lot in our own personal lives. And we really got to lean on each other as sisters. I learned from her like her courage and her stamina and her intelligence. Unbelievable. And, you know, so I grew a lot through that experience. And then this last show that I just did, The Way Home, the showrunners and the creator were all women. And I love that. And like it was a mother-daughter team that show ran. And oh, that's no, and it's a generational three-generational show. And just to watch these two women, Alexandra Clark and Heather Conkey, mother-daughter, and they were a force to be reckoned with.

I have never seen preparedness like what they did and how brilliantly they did it. Like, you'd walk into their offices and everything was like mood board. And just you walk into these sets and it was to the salt and pepper shaker. You're just going, that was thought about. Yeah. And you see that. And so as women, and we're all again, like just a bunch of odd ladies that happen to have the great fortune to work together. Yeah. Like really, really shook things up a whole lot, especially for Hallmark because it was a Hallmark show. Yes. And I don't think they really liked it when I said it was the anti-Hallmark show. But, you know, because we just wanted to push the boundaries. And I think sometimes oddities kind of like are important to be able to utilize and push boundaries.

And we did. And the show was phenomenal and I love it. And like that whole experience changed my life, like The Way Home. I love that. And yeah. And here I am at like 44 being able to say that. Right. It's never too late. Yeah. I love that. And shout out to those two women. Like it starts from the top, you know, that everybody always says it, but it's so true because when they put that much care and thought into something, it trickles down to, you know, the background actors, you know, so every single person, it's like if the energy and vibes are good, then the work is going to be good. And everybody's, it's just going to all circle back. Yeah. To making. Yes. So shout out to them and shout out to you too for taking on that role in Supergirl.

You know, that's also really important to know, like, OK, this is a new person in the industry. And if I don't help her, they're going to take advantage. And so 100 percent shout out to you drove me nuts because I also went through that. You know, it's like firsthand experience is such a great opportunity to be able to like share with other people so that they can maybe learn a little bit earlier. It was the same thing on The Way Home because the Sadie Laflamme Snow, she played my daughter in the show Alice. And this was her first big thing. And so, again, like my instincts come out because that's just I'm a protector. It's what I do as a person. I'm a protector. And so, you know, my instinct.

So I but it was really cool to watch her pick up on it so quickly. And I would just be like, oh, wait. And then she'd jump in. I'd be like, you're like, I'm like, but it was so amazing because I got to really watch her, Sadie, like grow up and just know that I was there no matter what. And I got to just see it in now. Now that the younger generations are. I don't know. Like, I don't know if they're just downloading things faster or what it is, but it's going quick. Yeah. And I was like just watching her like soak it up like a sponge. Incredible. And she gets to walk with that from all of the people that worked on that show and the cast, the crew. You're learning what different departments do and why they do it and why it's so important to appreciate and celebrate your crew because people don't do that enough.

And like, so she just we kind of I just kind of got to go like, hey, hey, come on. And that's so cool. Shout out to you and shout out to that show. I was watching it last night. I hadn't seen it, but I was like, let me watch a little bit of this. And now I'm hooked. Can't wait to go back. Yeah, I love it so much. I love that show. So we said like you did start working when you were young. And now here you are teaching the next generations of the way things should be done versus the way you're told. Was there something that you that was instilled upon you from a young age that you had to break like a certain way that you thought you had to be because people in the industry told you that and that you then had to break as you got older and realized like, no, that's not the way it is.

And what was it? I remember seeing. OK, I'm this this might be a little picked and, you know, tethered from something that I saw on the Internet, but it was an interview that I think Elizabeth Olsen did referring to her older sisters that taught her that no is a full sentence. Mm hmm. That I wish I had learned that way earlier than I had to. Yeah. Especially being a young woman in the industry. And when you are a natural born people pleaser and you just want to make sure that everybody else is OK, often to the detriment of yourself, you do get taken advantage of in a lot of things. And so I've witnessed I've been part of I've like suffered at the hands of people that don't take no for an answer.

And then when you're so terrified that you're going to lose your career, that you're going to be bad mouthed, that nobody's going to want to hire you if you say something or any of those kind of things, like sit in your place, do what you're told, wear what you were given and shut up, say your lines, you know, and that kind of stuff. You just go, wow. And so, yeah, I learned a lot of that the hard way. And now with my daughters wanting to be in, you know, like parts of the industry, I push that away selfishly for a very long time just because of my own experiences and what I've seen of other girls my own age at that time. But now it's kind of like inevitable. Yeah. No, fine. I just like wanted to wait.

And this is against no other parent or anybody else who decides like how early their child's going to go into the industry. Circumstances are different in every single household. Right. So there's no judgment there. Just for me, I was like, I want to wait. You know, we've moved around so much because of all the different shows that I've done. And yeah, things have just been it's been a relatively challenging life. And I wanted to kind of get them to a place where they felt a little bit more rooted in who they are before everybody else is going to try and come to change that. Yeah. And how lucky for them that they have you to learn from and your wisdom and your experiences. They're probably like, yeah, like you're so cool.

And like, I have such a great role model of somebody who's done it and went through the bullshit to now say, this is the bullshit that you do not go through. Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. And so I do fear one day when they get on set and I show up. I fear for everybody around them. Not them, but everybody around them. Good. Let them be scared. Let them be scared. About how long into your career do you say that you were in the place to be like, I'm confident enough to say no, I'm confident enough to know that I'm not going to lose my career over fighting for what's right. Like, how long do you think it took? It would have been until I was on like Supergirl. Wow. 30s. Wow. Yeah. And it just really do know that like, young men don't have the same experience.

They're a little bit, they're given a little bit more power to stand in their power and to be confident. I think, you know, it's interesting. I think a yes and a no on that only just because the way that, I think when you have a really good, someone to look up to, right? Or good influence over your life. And like I said earlier, it's like in the industry to have a good male influence in your life is incredibly important. And sometimes in the industry, yeah, kids, people are just walking with such a sense of entitlement. And like everything is owed, you know? And I think in a lot of cases that is guys and it's girls. But I do think ultimately from a power perspective, it's always going to look like women are more easily influenced.

Yeah. From a power perspective. Yeah. Yes. I've seen it. Many times. Okay. So your first like big break that kind of put you on the map was Not Another Teen Movie. Yeah. Yeah. How old were you when you booked that? And do you have a favorite memory from that experience? I was, I think I was 18 when I booked it because I think I celebrated my 19th birthday on set. Yeah. Wow. And I think some of my favorite moments of actually the whole process of the movie was the auditioning with Chris Evans. We were both very unknown. Nobody knew who we were. And we had to go in, I think, I think it was either eight or it was nine times. Whoa. In front of more and more and different and more people to audition to get the film.

And so, and every time we just walk in and we're like, so man, then we leave. We're like, well, here's hoping. Yeah. Yeah. You're like, how many more times are they going to make us come in? Yeah, we did. We would not give up. He's one of the loveliest human beings on the planet. And I haven't seen him since the premiere. Whoa. Like, we just keep missing each other. Yeah. We still catch up every once in a while. It's just like, dude, I was just here for Comic-Con. He's like, dude, I just left. One day, one day, the universe will bring us back together. Dude. He's a wonderful person. Yeah. Yeah. So, so fucking proud of his career and his integrity. Like for you to have a conversation with him, to understand how intelligent and how much integrity that man has is incredible.

Yeah. Yeah. Is that, maybe I'm remembering this story wrong, but is that where you met your husband on the audition for that too? No, it was an audition for a pilot for a show and that was in 99. So that was that time in, that 99 time with the 7th Heaven, Dawson's Creek, all those people. So I met him on an audition for a pilot, but- How fun is that? He posed to me on set of Not Another Teen Movie. Okay. That's where maybe I got the story. It's like there's a little Easter egg on the DVD and whatnot. So yes, he was a part of it. I will, ex-husband. So that was, he was a part of that whole part of it though. Yeah. Got it. I just, so we're kind of like putting the terminology out there. Make sure that the timeline is accurate, people.

Is accurate. Yes. Well, amazing. Congratulations on Not Another Teen Movie. It's just amazing that that really catapulted. And then you shortly went to Grey's Anatomy not too long after, or was it a big chunk? It was. So that would have been, I think I started when I, so I started Grey's Anatomy after my second daughter, when my first daughter was born. So that would have been 2006, 2007. So there was a chunk. And there were little things that I did here and there in between. I did another series called Reunion. And then I did a few things here and there, pretty consistently. But then the biggest thing that I had gotten was obviously was Grey's. And was it offer only? So it was kind of like, it was, it was peak Shondaland's like secrecy.

Yeah. I didn't even know who I was playing. Nobody else in the cast knew who I was playing. Nobody knew I was coming. I didn't know I was going. So I had like, I had worked on this one show and one of the, that ended up getting canceled. But one of the executive producers worked on Grey's Anatomy. And so when they were in season three, and they were coming up with the idea of having a character come in, kind of like drop the bomb on Meredith that she's her sister, just to kind of like add some drama, if you will. Because there wasn't enough already on that show. They needed a little, little sprinkling more. The character was only supposed to be for three episodes. Oh, really? And so they didn't have any size.

They didn't have any auditions. They didn't have anything like that at the time. But Rob Korn, who was one of the executive producers had told Shonda, hey, I know we have this character coming up. I just worked with this girl on the show. She's fantastic. I think you really love her.

[29:43] Chyler Leigh: Out for a minute, so he grew up in Alaska. His mom still lived there. So we went up because we would go fishing, you know, during the summer and we go wintering there or whatever. And so we're like, fuck it. Let's just go. So we went to Alaska with Noah, and Noah was two and a half years old. And I end up while I'm there having Taylin, my older daughter. While we were living that. So then I get this phone call, and then that's when this whole thing kind of like trickle down and my manager was like, Shonda Rhimes would like to have you in just for like a general meet. And I was like, just would like to come down. They have a character that they're thinking about, but they just, you know, blah blah blah, Rob Corn, blah blah blah.

Like they want to see if you'd be willing to come down. It's like, um, when? Like, we're flying. Just like, so I fly down and I go and I have this meeting and it's with Shonda and Betsy Beers. And like we sit and just have a conversation. It's like a 30-minute conversation, right? 30, 45 minutes. I talk a lot, especially when I'm nervous, if you can. Nothing was said at all about the show, about a character, about anything. We literally, they were just like, you're in Alaska. Why are you in Alaska? So I'm just talking about my life and I'm being who I am and I'm being very like, you know, hand-yoozy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, just hand-yoozy is so good. Yeah, it's like just being myself. And I leave and I was like, that was so wild.

And so I'm driving back because I was staying at my manager's just until I left the next day for a flight to go back home to Alaska. And I'm driving back and my manager calls on the way and she's like, you are not gonna fucking believe this. What? She goes, she's like, are you on your way? Like, yes, just okay. I get there and she's like, so I think the meeting went well. And I was like, sweet, like, okay, awesome, right? And she goes, so just literally after you left, they said that they want to bring you on for a very significant character on the show. It's a one, it's the first episode is a guest star, but technically it's gonna be conveyed as a three-episode guest star arc. I said, okay, I'm trying to follow.

It goes, and then after that third episode, you will become a regular character on the show. I was like, I'm sorry? I'd from like a 45-minute meeting and we didn't talk a single thing about, we didn't, we talked some things about the show in general and like whatever, but it was. And then they didn't tell me, so I had to sign an NDA, had to do the whole thing. They didn't tell me until I think like three months later who my character even was. And so when I showed up on set, it was just all said was girl in the bar. I was it. And then, you know, of course then everybody fucking hated me. Like Tyler and Lexi clearly about being there hitting on McDreamy. Yeah, yeah, are not my fault. We knew until it was said in that third episode, I'm your sister, like I'm here.

This is what's happening. And then everybody was like at the end, Sean is like, welcome Tyler, she's our new Lexi Grey. And it was so weird. Did not know how to operate because they already were like this little family for a while. Oh god, it's hard to do to walk on somebody else's show. That was such a hit. Oh, that was like, what do you do? How do you prepare? You just, that was a question I had, like how did you, how did you deal with like walking into this world that was already such a hit and already so established? I just walked in hoping every single day, please God don't fire me is all it like honest to God. I was like, 'cause I didn't really know everything that they had wanted and although there's so many conversations, the pressure of being on that show at that time was like astronomical.

Yeah, but everybody was so like the cast that I had met that I worked with, everybody was so lovely and you know, they were still walking into it on their own as well, right? Because it wasn't until really season two that the show kind of like really blew up because they only did the 12 episodes in season one, right? And then it was a little bit of a sleeper. But then all of a sudden season two comes and it is like, I mean that show, there's nothing, there's nothing like that show on television. I agree. Well, I don't know about anymore because it's like season 47, but like, yeah, I kind of fall after season eight.

[34:47] Chyler Leigh: I mean, Lexi Grey is such a staple in that the whole show in the heart of Grey's Anatomy. Do you have like a favorite episode that Lexi was in or that you filmed as yourself, something that meant a lot to you? To do, I think one of my all-time favorite episodes was the episode with Seth Green where his karate carotid artery bursts and like literally the blood flies all over Lexi and then I've got to hold it down and yeah, I know. We're just sitting there and I had so much fun working with Seth, like he was such a fucking trooper and it was so gnarly, all the blood and like the absurdity of it, I guess in some ways, but he was so cool and so kind and like, you know, because what is Grace known for is, you know, other than having like the most amazing guest appearances that people that come in, right?

It's like he was fantastic. We had so much fun. I still sometimes I'll just randomly see like a screenshot of like one of the behind the scenes of me laughing while holding his neck and his neck being like this big because of the prosthetics and everything in black and you're just like, this is what we do, so fun. It's crazy to be like, oh my god, so fun of a show like that when people are dying and crazy shit. Yeah, I know, but I mean, I guess you have to like find the fun in it. You have to find the moments to laugh. Absolutely, but I'm also like, like an inappropriate laugh disorder kind of person. Like if you don't want me to react, just don't say anything. In a serious circumstance, don't look at me.

Yeah, I'll read your mind and we're in for so that was your favorite episode. What was your favorite part about playing Lexi? She's such an iconic part of that show. I'm so great. I'm so eternally grateful for that and for the trust that they had me to play. Like they told me just to play, you know what I mean? It's like obviously I have to hit the certain parts that are most important to hit, but then you're just like, just have a take for you. Like what do you want to do in this take? So I love exactly what you're saying. Like yes, Lexi was such an iconic, you know, part of the show. I love when I get to hear, you know, young women still saying I went into, you know, nursing school or to be a doctor and you know, I was always passionate about neuroscience and like all these kind of things like and now I, your character, I was relate so much to her.

Yeah, and you know, she gave me the confidence that I needed, the boost that I need. It's like go and stick up and like, and then hear back from those people later down the road going, look I got my degree or I got my certificate or whatever it was, you like that's amazing. I'm so grateful for that because I always do feel like Lexi was like the underdog too. It's just like the underdog gets to win. Yeah, well, sometimes the underdog wins. Yeah, yeah, I was like, yeah, I like that. I loved Lexi. I absolutely loved her. I don't like the deal and in my preparation for this, I started watching your Hallmark show, but then I was like, let me, what even though I've watched Grey's and I'm like, let me watch episode of Grey's and I chose the shooter episode. Like what's wrong with me? Traumatizing episode to watch, but it's like one of the best episodes in TV history in my opinion, those back-to-back like fucking fan.

[38:27] Chyler Leigh: And the gentleman who played the shooter, it's so funny when it kind of like brings you back into reality of the fact that we actually really just do portray characters. Yes, as you see this character who obviously devastated by what happened to his wife, devastated by what happened to his wife. Yes, just goes into that fury, just goes into this complete like out of mind, out of body kind of like sensation and to come in and do what he did. And then the, you know, the director yells cut and he's just like, are you okay? Was that okay? Did I scary? Do you think I did that a little too hard? I'm like, sir, sir. Stop. Stop. It was perfect and I hated it, but you're great. This is perfect. I hate it. It's like, but that is such a great, you know, it's also goes to show people got good chops. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, he was absolutely lovely. Yeah, shout out to him, to him, the actor. Yes, not him that, yep.

[39:28] Chyler Leigh: Yes. So that guy, wait, no, because he used a prop and props boss. I've interviewed a few other people from Shondaland. I interviewed Bellamy Young and Katie Lowe's and so they had like great things to say about Shonda being like a girl's girl and like a woman supporter. So I wonder if you have a story about like Shonda showing up as a girl's girl and how important that is. Like we talked about your Hallmark show, which I keep don't want to butcher their name. Don't wait. Thank you, The Way Home, how it's like, you know, the women run things make a difference. So do you have like a fun Shonda story of like a being a girl's girl that you can share with us? The first time that I realized that, you know, when the lot that we worked on, that Shonda was coming to set and I happened to be walking in and she was pulling up on her hot pink golf cart, it covered like be dazzled.

Yawned. Like I was just like, that's the shit. Yeah, I'm not a pink girl, but I'll tell you what, that's the shit right there. Yeah, and she was always, she always had an open door policy like no matter what and she's like, you know, it was there was never unless she was doing something that was like absolute immediate or a family related kind of thing. You could talk to her at any, any time you wanted and that's never looking at you with like judgment or right bashing our heads. It's just like, okay, let's think about this. And she just, her mind mapping is absolutely, I, I, other than Alex and Heather from The Way Home, I don't know how those minds work. I don't know how they work, but they work and she's, I don't know either.

[41:24] Chyler Leigh: Shout out to the girl bosses, man. It's so important to have absolutely women, you know, supporting women and women who create all of this opportunity also like Shonda Rhimes. Yeah, and Debbie Allen who also on the show. Yes, another absolute icon. And then Chandra Wilson, who's been on the show since episode one, who's one of the most genuinely precious women slash people I've ever met. Like you, you want to talk about sincere, you want to talk about like uplifting and she helped, she helped me a lot with, with, you know, different things like because my, my daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy when I was on the show. Wow. I had so at the end of season five, five, four, three, wait, five, three, two, one, season five is I was, I was pregnant all throughout season five.

Oh, wow, the whole time. So, um, I gave birth to Annie 10 days after we wrapped. Oh, wow. And so, um, I had to go back to work. She was nine, nine weeks old, so almost nine weeks old. So taking her and you know, I was only the second person that had, second woman that had kids yet because I don't think Ellen had her first yet when I had Annie. Now all the plastic and monkey, but point being, um, Shonda was so kind and so like available to talk about a lot of things that were coming up that I just didn't understand and then even, you know, having our Linda Klein, who's our technical advisor, but then also came into directing on the show, wonderful human being, hard as stone when you meet her.

When you get personality, when you break the stone, really like I have a really good gift of reading people. I was like, I got you. No, I see you in there. And do you be able to talk about like what was going on with Annie or even after she was diagnosed? She had her first seizure at nine months old and it was like, and my daughter that was older than her had had two seizures, but that stopped, like that went away when she was three. And so with Annie, it was like, oh my god, she had.

[44:53] Chyler Leigh: It still happens. Like, anytime I've had to go either to the hospital or see someone at the hospital or go to an urgent care or whatever it is, I always walk in there and go, this looks familiar. I did my character research. Thanks, guys.

[45:10] Maggie Therese: I think it's so great, though. It gives you such a false sense of seniority and like, girl, you couldn't do a goddamn paperclip. Like, just chill, okay?

[45:22] Chyler Leigh: That's so good. I'm obsessed with that, though. So how have you navigated motherhood with the entertainment industry? And how have you been able to juggle and do it all?

[45:34] Maggie Therese: I think navigate is a really great way to say it. You know, our industry is an industry of pivoting, much like any sport that requires it as well. The pivot is incredibly, you know, important. And so a big part of it, and also having kids that, you know, are the odd ones out, right? So we had to have them in more like specialized schools, because schools that could work with the ADHD, even with the epilepsy, but the Asperger's, the autism side of it, like that kind of stuff, it was incredibly hard to navigate. And, you know, my ex-husband and I were young. And, you know, when I had my son, I was 21 when I had him. I was 24 when I had Taylin. Then I got on Grey's right after that. When I started filming, Taylin was six months old.

[46:27] Chyler Leigh: Wow.

[46:28] Maggie Therese: And then I was 27 when I had Aniston. And so we've had to navigate a whole lot. And, you know, my ex and I had to just had to try to figure out what piece to be at what time and how that works. And like, in a lot of ways, I was the one consistently working. And so it kind of just creates shifts in dynamics and things, you know, in the home and having sacrifices and whatnot. And that always presents itself as a challenge and whatnot in general, but especially in an industry where the only consistency is inconsistency, right? It's like, I was on Grey's, got off the show when Annie was two. We moved to Nashville, Tennessee. He was working with a friend of his at the time, who was a music director and asked if Nathan wanted to go out and kind of work on some things with him.

We were in just like an absolute shit ball of our lives over here. And then he did. So he flew out and he was like, I think this might be where we need to go. And so this is in 2012. And it turned out that at the Nashville Children's Hospital that's there, their head of pediatric, not neuroscience. Oh, my God, neurology was like one of the best in the country. So in the time that we were trying to still figure out what on earth was going on with Annie, we were like, all right, well, let's make the choice. So we moved to Nashville in 2012, bought a house out there. This is how it's also kind of just real talk, right? Yes. How wild everything has gotten, not only just in the industry, but also in the world.

And this was kind of, I think, right around the time before the big mass exodus out of LA to people that ended up moving into Tennessee, which is quite funny, has kind of cashed in. You're like, I did it first. I did it first, got the house that I'm in right now. Four hundred and ninety five thousand dollars, five acres of land, beautiful land. Like it was it was like, oh, right. Yeah. And then now it's like well over a million. Yeah. And you and you look at the area and you just go like and now even more people are coming out to Nashville. And you know what? Nothing fucking shoots there. You had Nashville the show, right? And then they're doing the Nashville 9-1-1, which Jessica Capshaw is on.

And I'm like, girl, I'm right down the goddamn street. You're like, hi, I'm here. You don't know me, but remember me? Yeah, I am. But just to you know, just to say it's like things are so volatile in no matter like when, where, what part of the industry that you're in. And now I'm trying to go back to like what your question was, because my little brain just like shredded it in a shredder. Navigating the entertainment industry. I just got nervous.

[49:46] Chyler Leigh: Don't be nervous. We're chill. We're cool. We're normal. We're odd women.

[49:50] Maggie Therese: We're odd women. You know, odd women have boob sweat. It's fine.

[49:54] Chyler Leigh: Yes. All women have boob sweat, by the way. Sorry, Alan, but it's the truth.

[49:59] Maggie Therese: Alan, you get it too.

[50:00] Chyler Leigh: Yeah, you have boob sweat.

[50:05] Maggie Therese: You do have boobs.

[50:07] Chyler Leigh: Yeah, it's fine. Yeah, no, that was that was good description. You answered the question. It is about navigating, but what is your advice to working moms, regardless of what industry they're in?

[50:20] Chyler Leigh: The only thing I can say is just, you know, if and however you can build up your support system. It's very, very difficult to go at any of this alone. Again, because oh, and here's my point. So kind of going back to that, I was like, so we bought the house in Nashville. And then I ended up getting Supergirl, which took me back out to California for the first season to film there. And then after we got picked up for the second season, moved us to Vancouver five years. So left L.A. to Tennessee, back to L.A., back to Vancouver. The show ends, Supergirl ends after six years, fly back home. And then shortly after I got The Way Home, which also Vancouver, Toronto, Toronto for four years. And so it's like, you know, you don't you just don't ever know.

Right. You know, and you can't dictate and tell where anything is going to be filming anymore because everything's too fucking expensive. Everything is like incentives aren't incentivizing anymore. And like, you know, I just want to live in Canada.

[51:38] Maggie Therese: Same. I fell in love with Toronto, though.

[51:41] Chyler Leigh: Yeah, Toronto's nice. Vancouver's beautiful, too, though. I had my friend got married in Vancouver. I was like, where actually are we? Yeah. I don't understand how beautiful it is.

[51:46] Maggie Therese: Yeah. I don't understand how we're looking at beautiful, clear water and also mountains at the exact same time.

[51:58] Chyler Leigh: With people actually like kind and, you know, considerate towards you. And then you have the Canadian, you know, standoff, which is, of course, the you go ahead. No, you go ahead. No, thanks. OK, you go ahead. Love it. I love that versus me in New York. I walk out and I see heaps of garbage and everyone's walking past. I love it. I want to trade it for anything.

[52:16] Maggie Therese: There is. Yeah, there is. The vibe in New York, though, is pretty stellar. It really, really is. But in regards to that last question, support is it's the greatest gift that you could give yourself is to find people that like that you can talk to people that you can get your like unload your shit out and like just know that you're in a safe environment. And you know what? For me, talk therapy. I've done many kinds of therapy. And there's that again. This will be the great disclaimer that I'm sure you already know that I'm going to say. It's like if that's what works for you. Right. By all means, go girl, go guy, go person, go get it. Like you got to find what works for you. Right. Yeah. All got to get shit off her chest.

That's no matter what. But to find people that can help keep you kind of real, not check in a way that like, oh, you're getting, you know, too big ahead of yourself. It's like, no, let you let yourself feel that like, yeah, it's okay. Or like, figure out how to let those emotions be tapped into take them away from those memories of specific ones in your brain. Feel them in your little empath heart, your little wellspring, and just good. And then let her go. It's a piece of dialogue.

[53:31] Maggie Therese: Yes, I love that. Thank you. From all the roles you played, which are so many, so many great ones, who has been somebody that has taught you the biggest lesson? And what is the lesson?

[53:46] Chyler Leigh: This last show, The Way Home, my character, we had a strikingly similar, quite cathartic storyline, synchronicities. That's a lot of words. But do you know what I mean?

[54:04] Maggie Therese: I'm following. I think I'm following.

[54:04] Chyler Leigh: Do you follow? Yeah, we know the synchronicities on the show in and of itself, just with, you know, people ending up having family members that were actually real family members that lived in this small town where our family members came from, to like, you know, my character was started going through a divorce, had a teenage daughter estranged from her mother. I haven't spoken to mine in 22, almost 23 now. Like, they were high school sweethearts, and then ended up splitting ways down the road. And like, I know these are just a few of them. But if I were to try to list off all of like these kismet, like 1111s fell into place on a daily basis, I wouldn't have enough space to write it all down.

[54:56] Maggie Therese: Oh, that's amazing.

[54:57] Chyler Leigh: But she, you know, my character was ferocious and fierce about the people that she loved, to, you know, the nth degree, no matter what. Incredibly, genuinely. Well, she was a journalist, I was gonna say investigative, but wants to know the why behind the what, and, you know, on everything, and get to the heart of the matter with the person and help seeing the depth in things. But she also had so much courage to make very big changes in her life later on down the road, and choose what she knew would be best for herself, with her daughter, and kind of start new from a place of, I think I found who I am and who's in there.

[55:54] Maggie Therese: I love that. I actually can't wait to like dive into the show. No pun intended. There's a pond. No pun intended. You'll love it. And I know that I could easily say that, but I love our show.

[56:07] Chyler Leigh: Yeah. I'm so upset. There really should have been a season five.

[56:16] Maggie Therese: Yeah. But as the industry has so often proven itself to be. Sometimes it be like that.

[56:25] Chyler Leigh: Yeah. Kyler, this has been so much fun. I'm gonna get kicked out of the studio soon.

[56:31] Maggie Therese: No, I talk too much. You're on a podcast. That's all we ever want. That's all we ever want. I have so much more I got to talk to you about. So you have to come back and do a follow up.

[56:36] Chyler Leigh: Yeah, we'll do a sequel. I would love that. And you have to let me know when you're in New York. Everybody needs to go see The Lost Boys. We were gushing about it before we recorded.

[56:50] Maggie Therese: Yes, it's so good. And everybody is so good on that stage. But before I let you go, do you have anything you want to say to all the odd woman listening who might be feeling like their insecurities are getting in the way of their dreams or their oddness is holding them back for whatever that means to them? What do you want to say to the odd woman to the odd squad?

[57:15] Chyler Leigh: Oh, the odd squad. I love that. You need to be your whimsical little woo woo self. And you know what? Those factors are always going to come into play. And you're always going to come up against challenges. There's always going to be things that you have to pivot around. So why not wear a really fucking weird ass skirt and pivot around that shit. And just know that no matter what you're going to get to the other side, it just it just might look a little bit different. But that's when we put our weird ass glasses on and we say, you to every every circumstance that comes up that thinks that it can take us down because no, no, yeah, we weren't born this odd to just like, poof, and then be gone. No, no, you got shit to do the odd shit to do. That's it.

[57:59] Maggie Therese: Yes. Thank you so much for joining us. I am so much fun. Thank you so much. Wonderful question. Hi, my odd squad. Thanks so much for tuning in to that episode. I know it was as iconic as I told you it was going to be. So please like subscribe and follow if you haven't already write a review. And don't forget to stay odd my babies.