Ask For Grandpa (with Cait Cortelyou)

If you find yourself going through each day feeling like your country is spitting in your face, you might be an American. Rather than constantly cry over our civil nightmare, we turned to actress, activist, producer, and bubbly smiler Cait Cortelyou. She talks about her film Ask for Jane, based on a true story about a coalition of women who worked in the shadows to help women in Chicago find access to safe abortions in the 1970s.

Thanks to our Amazing Guest:
Cait Cortelyou: Website
Watch Ask for Jane on Amazon, Tubi

Stuff We Talked About:
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Transcript

0:41

Everybody. I'm Brandon Fox with another episode of Grandpa and Chill. I'm here with my incredible co-host as always, Phines, our amazing producer, Sierra, and my grandfather. So today, a very special guest, amazing actor, producer. You say that to all your guests. Yes, I do. You listen to the podcast. It's great. One of the coolest people I know and also a friend. Cait could tell you if you could tell everybody just a little bit about yourself. You want me to tell you a little about myself? Yeah. Tell me specifically about. Sure. Well, I am an actor and recently a filmmaker as well. I started acting when I was a kid, when I was eight, when I fell in love with Shakespeare, which is not something I think is super common for eight year olds to fall in love with and followed that all the way to New York for high school after college. I've been an actor since I was a kid and I was really into theater and I moved to New York thinking I would do Broadway. That was my goal. I wanted to sing on Broadway, and I quickly started swerving away from that and getting really interested in film. So for a long time, I'd known that I wanted to make my own film. Anyone who's listening, who's an actor knows how incredibly hard the industry is, and how much it's sort of luck and waiting around, hoping for an opportunity, hoping for a chance to do your job. And I'd been doing it since I was a child and I was super sick of it. So I knew I wanted to just make my own opportunity. And then simultaneously, too, that my mom was a volunteer for Planned Parenthood. So was my grandmother. And I became and I began volunteering as well in after college because I wanted to do something. Again, I felt like everyone was just posting things on Facebook and sharing links and not actually doing anything. So I started volunteering, and sometime in all of that time I learned about the Jane Collective, which was this group of women in the late 1960s who performed underground illegal, safe abortions before Roe versus Wade was passed. And it felt like everything was suddenly coming together. My work as an artist, my work as an activist. And I was like, I need to tell their story. Like, if I don't know about these women and this thing that happened and I went to an all women's college and the third generation of women in my family to volunteer with Planned Parenthood, if I've never heard of them, how many other people who should haven't? So I sort of felt like no one else was going to do it. So I had to step in and learn how to produce. So I was really learning as they went. I hired someone who knew more than me to learn from. I interviewed a lot of people before setting out on it, and we made an entire feature film called Ask for Jane, and it opened up right before the pandemic in theaters. So that's that's my concise ish journey. Yeah, I. I met you at a Renaissance festival with Carl. And yeah. I remember you guys were just so cool. But also in your tos work is like, very ethereal and, like, magical. Would you agree with that? I don't know. And, ah, what is ethereal and magical? You're acting. You're just the work that you guys do. I don't know. Like the essence that you write? Yeah. I will say, I don't think if you would describe a movie as gritty or something, that's probably not my kind of project. I do like some whimsy and some beauty, and I'm very inspired by I mean, esthetically by nature. So Carl and I actually have a production company together called Sabattus Productions, which is named after this Boy Scout camp where he basically grew up and it's in danger of shutting down because people aren't very into the Boy Scouts anymore. And or Scouts is just called the Scouts now. Anyway, we're just worried about this gorgeous place in the Adirondacks being lost and people not being able to enjoy it anymore. So we named our company after that. Yeah, it's beautiful. I, I think it's really like cool and crazy. We talk all the time about because everybody on the podcast in some form is like an artist here. And we have a lot of guests that talk about like, I don't know, just trying to, to make something happen or produce something and actually create. And I see it all the time, but it's so rare that something gets done. It's like an anomaly, like everybody has a script, everybody has a dream, everybody has a project that, you know, it's on everybody's wish board and habit list. Maybe a handful of people I've ever met on a personal level have accomplished it. So I think that's really cool. And I'm just curious with that. Like Leap was to get something done. Thank you. Yeah, it is a lot harder to make things and to just come up with the ideas for them. I think the biggest thing in this case was just how much bigger it was than me, because it's incredibly hard to make a movie way harder than I knew going into it. I think if I'd known how hard it was, I would have been more frightened. I should have been. But every time it got hard, I would just think about all of these people whose stories I was trying to tell, people. Who. I. I mean, I thought this was going to be a time capsule piece. Honestly, I didn't think it was going to be so relevant when I started making this. It was before Trump was elected even. And I just felt like people should know women's history because it's often swept under the rug and not taught in schools. And now the fact that it is increasingly relevant every day is infuriating. But also I'm glad that it exists. And so because it's so much bigger than me, it wasn't ever really about ego. It was really I think having the cause is the most important thing to actually making it manifest. And that's why so many other people jumped on board and wanted to help to the financers, the actors, I mean everyone, all the actors. And we had name talent. The woman who played my mom, Alison Wright, was nominated for an Emmy while she was in hair and makeup in our set. And they're all working for the same price. They're working for scale because they just believe in this mission. They believe in the story. Oh, man. Cool. There's so much cool stuff. Well, let's talk about since we're on this topic, when you're talking about action and you were sitting when you were watching all this stuff, all the stuff going on and you wanted to do action and how that was a really cool and admirable thing to do. And and you guys answered a lot of the questions I have a first was like, What? What was, uh, what was your way to do action? But it was to be a storyteller, to teach people, to get them to be. But I don't know, I'm just really nerdy. Not about like also the, like. Like the ignorance is bliss and going to a big project, but also going in and with like, it's just egoless and it bringing like and I'm just such a big nerd with community. I love like trying to like this idea of bringing people together. And I think a big part of it is that your ego aside and you just bringing a purpose to it is really cool. So like you answer all my questions, I don't really have anything to do besides just like I'm enjoying the I'm enjoying the conversation. Yeah, well, let's chat. I have a question. So how did you feel? What is the sensation of making a movie celebrating women, fighting for their rights, and then immediately watching that right be taken away again. Makes me feel furious. Like I said, I thought this would be a time capsule piece. And the fact that there are still people asking to screen this movie, the fact that there are so many organizations that can benefit from fundraisers centered around it, I, I, you know, should be like, yay, people are interested in the movie. And I'm not. I'm so and I swear in this show. Oh, for sure, girl, I'm so fucking mad because it's to me, it's a fundamental right to control what happens with your own body. Right now, it feels like lawmakers want to give more rights to corpses than to women and people who can bear children. And it just feels so wrong. And it's like, I don't understand how to explain to you to be empathetic. So it's it's infuriating. I hate it because I. Brandon sent us the link to watch this and I started watching it this afternoon. And I'm like, okay, well, like, you know, you already smacked it out of the park. You could just you could do it, You could do it, you could do a sequel, you could do a reboot. So this is the reboot. Just put it in Texas or Idaho or Utah or Oklahoma or Florida or Nevada or Nebraska. Look. I'm actually talking to a producer based in Spain who I met on LinkedIn. I've been really into me lately. You have a private life and a lot of interesting people. So I met this this producer. He's based in Spain and he works in France and all around Europe. And he loves Ask for Jane and keeps talking about making it into a TV show, making it into an anthology series of some kind, setting it in different, different decades or different places. So we've been noodling over this for a couple of years now. We're talking about another project now, but that's it's on the back burner. Yeah. And there's there's a beautiful movie if you haven't seen it or heard of it, It's called Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always. Oh, I can't think of the filmmaker's name. Eliza. Eliza Hittman. It's. It's exquisite. It's a really good movie, and it's set in present day or pre-COVID. Present day. Mm Does your movie get into the politics involved? I mean, and that's a big part of this issue. It's not as yet. It's, it's based on a true story, which started in 1968 and culminates in 1973 with the passing of Roe versus Wade. So the politics are inherent both because what they're doing is illegal. And it's interesting because the women of the Jane Collective, it wasn't politicized and action that they were doing, it wasn't they were thinking about Democrats or liberals or voting. They were really just seeing a need and stepping in to fill that need. It wasn't really about politics for them. It was just about helping women. But then, of course, once they were eventually found out in 1972, their court case was impacted because their lawyer, who was a woman, which is also interesting for the time, dragged out the case because she heard that something was happening in the Supreme Court. So she just dragged it as long as she could until Roe v Wade passed. And then that affected their case and all their charges were dismissed. How do you how do you feel about the the the church being involved in in this issue? You know, especially I guess the Catholic Church is is anti-abortion. Is that is that brought up in your in your in your movie. Yeah a bit we have we follow a bunch of different women so you get to see a lot of different perspectives, different backgrounds of the women, different reasons for seeking an abortion. I'm smiling when you said that though, because there was a group around operating around the same time, which I think could make another very fascinating movie called The Biological. I mean, I have to look it up and get back to you, do some dramaturgy. But there was a group based in a church that was connecting women to abortion providers because, again, I mean, they were like, it's not specifically in the Bible not to do this. Like these women need help and they're dying because they don't have help. So we're going to help them because that is the Christian thing to do. The and we talked about the movie that you're directing now. Are the theater or not directing? I'm sorry. Oh. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah, I can talk about that. Yeah, it's a play. I'm trying to direct a play this summer in Atlanta. I want it to be a free Shakespeare in the Park experience, which is sort of I mean, if we're trying to tie it in, I think it's tied in with community, because my goal is to make Shakespeare accessible and free and enjoyed by. All right, nice. Yeah. My my question it was a question. I just was wondering if you saw the thing. I think it was Idaho where the Republicans passed a bill where they're trying to make it illegal to even like leave the state and get an abortion elsewhere. It just it feels like the whole situation is like swirling downward at a very rapid pace. And it's so perplexing. Like, what I think is interesting is to try to get at the root of it. Like, why are they so obsessed with this, these lawmakers and these decision makers? Why do they care? Like what is at the root of that? I'm interested in what you all think, because I don't I don't know. I can just speculate. I mean, yes. Probably where they think the voters. I told you all last year when Texas first started this, that they these are slave catcher laws. These are slave catcher laws. When Texas said, oh, by the way, you can't have one, you can't go get one. You can't have anybody help you get one or you're all going to jail. And and there's a snitching bonus you can get if you snitch on someone that's leaving or trying to help someone leave. Those are slave catching laws. You can't restrict someone's travel out of your state. They just pass these. Yeah, they pass these laws and they write these bills for votes just so they can say, Hey, I tried to make your I tried to make your daughters friends and sisters into cattle, but, you know, they also do it just because they can like for there's like weird ass places where there's normal, there's semi-normal places where there's like elected officials that somehow, you know, get paid in our taxes to do these stupid things. Year after year. Like you literally just some people just get paid to sit there and make up stupid bills that they know will never pass. But there's places like Idaho and Montana and Texas and Florida and all of them where there's no one to say, no, stop smoking crack. Of course we can't do that. That's not that's never going to pass. That's never going to hold up. There's no normal person in the room to slap them and say that. So, you know, they just go ahead and pass. There's like there's also like, I think this fear of being like, replaced as the majority in America. And I think that has a lot to do with it also, because there's a lot of white women that have choice now and have options in their lives, which is catastrophic for a lot of men who have never had to bring anything useful to the table. And now women don't have to just accept that they're not bringing anything useful to the table. I think what you said about the slave laws is fascinating. I have I agree. And even a step like beyond that, if I mean, I guess we're all just speculating about abortion this right now. But if if women can't get abortions generally it's people with low income who need them. Right. And who are seeking them. And so often those are the people whose children might end up into the military. Right. Becoming soldiers. So if you're out long abortion and all the places, you're kind of cutting off access soldiers. Yes. In the military, impoverished. When you're poor, you don't have time. You a lot of people who are poor, who are working like literally several jobs don't have time to, you know, read the news and stay up on different things. And those are the people that typically there's a lot of poor people that vote Republican because they either don't know any better or they're stuck in a region where that's the only that's the main group, that's your main demographic is Republicans, people who do know what's going on but don't have your best interest at heart. And the party itself is dwindling in numbers like year after year, like. Because most of them are. Old, even in spite of gerrymandering and all that stuff, you know. So it's really interesting, like making sure that you can't have access to an abortion in like places that are solely like Republican, you know? Well, Donald Trump packed packed the Supreme Court. That's the problem. Mm. Uh, we live in the yeah, I piggyback off of a lot of what Sierra with saying that to me. It just definitely seems like this all seems like power. Like, uh, like an addiction to power. That's where the whole capitalism and patriarchy from, like, in, like, what remains of this, um, the inability once you have so much power, like they know life is so easy. And as people get more access to things and, and, you know, just the killing, the power, they just don't run with it. It also reminds me like that I was like the Audre Lorde essay of a mantra, like, a lot of men in general just are like, we're just not very capable of doing a lot of things without women are just in the community in general, but we cling to thinking we can do it all like we're God or something. And we consciously or unconsciously, I think that our society does whatever we can to try to keep that comfortable power there, you know, And and I think that's what's going on, in my opinion. Um hum. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of laws and mismatches stuff, all the other stuff in Vogue and all that. But for the most part it seems like this power that people are men in general. Maybe. I mean, I think it's also when I was so I was an escort at Planned Parenthood, which meant I was the one bringing women in pass to protesters, which even in New York City there were protesters. So basically just trying to shield them, like act as a human shield and get them into the clinic so they get help. And it was always the worst when there were women protesters there, too, because when it was a a man, male presenting person, it was really easy to dismiss them, be like, oh, they just don't understand. They're not you know, they can't even ever have children themselves. But when it was a woman, it got a lot murkier and weirder and it was like a woman talking to another woman. And so I think it's important to think about like like, yes, maybe sometimes it is about power and it's like an insidious thing. But also sometimes it's people really thinking that it's wrong. And I'm just I'm so interested in like, looking at both sides as fully as I can to understand something instead of just assuming like, I don't I don't think Democrats have everything together either, you know, like if, if anything, I'm a moderate. But, um, like, I think both political parties have a lot of problems to contend with and the factions, you know. So. Yeah. I mean, I mean, you know, there are people who are against it because they think it really is murder. Yeah, that's true. Oh, you're very right in not to try to make it so one sided and be like it's just men looking for power. Because I know there's some more caveats in between it. Um, so, yeah, I, I, I glad that you actually had that on. Appreciate that. Wasn't afraid to go on as well. Um is also. I have more on that. Oh no, no, no, no. I'm sorry. No we can it's good because this is it. Like talking about it. Talking about is the key. Like, even. Even if, like, cause I don't always think, like, um. I don't think they'll think power is such a bad thing. I just think that unconscious amount of trying to get it or trying to like it, once you're so used to having it, you know, it's a clinging to it sometimes happens. I think that people are unconscious of are conscious of sometimes and and they'll find ways to justify it, but they'll say, I'm sorry. I was just going to go on with the topic, which I'm really interested. Yeah. Just because I I've gotten a lot of questions from working on this project about how do you feel about like being a female producer or how, how difficult is for women in the industry? And it's it's a weird question because I feel like I've had a lot of advantages just because of the fact that I happen to be a woman like I I've gone to festivals that I wouldn't have been considered for because I'm a woman. I flew to China Master class and it was because I was a woman and I'm interested in getting to a place where it's just the fact that you produced a movie that people really like and are interested in, and not the fact that you were also a woman and simultaneously, you know, I understand why because the balance has been so distorted for so and the entirety of history. Right. But I also think it's dangerous for the pendulum to swing all the way in the other direction, because that's not what we want either. We don't want women to only be in charge. We don't want to be putting men down all the time. And I don't want men to be growing up and just hearing the girl Power boys suck because that's not good either. Like men are also people. The pendulum shouldn't be here. The pendulum ideally should be in the middle where we're all respecting each other as human beings. And it doesn't really matter what happens between your legs because gender is a construct that yeah. It AlphaGo that's no, I feel like I feel like it reminds me of Sidney Poitier saying like, you know, I don't want to just be a black actor the best. Like I want to be just the best actor. And as an artist, I'd be feeling a lot like I don't I will be damned to at least personally, I don't like the idea of holding like a title plus black. Ah, plus black male or plus whatever, whatever label people have labeled me as. Because you're right, it is all labels at the end of the day. And if you made a piece of art, if you made anything, if you said anything, or if you feel an emotion, it should be respected as what it is. You know, no matter what you are as a being or like you say, between your legs or whatever, you know. Yeah, I remember of my former roommate is a beautiful Shakespeare actor and he got so excited because he was invited to do this Shakespeare teaching thing with kids. And it was a bunch of really talented actors. And he got there and he's so excited and like proud that he was chosen for this program and he gets there and the woman in charge is like, Oh great, I'm so happy you're here. It's so nice to have an actor of color here. And he's like, Oh, I thought you just won because I'm a good actor, not because I'm not white. Like, it made him feel disappointed and like, like he deserved it less somehow. And it sucks. That shouldn't. Happen. Yeah. When when if you want to get really cool and into this, like, when do you do you think that will ever get to a point where we'll be able to be like, hey, you just you just doing good for no label, Just like, hey, this is the person that wrote a good poem and it hit me. Do you think it'll always be like this is the first cyborg, bisexual, three legged person, you know, or whatever? Are we going to keep doing that? Because they're going to be an ongoing thing. Yeah, right. I think it's interesting to how, like when that does happen, it's like when you are when you are like singled out for your gender or your race or something like that, that you end up internalizing that instead of the other way around. Like, oh, like it's so glad to have like a person of color here. And I'm, you know, your thought process shouldn't be like, Oh, well, they just want me here because, you know, I'm black or whatever. It should be like, no one else is black here. Where is everybody? Like, what do you mean, What do you mean? It's Neither am I the only one here. Why is that? How strange. Right? Like, Well, what do you mean? Like, because where is this? Like, Excuse me, This is New York. What do you mean. No? I'm the only one you can find. Where are you looking? I, I think that's interesting that, you know, we have, like, the habit to internalize that as. As women or of people of color. And I was living in Atlanta, and I happened to be at a supermarket that was right across the street, almost next door to an abortion clinic. And it was blown up during the time that I was there, right while I was at the store. In fact, they had two bombs go off and it blew up and then bombs. The police started walking towards it. It blew up again was another bomb that went off actually a long time ago. But I, I lived there and and I probably lived right down the street from where you're living now. The way you described your neighborhood, Kate. I forgot to. Refer to it later. Yeah. My Planned Parenthood caught on fire a couple. Oh, no, no. Oh, my God. Well, not caught on fire. It was set on fire. Well. There's, like, a certain amount of hypocrisy with the anti-choice movement. They're very confused. Yeah, Yeah. I mean, first of all, perpetrating acts of violence against abortion providers. They're just making more violence happening. If you believe. I'm so pro-life, I kill doctors, I kill people. And of course. Set it on fire. Nonsense. Once the babies are born, too, and the lack of health. That is. Not a damn thing. Not doing a damn thing. I'm I'm curious what you think. Kind of like a lot of Planned Parenthood get protested and they have no abortion services whatsoever. They're literally just for both women and men's health. And they. Screening. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Embarrassing. Not even doing the research. Where were the people? Okay, Sarah. They did it at night, I think. But the Planned Parenthood, I don't even know if it's open yet. Oh, wow. But they had to, like, it's destroyed. Like, it's not like burned to the ground, but it's like, it's fucked up. They had to re they have to rebuild it. They were close for at least a month or two. Why don't you see if it's okay? Where are you, Sierra? I'm in central Illinois. And said, You say you witnessed what happened, The. Bombing. I was? Yeah, right there. One. Oh, wow. I saw it happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did people die? You know, I don't recall. It's a long time ago, but off the subject, I lived on like seventh or eighth Street down in Midtown, which I think it's close to where you're at. Yeah. Yeah. Now, I don't. I don't recall. I just recall the explosion. And then I remember the authorities moving in towards the building and another explosion. Oh, wow. And a second explosion. Yeah, it was. It was. I'm trying to describe the neighborhood. It was. It was just. Just north of the perimeter off of Roswell Road, if you know where that's at. Mm. Wow. Where that became. Apprehended. I don't know the answer to that idiot. I don't know. But I'm going back. I'm going back now. It's got to be. It's when I first started the Office Depot and it's got to be because that store that I was in became an Office Depot store. And it's got to be like 20 years ago or more about 20 years ago, I was probably more than that. When I was escorting. We were all with what was happening and we we weren't allowed to accept any gifts that people would give us, which like somebody came and brought us breakfast sandwiches once and we were like, We can't take these. And they got mad about it. And we're like, We don't know. Like, we can't be certain that you're on this side of the are, I'm sorry, poisonous or something. I know that people. Were. Like. There was one time there was like a priest and he had holy water and he was like honest and on the building. And we had to like, tell security because they were like, What if it's acid? You don't know. You can have people from things that you were so they were weird shifts. This terrify that this terrify the women that you were escorting. Like, did it make it that much harder? Yeah. And I mean, a lot of times they would be yelling, just yelling in their faces as they would go in or physically try to, like, walk us or get in our way. It was weird. Wow. Some weird years. Were you like trying to console, to console the women or would you have conversations that. Usually we didn't really talk very much. We were really just helping them get inside or if they were sort of waylaid and had, you know, like anti-choice literature that they're trying to fight, we would sort of we wouldn't interrupt conversations. That's not what we were there for, but we would sort of hover nearby and we would look for the scared eyes. So if if we if the woman looked up and looked around, like looking for help and assistance, that's when we would come up and be like, Oh, are you looking for the clinic? I can help you in. But otherwise, if they're actually just chatting, then I mean, we're going to let them chat. We're we're just volunteers like, you know, have a conversation. We're just here to help. Cait. The play that you're directing now, am I correct? You're directing a play? I did. Did I understand you to say that you're going to you're going to have it shown in a park that I understand that is a Piedmont Park you're talking about. Yes, it is. Yeah. Piedmont Park. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Mm hmm. You know, you might try the Fox Theater, too. I don't know if they're still around, but. They're sort of in a way. Is there any relation here? Well. No, there's grandpa. But not to Brandon. No, no, no, no. It just coincidental working there. If there is, that's very cool. They used to be. They used to be a customer of mine. I sold pretzels and they would buy pretzels from me. So that that's why I'm aware of it. But yeah, so when you go into the park to, to perform your play, do you, do you have any kind of police backup or anything in case there's any kind of issues. Well the play is just Shakespeare, so I don't think it'll be very confusing. Shakespeare. Okay, It's not okay. I know. It's. Not. Shouldn't be a problem. I don't think so. We're going to do it on the Clair Murdoch. It will be beautiful. Okay. Yeah, it's it's. It's funny. This is sort of going back to the community thing because I feel like since moving to Atlanta, I've been really excited about building communities. So there's this Shakespeare in the Park because I want to just access the community. Apparently there used to be a Shakespeare festival in Atlanta. You guys knew about this. It ran for decades and then it finally shuttered in 2014 because they couldn't afford it anymore. And since then, nothing has really stepped in to fill that gap. So that's what I'm trying to do here. And then Brandon knows I, I do community events in my neighborhood, like my apartment complex. They'll do events to foster community and have people actually meet their neighbors. We do three events a month, and I'm also leading a group on Friday nights at the Alliance Theater for just artist and Open Artist Workshop. It's free because I said, I don't want any actors to feel any artists to feel like they have to be turned away because they can't afford it. It's been there and it sucks. There's just three open artist workshops. Brandon You got to new one. That's it's well, I went to that one not that long. Ago and even though. I was, Oh gee, I want to go. I just got back. Um, yeah. No, I mean, Alliance is like literally the premiere theater in Georgia, so that's crazy. But how did you make that happen? Well, I was running it when you came across Key, which was really fun and cool, and then they closed good. Margarita's Yeah, which was terrible. And I didn't even know. I just came back from winter break and it was dirty work. And so then I reached out to the Alliance Theater and I was like, Hey, I have this group. They're really great and we're looking for space now. We just lost our home. I wondered if you might have a rehearsal studio that we could use something like that. And also, I don't want to pay you any money. And I'm. Like, That's exactly what we've been looking for. Come right over, I'll give you a tour. And that's that's really how it happened. They've been really welcoming. They they are excited about any way that they can drive community and engagement and show that they're not just this, you know, shining city on a hill that's unattainable like they are accessible and they want you to come. Wow. Were you able to maintain community with like, all the ask for Jane family? No, we haven't really been as much in touch, actually. And I would like to be was never reunion or something where we need. Yeah film is weird I feel like it's like so intense and then you never see any. That's true. I mean, same with the plays. Sometimes when you're doing a play, it's like this cast is your family and you were in the trenches for five weeks and then it's over and then maybe you never talk again, but maybe you do. Like, I definitely have lasting effects from playing. Yeah, my friend Melody is one of my best ones. Met through her Andre and the. Do they have a read? Do they have a Renaissance festival in Atlanta? I don't recall. Yeah, that's where Brandon and I first met. Because it sounds it sounds like the type of production that you're doing could work at the Renaissance Festival, possibly. So, Grandpa, I'm actually working with my partner Carl, who Brandon also knows we all played Andy together. Carl and I are working on a workplace comedy pilot that's set at a Renaissance fair. Wow. Okay, great. I feel I feel like I can say it because we've copyrighted the script now, so. Oh. Yeah, this kind of goes to Segway to the question I've been sitting off a little bit, which is like for a lay person, what is the difference between like film and theater and like not just acting in it, but more? I guess I'm thinking of more to producing and directing side of it for you. I mean, the biggest difference is longevity, I would say, because theater and that's sort of why I wanted to direct a play this summer, because I have all these film projects and they just take so long. But sometimes it feels like it will never happen. They are going to happen, but it takes a long time. And I I've been craving a little more instant gratification, which is why I wanted to make a play where I plan it and then we rehearse it and then we do it and then it's over. Where is film? I mean, the fundraising lasts forever. The preproduction, you know, is at least a month, and then you're making the thing and then there's post and then there's festivals and marketing and it just goes on and on and on. So longevity is part of it in terms of the actual nuts and bolts, I mean, it's getting into lots of logistical territory, but for a film you need different things on different days, the locations are going to be different, the props are going to be different. The you know, there's going to be a lot of differences, probably. I mean, unless you're shooting in one room for the entire movie. But like we had lots of locations for us for James versus a play. I feel like all the resources that you need, you assemble them all and then you're just doing the same thing that night. Right there, right now. It's just structurally. Totally. What a great answer. Brandon, would you agree? Yeah. The very different night and day. I hate one and love the other, but. This. Do you do you love it more or less than when you started. The same? Mm. Yeah. I always loved it so frickin much. And I still do. There's nothing else in the whole world that I would want to do. And. And yeah, people are like, Oh, wow, It must be so hard to be an actor. It must be so hard to be an artist. And I feel like, yes, But also for me, it's harder to not do the thing that I love. It's harder. We're all a little crazy, definitely. So we have this thing. Well, I know Brandon gave up a higher income with another career to do acting. He wanted to stay in acting, so. Yeah, me too. I guess I was. Looking at this fund for a. While. Wow. At a hedge fund. Okay. Mm hmm. Yeah, it was a big number, but. I won't be keeping. Every beekeeper because that would be very. Rare to did. Yeah, I am a I'm a certified major. Okay. And that's that. That's not what I was thinking of. I was thinking of more like something with. With computers. Well, you gave up a high career to fucking make pretzels, Grandpa, didn't you? Were they really good at you? Fucking You were. You were. A pat. Yeah. They broke. Oh, come on. Yeah. I was written up in Atlanta. Was having the best hot dogs in tech. Oh, yeah. I made. Yeah. I'm kidding. Grampa is like a genius inventor. You made the pretzel. Come on. I mean. Jimmy Neutron is based off of Grandpa Bart. Well. I think my genius can't be attested to by my by my income, that's for sure. Usually never is. Um. Yeah. Grandpa, I want to hear more from you. I haven't never met you before either. Where do you live? Can I ask this? You think I live? I live right out almost on the borderline of Philadelphia and what's called Montgomery County, right outside of Philadelphia. I live right on the border, and I have lived in Atlanta. Never expected to come back to the area I'm in right now. But my mother developed, dementia and I came back to help with her situation and got involved in babysitting and remarried. And I'm living like one block from one of the homes that I grew up there. And I never expected to come back to Philadelphia. So you don't know what's going to happen in life. You know, there's some strange twists. Did you figure out what was happening with the water? Well, they say it's not a problem where we're at. It's like more towards the northeast section of of the city. But so far, they're saying that it's not an issue right now. I don't don't trust them, Grandpa. I do not drink that. Fuck. I saw. I woke up and I looked on my phone and I saw like on Reddit, it was like, oh, a giant chemical leak in Philadelphia. They're telling the residents the residents, not to drink the water. And I was like, And I immediately was like, texted the group chat. I was like, Ah, papa, don't drink the water. Well, before before I knew. What about the issue with the water? I was in the supermarket the other day and I see people leaving with carts full of huge amounts of water. I had no idea what's going on here, you know. But I yeah, it's like when the cigaret companies tell you they're good fair the great good doc doctor approved. Yeah you thin and strong and looking good. The water is safe the water's clean. Drink, drink the water. Told women like keep smoking. It'll make you look better. I improved everything and before that they were, like, eating red on their faces, weren't they? Yeah. Radium girls, the ones they're, like, in their homes and, well, in a factory. They're like, Oh, yeah, keep doing help with it. God being being in hell. I'm curious, like the from your work, what the most positive aspects or the most impactful moments have been like where you want to go from here? Basically in hell. I'm thinking about all kinds of hell quote Hell is empty and all the devils are here. I'm literally there you last. Night, 12th Night, that that's the toughest impactful moments from ask Bourdain You're asking about. I would say a lot of it was in the screenings and the response to those. I still remember a woman who came to one of the screenings with her daughter. And her daughter was probably a teenager at that point, a young teenager. And she came up to me after and she was like, I had an abortion when I was her age, your daughter's age. And I had a I struggled to talk about this with my daughter. And this movie helped me explain or like women in talkbacks who would raise their hand and freely talk about their own experience with their abortion. All of these stories, it was like it was holding space for women to talk about them and to feel like they were in a place where they could talk. Because I think part of that is how heavily stigmatized it is. And just having that that window, that open in a way that to point to the screen and say, oh, it was like that. That's what it was like the the service in that I think has been one of the more impactful and exciting parts. And also it's it's been a great tool for fundraising for groups like the National Institute for Reproductive Rights, for Planned Parenthood. We even did a screening for independent abortion providers here in Atlanta. So that's also been impactful and exciting. And in terms of what I want to do next, I'm actually working on another. I have obviously a lot of irons in various fires, but I'm working a pilot with a friend who is based in New York who wrote an amazing script that I'm obsessed with and have been for years. So she and I have been talking about making it about a woman who goes back to her Catholic high school to teach sex ed, and it's set in the nineties. So for me, what I want to talk about next, but I want to do a project on next is something that talks about comprehensive sexual health education at age appropriate levels. It's something I feel super passionate about. I think it's one step before abortion access. I think that it's something that everybody should be able to get behind. So that's that's what I'm excited about next. Wow. Is going to went to I don't know if I can say this on your podcast told me she went to a school where they taught abstinence only here in Georgia. It's just appalling that people still do that when all of the evidence shows how detrimental it is in every way. They don't care. I did. They don't care. It's so big. And and in Illinois, you in Illinois, you don't have to teach sex ed, but you do have to teach HIV prevention. So I had a day where I had to go to the auditorium and have a grown man tell me like, okay, listen, I'm supposed to tell you in faith, Like, I was supposed to tell you that condoms will help keep you safe from HIV, but condoms don't work. The Lord works. Get out of your kid. Oh, wow. Just still. Oh, my God. That's what I'm saying. You know, that's why I don't have a lot of sympathy for, like, these. All of these different weak links. It's like it's all rooted in this deliberate misinformation, which, like. Like what is the reason? Like, what is the reason other than to hurt someone with the misinformation, the Lord, and to maintain control? It drives me crazy because at the root of Christianity or I think probably every religion it seems like is just like empathy, love for your neighbors, understanding, helping those in need, and all of these things that people are doing that are explicitly against the beliefs that they say that they out, you know. No, no. It's like it's like 40% control, 60% suffering. And that's Catholicism and Illinois Catholicism. We think there's wealth distribution, too. Yeah. Yes. Because like all these very fancy houses, so many of them are like we're a Christian household. And I'm like, are you helping your neighbors or are you adding another wing to your house? And that's hilarious. You know what I mean? And when your child does get pregnant or get someone pregnant, are you going to are you going to set up a nursery or are they going away for the summer? MM. So even then. What kind of a Christian are. You. Yeah. And even if they were to stay there, they're all like, Oh, I'm so what I preach, I'm helping my neighbor, their neighbor. It's kind of like, it's like some of this thing because, you know, you're helping your neighbor, you're helping your, your neighbor is saying a job at your firm, you know, is that I don't know how much of that. I don't know. I don't know. But you know. Your neighbor. Yeah. Help my neighbor, Not your neighbor, you know? Yeah. Yeah. No, me. I'm trying to be in love with everything. I'm like, There's got to be a way. Like, I agree with, like, the root of our religion seem very similar. So I'm thinking, like, we need to follow this thread from the from the most far left or far right or whatever it is, and find out where to start it like separate. And when did I start? Like when people start saying so differently, you know, like I'm very interested in understanding what the what is the role like, like when the people like say, hey, I'm not going to teach you. Like, when is it when did people decide like, hey, we should all not teach kids about sex at all? Like, you know, I just don't know. I'm just interested in seeing, like, what it is because I am pretty empathetic in the sense I'm like, it's got to be some justification for this. I know you ain't just straight up like evil. Um, I know, I know. You know what it is, Phines. I don't. I know what it is. I think it's a lack of critical, but I think it's the fact that people are very critical. No, they're very critical thoughts. They were. They're very critical patriarchal thoughts. You know, when I'm I mean, like critical thinking. I mean, like being able to hear another point of view and turn it over in your mind and understand it and figure out where people are coming from and allow others to change your minds. I think that's what we're lacking in society and that's where the disintegration is happening, is the lack of critical thinking. I think the I think the critical thinking is there. And then right before you hit that, that moment, the the the intrusive thought that sneaks in, that says right before I get the point, is the point going to diminish the amount of power that I hold and this. Selfish, the greediness. The selfishness, the intrusive thought of selfishness is just right there in the way of getting. Back to the power thing. And maybe it's because you weren't me. All right, I'm. Go ahead, please. Because these women that can't get abortions, these children that can't get abortions, you know, where are they supposed to go? They're either going to stay at home where they're being controlled. They're going to get married off somewhere because we still have a bunch of states that allow child marriage. They're going to get wet off somewhere where they will still be controlled because now they don't have a full education and they don't have any life experience besides being shuffled from your home to some, you know, man's house, basically, that's your life now. That's the way it was. It's there's a there's a movement to bring that very short shelf life of women's experiences back into our society. And I mean, maybe part of the problem is that, you know, humans weren't evolved to be in such big cities, right? We're still contending with like how rapidly we've grown and resources and how to allocate them. And we're just animals at the end of the day and we can't really figure out how to exist in this way. This isn't really how we're meant to live. Yeah. Um, going even back to thinking more about this empathy thing, like, I'm not trying get too tied up in this, but how far is your empathy supposed to be spread out like, of like you're saying, since we're animals and we're all like, you know, were we supposed to have it? Was I supposed to see so much Internet with everybody struggling so hard or whatever? What, all this? And I don't know. Yeah, I don't know because I, of course, want to be empathetic to everyone around me. But another part of me going like, this is too many people maybe to see stay close to my community here. But then that's where we get into these vicious cycles of like, you know, us versus them. It's it's tough. This stuff. It is it is interesting to think about like another way of living where we reallocate all these large cities and like, have a more even spread of smaller like villages and communities around the world and what that would look like and what that would do. I think it's a hypothetical. I don't know how you would ever actually make that happen, but it's an interesting thought experiment. Well, it sounds like we're we're talking in kind of a broader, more nebulous way about a lot of things, not just the abortion issue. And you may have seen on the news recently where women and other countries, primarily Arab countries, are fighting not to have to to be able to show their hair. Have you have you noticed that there's been several articles because the the powers to be in those countries don't allow them to to have their hair out in the open? And so I see people in our country who put on the same kind of garb and yet I guess they do it willingly or for whatever reason. And yet these people in other countries are being arrested and and put in prison and beat up and that and all types of issues just for wanting to be able to to to be free to show their hair. And I think the freedom of choice, I think the freedom lies in them being able to choose whether or not they want to wear it. They can if they choose to, if that modesty feels good and they then they can. And if they don't wish to, they also can. And there are no repercussions either direction. Yeah, but isn't everyone, in a sense indoctrinated to what they believe? You know, we all kind of indoctrinated. You know, if you're taught that as a child and you don't know any. Different, I mean, you can be indoctrinated. I mean, you got to hurt somebody for what someone else believes in. I can be indoctrinated to feel any type of way. Does that mean I need to Look, you're young while I'm doing so. Yeah, but I also think, you know, you can break out of indoctrination. And I'm always fascinated by people who were raised one way. I'm thinking about a college boyfriend who was raised in a very, very conservative town, a place where kids in the high schools would walk around here in the Bible with their schoolbooks. This is like the cool thing to do. And so he would carry around Darwin's evolution species. That's what he would carry around pointedly instead of a Bible and the way that he broke out of that indoctrination. And like, I think that that's where you start to get the freethinkers, even if you're indoctrinated into something that many people think is good, I think it's still important to step back and think for yourself and reexamine everything and figure out what feels right. And yeah. Well, I guess I guess my point about people in this country wearing the garb how much of it is influenced possibly and I'm talking about the women, how much of it is influenced by their husbands? Mm hmm. Yeah, they heard it. They heard the question. Grandpa was a. Speech writer, mostly. Um, yeah, I think some of it's culture, some of this choice, you know? But yeah. It is stressful. Yeah, I think that the important thing is maybe on a federal state city, you know, like a government level separating the sort of religious doctrine nation from sort of like how everybody wants to live their lives. Yeah. It's so funny that we say that we have this separation between church and state. You can't you can't really know. Yeah, that's one big one. Sure. I mean, there's a lot of big lives we're living, but that was a huge one. I was like, Wow. Like, it's like in the first, second the pledge or something like. I mean, that's. Yeah. And. Mm hmm. That's like one of the big talking points are arguments for a lot of policy in the fucking. I don't even know about any other days of rest besides Sunday until I was way grown. And then if someone was to tell me, Oh, you know what? Today is your Saturday. You said you should feel I'd be like, That sounds ludicrous. Um, because I've been a doctor, made it into the Christian means. Like, you know, what was been going on that Sunday is my and I'm sure a lot of people even know I don't follow Christianity. So yeah, there's no way that there is if there were definitely we're definitely drinking the Christian Kool-Aid here, at least in America. Oh, I'm sort of thinking back to what you said earlier about will we ever get to a place where it doesn't matter like like it's not brought up the fact that you're black or the fact that you're a woman or the fact that you're whatever. It's just about the art that you made. You know, if we'll ever get to that place. And it just makes me think about celebrating where you come from, too, and also celebrating the differences and things that make you uniquely you. And I'm not sure where the. Yeah, it's so funny. Mine is. Yeah, I love it. You know. It's an interesting. Question. I mean, it gets really gets like. That's one thing. Go ahead. See, I don't know, I just about to go down further because the technology and internet has added even another layer because you have an avatar, you know, Internet presence now. So now we muddy it up forever because I can be a blue turtle as my avatar for the long as I want. And who's to say that I'm not that blue turtle? I mean, it gets really cool. Uh, I, I like it. I'm down. And that might be the answer to things that might take us away from being so. So butthurt all the time about people being different. But who knows? Maybe it makes it worse. I don't know. Um, but I guess I'm down to clown since I'm living here and still. Oh, hell, I love it here or here. Yeah. What do you think the world's going to look like in, like, 50, 100 years? Better or worse or not here at all. With no tale of Noah's Ark. As long as we're not separating church and state. You're familiar with that? Just water as far as the eye can see. No. Yeah. I don't know what we'll look. Like in 50. Years. You feel worried about the planet? No. It took to bed. Birds, so literally every. It's so scary now. Every time, like, my. My mom will turn on the 530 news every single evening and every single evening. It's like 40% just severe weather stories and new places where they're not equipped to handle them. It's so stressful. And like you were, Bill Nye was telling me about this when I was seven and you bozos didn't do a damn thing. Like all of these social issues that I care about so much. None of them matter if we ruin the entire planet, none of them literally. The planet is the most important issue. It's so. Stressful. Yeah. That's like. Why? I don't know if I want to have kids because I don't know. Well, I'm not going to be. But I could. Never. I never. Want that. Literally could never. We live in how we live in hell. Like, you know, And that's why they're making this this way. They're making people have kids. Oh, wait, Phines is here and not here with New Phines. Oh. Aha. I wonder if Phines will be able to see himself. All right. Oh, Oh, no. Fall down. But no, like kids. But no, like that's why they're making it. People have kids. That's why they keep making it. That's why they're making us have kids. It's because no one wants to, because we can't afford anything. I bought three things at the store. I bought what did I buy? I bought a jug. I bought a gallon of water, I bought tissue and I bought rice. And it was 30 something. It was like almost 20 or $30. You know, everything is expensive. The planet is dying. The Americano for the. Lingerie isn't going to be livable soon. Yeah, they're turning back. They're about they're going to there's going to be a challenge to interracial marriage in the next five or ten years. That's what they've promised was who was it? One of the dummies? It's like, I think it was Alito, it was Alito or someone on the Supreme Court when they when they when they turned over Roe v Wade. One of them was in there. And comments like what, in their opinion, was like, yeah, this is going to be great. I can't wait we should do we should do gay marriage next, interracial marriage like we should just get all of I want to see all this go that's living. Hell slogan Make America Great Again literally means like for the 1950s, like, that'll. Even be right. With it. Let's do. That's when it was great for them. Going right back to when ask for Jane starts. Said I. Want to go right back to this moment like who would want to have a child? I can't imagine. Not me, I guess just just not being you. You remember when Roe v Wade initially happened, Grandpa, were you around? I probably was, but I wasn't really into it. And really I wasn't really into politics at all at that time. And so taking it with. I was oblivious to what was going on. You know, we in fact, when I when I moved to Atlanta, I don't know how many years ago, it must have been 40 years ago, I met a young lady there and she started talking to me about Ted Turner. And Ted Turner was from Atlanta, and he was very liberal. I have the foggiest idea who she was talking about and what liberal even meant. So that's where my head was. It must be nice, my man. Grandpa. Grandpa, do you have a bird? I have three of them. Do you need a bird? He had four. I saw him walking around on the top of the door and I was like. Oh yeah. Girl, is it? What is happening? There's no one. One of them has eaten away part of my wall so that my wife isn't embarrassed to have anybody into our place anymore because it's. It's a disaster. I let them fly free during the day and then try to get them in the cage at night. And they've taken out part of a wall, like about a foot and a half wide. And from the ceiling to the floor, they've cut the wires to the air conditioning and the heating units. And two different rooms. It's it's a problem. If they. Ever have birds again. But I'm I'm attached to them now, so, you know. No, that's that's Rosie and the on the door. And if you see the what is it the poster for our podcast for our show. It's Rosie like setting fire to the moon or something. Metal. Oh, my God. I didn't know that part of the story that they're there in the vents. Yeah, Cutting off the. Cutting the power. Yeah, I just cut. And I just got a message from the condominium building that I live in that. They can replace the the heaters. There's two of them out heater air conditioners for $4,000 each. Yeah, whatever. Who had the, who had the bird connect. Was it, was it Victor or, uh, someone had a bird connect for us. A bird connect. I'm not. Understand. Oh, Victor, Was it an auto or. He probably. Man, I can't. How many? What's the total number of guests do you think we've had? It was fine. I can look, I have, um. I made graphics for all of. We used to do it. We used to do five or six an episode. We to get through. That's a lot of voices. It's hard to have an internet conversation. Different. Yeah. All right. No, no, no. One at. A time. So the. Season one. We would cycle them. And incidentally, I was in Piedmont Park many years ago, and I heard an owl hooting and I hooting back and it came that swiped came down and bought me in the head twice. Cursed. Probably thought you're smarter. I had it in my head twice. I have. I have a super unrelated question on the on the podcast. I was listening to the death Dula the recent episode, and I heard y'all talk about Grandpa as the Silent Generation, which isn't actually a term that I was familiar with. Why? Why is that? You you are not a silent man and I'm happy that you are not. Are you addressing your question to me or anyone? I guess I have no idea why that why I never heard that that terminology before. No meaning there, that description. I don't know. Well, you're. You're not a boomer, right? You too. Your daughters are. Probably. Yeah. Why are you called? I don't know. I. I think. Damn, this says you're characterized as thrifty, respectful, unassuming and loyal. A traditionalist. You desire to work within the system rather than to change it. Hmm. Mm. How do you feel about how different the current like, how do you feel about. I don't know, like kids nowadays? Grandpa? I think it's like it always was. There's a lot of great kids and there's just average kids and there's some that are, you know, problem, you know. Spoken like I don't in general. I can't really. And where do we fall? Where do we fall on that list? Grandpa, you guys are terrific. I mean, you're you're industrious, productive, and I assume stay out of trouble. So, you know. I mean, I'm interested in just like the time from when I was a kid until, like. Now. I think the quarter. Is that just me, guys, Your cord might be loose or something, but it's like robotic sounding robotic. Okay, Now. No. How am I doing now? Good. Better? Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. All right, guys, let's get to the time. We always do. Last thoughts on this show. Um, Sierra, what's your last k? Your. You're a gem. You're a gem. I'm one of them. I'm a Try to keep going. Keep it positive. I'm going to keep it positive. And I'm going to try. I'm going to keep it positive and just say that wonderful discussion. Glad that you were able to come and join us. Everyone should go watch. Ask Jane with a present mindset, not a past mindset. If you're even allow notes, keep it positive and. It's. I think I've already named two different episodes. We live in hell, but maybe the third time's a charm. I don't know what this episode is going to be called. Just do. 47. But yeah, for sure. Like literally go see, ask, go watch, ask for Jane, go rent it streaming something, turn it twisted, pop it was very, very good, very informative. Just very fun. You get to see Cait’s beautiful face performing her her buns off. Very, very good job, Grandpa. Well, Cait, you have a lovely smile and. And you're very smart and I think you're going to have a lot of success with, you know, doing what you're doing with the abortion issue. So good luck with you know, with your career finance. It's a pleasure having you. Thank you for being on the show. I thank yeah. Thank you for just saying everything with your with just your fool. Like I feel I can feel it, which is great. Good to have the energy here because it makes a difference for everybody listening and just the conversation going and keep connecting. And thank you and I appreciate you being here, helping us be able to do that. Cait, All of the closing. Thoughts were just such nice things about me as a guest, and I'm so honored to be here. I felt quite nervous, actually, because I knew Brandon wanted to talk about ask for Jane. And I am an artist, you know, I'm not an expert on abortion access. There are so many people who know so much more than me, people who work at clinics, people who are medical practitioners, people who are in politics. So I sometimes get nervous for things like this because. I don't want to be an expert. I am aware of how much I don't know and how much I don't even know. I don't know. But I thought this was a really lively and exciting conversation about all kinds of things today, and I'm glad we got to talk about abortion. Access is one of many things and I appreciate you all and what you're doing makes. I was a little nervous, too, because because first you always do really cool, amazing work and things, but more so just like the experience of having someone from like my normal life coming to the like we have Sonny Come on sometimes. But he was here in the early days, so he, like, knows what this is about. I'm like, Oh my God, like, what is the show? And I'm like, Oh God, I hope the Oh, she likes it and the flows, all that kind of stuff. But I thought it was a really great episode. You're an incredible guest. As for Jane, I think everybody should watch it. And right before you on it, you and I were talking and Sierra was like, Oh yeah. And Cait was just so fucking good in the movie. Like, as in so just one of three three. That. Thank you. And thanks for the nice words about the movies. I think you're right. It's a lot for me. Yeah, I loved it. Cool. So where can people find your stuff find the movie socials, all that stuff. Finding me. You're going to have to figure out how to spell my name first. So that's a doozy. But it's Cait Cortelyou, on everything. Cait Cortelyou on Instagram, Facebook, my email. Now everyone has it. Ask for Jane you can find on Tubi. Where else is streaming on Google Play, Amazon YouTube. What bunch of places to be is a good one to be is free. So I recommend you just head out there and watch Ask for Jane. And enjoy. Awesome. And I'll see you at Dungeons and Dragons Sunday. Till next time folks. Enjoy Spider. Empire and Chill. We are fighting giant spiders on the sun, so yeah. And it's nice to be back on with all you guys. Can I. Yeah. Stay with.