Kat Dennings

I'll never leave your good bad. I'll stay the night and one night we came to a dream. It's the kids are not all right, but that's okay, because no one here is. Take me. Hello and welcome to another week of Teen Beat. I'm Danielle Fischel, podcaster, TV director, celebrity ballroom dancer, mother of two, and one half of Corey and Topanga.com. A website made by ABC when I was 18 years old for viewers to RSVP to my fictional televised wedding. And in addition to the website, my entire teenage existence from 12 to 19 years old unfolded in front of a live studio audience and millions of viewers at home. Whether it was my first kiss or my first haircut, pop culture saw it all. So now, 30 years later, it's time to turn the tables. My goal here on Teen Beat is to sit down with interesting people who have accomplished interesting things. In hopes that learning about their un-televised upbringing will help us understand who they've become. Since their journey through puberty wasn't detailed in issues of TV guide, the least they can do is share it with me now. I gave you my childhood. It's time we hear yours. And this week, I think I found the perfect guest. Like those little gold necklaces that say your name in cursive, she was first seen on Sex in the City. But since that debut, this youngest of five children has never stopped working. Whether it was a scene stealing turn in the 40-year-old Virgin or the charming rom-com lead in Nick and Nora's infinite playlist, she quickly became the actress everyone noticed. So Hollywood responded. She'd appear on TV sets for six seasons as Max Black on the hit CBS sitcom Two Brokeryles. Then, thanks to the Thor movies in WandaVision, she became my favorite part of the Marvel Universe only behind Baby Groot. Shoutouts to Baby Groot. Throw in the house bunny, doll face, big mouth, and her current gig, starring alongside the grunting genius of Tim Allen on ABC's Shifting Gears. A show that just returned to its second season and features more cars than all of the fast and furious movies combined. And you've got a bona fide star. Sure, she is effortlessly cool and has the complexion of an 18th century portrait of a nepot baby. But I have the feeling that deep down somewhere inside is a cringe-friendly teenager ready to break out and reminisce. Please welcome to the podcast. One of my absolute favorite human beings, because keep in mind, Baby Groot is an alien tree, cat dennings. Wow. I, when I die, will you please you'll drive me? I will, I will, but I hope I die before you. No, I refuse. Wow, thank you. That made me feel very accomplished. You are, you are spectacular. And when we first worked together, I had the honor of directing an episode of Shifting Gears during the first season. And I literally came home to my husband and thought, it's going to be awkward to tell him that I have fallen in love with cat dennings. It's just, it's going to be awkward. I'm not going to be, and I felt so, like, scary. I was like, no, you don't understand. I want to be her friend for life. Like, I just, I want to spend all my time with her. And then at some point during the week, I just told you that story. And you were like, I had the same conversation with my husband. I, the love was instant love. There are multiple soulmates in this world. Uh-huh. You are one of them for me. Okay. Like what? You're, you, for those listening and watching, you know Danielle already, but the light and the beauty emanating from this moment. Oh my gosh. When you stand in forever, it is crazy. You're so, I mean, you're more than just beautiful, but like the beauty is annoyingly intense. It's so unfair. Oh my gosh. Look who's talking. No, seriously. Lovely. Yes. And may I say what a director? What a director you are. Thank you. You obviously grew up doing multi-cam, but not everyone absorbs. Yeah. And not everybody can take like the best version of multi-cam and execute it like that. You're just, you're wonderful. You're wonderful director. You're wonderful person. Gorgeous. It's very unfair. Very. Listen, I feel all those exact same ways about you, except you are also an incredibly talented actor. And I don't have that. You, I mean, I want you. No, I really don't. You think. No, I'm not. This isn't about me, but I know you are everyone. By the way, everyone coming into the show, coming into direct shifting gears. Literally every person on set says, oh, just wait till you meet Kat. Oh boy. And, and just says everyone feels about you the way I feel about you. So it's not shocking that I feel this way about you. You're just you're a remarkable human being. And it's one of the main reasons why I wanted to sit down here. And one of the main reasons why I created this podcast so that we could hang out. Good. Okay. I'll create any podcast you want to hang out with you. We need to just get lunch. I mean, I know that would be nice. We, we, it's, this is how Hollywood is both. I know. You meet someone you, you, you really want to hang out and then life jobs, this, that, or in my case, you get the flu and bronchitis. 50 times. Exactly. Okay, but I'm going to be hanging out with you and get prepared yourself. Okay. I'm prepared. We also, we both love bread too. So we did talk about having a pajama bread. She's, uh, hang out. You know what never gave me food poisoning bread. No, exactly. Thank you. You're right. Let us. Okay. I want to talk about the fact that you are the baby of five kids. Yeah. This must come with its own set of, uh, make creating personality traits and hang ups. What is the best thing and what is the worst thing about being the youngest of five? Well, the interesting situation with my siblings is that both my parents were married before they got together. So there is a big age gap between me and my siblings. And my dad was 18 years older than my mom. Okay. So, stand up. Um, my oldest sister, Claudia, is in her 60s. Oh, okay. So she, so my older siblings are in their 50s and early 60s. So you're talking 20 to 30 plus year age difference. Yes. So I really grew up just me and my older brother Jeff was seven years older. We share the same two parents. It's confusing. But so my older siblings were more of like aunts and uncle vibes because they were so much older. Um, and so I saw them a lot, but not like in growing up in the same house. So I really never felt like I was the youngest of five in the way that maybe someone would think in the same house and their siblings. That makes sense. So it's probably probably wasn't as easy to get away with things. I was imagining five children under one roof and you being the youngest and by the time the parents get to you, they're just exhausted. Oh, well, that was true. That was true. Okay. They, once I came along, you know, my brother's seven years older than me. So he's seven and out comes this little girl who's a nightmare. And like from what I have been told and what I remember, I was a real tough baby. Like really? Yeah. So, you know, you think, oh, we've done this a lot of times before. We've got a lot of kids in our life. I'm sure this one will be great. No. I mean, I didn't sleep through the night till I was very old. Okay. I couldn't eat solid food. I, my, my soft head thing. What is it? A fontanelle? Yeah. Lapsed. Emergency. I got like the flu as an infant. My head collapsed inward and I almost died. I find dies. I'm fine. So like there was a lot of like baby drama. Never slept. Had a nurse all the time. Couldn't eat food. Just nightmare person. Oh, goodness. Yeah. And my mom said she was nauseous and barfing every single day of her pregnancy. And she could only eat vanilla hagan daz ice cream, which the joke is that this is why I look like this. That's where you got that gorgeous porcelain skin. It's actually hagan daz ice cream. Because both my parents are very dark. Really? And brown eyes, like black hair, both of them. Very awkward. Like I don't know. No one knows what happened, but it could be the ice cream. Could be the ice cream. My mom also ate a lot of ice cream when she was pregnant with me. She used to, she would eat the only thing she could stomach was, or mel chili from the can and ice and ice cream. So she would eat like family size, or mel chili. And then two giant scoops of ice cream that she would walk to the pharmacy to get out. All the protein is why her hair is so good. There you go. That's probably what it is. That's probably. Okay. What were you, when did you kind of grow out? What did you say? When did you grow out of being maybe a troublesome baby? Oh, maybe in my 20s? Yeah, I really like absorbed all of the attention and resources for my parents until I was in my 12th. Really, till I moved out. I'm really serious. I was a mess. My brother then became like a super intellectual and went to like an Ivy League college went to brown university. And like is a very smart person. And I'm like the dumb one who like got all the attention. It's true. It's just a fact. Like I just think about it. For him also. But, but yeah, I really like. Hocked out knowing that I wanted to do whatever it was that like movies are. Yeah. Like wanted to be in that. How did you know? Did you watch a lot of movies as a young kid? Well, the weird thing is I was not allowed to watch TV unless it was like PBS. So it was like Sherry Lewis and Plankton. Yeah. Sustained tree to wherever. But like, and then we could rent movies from the library back then kids. Let me tell you about a library. Yeah, you could rent films. Really weird, weird old strange films that I was like obsessed with these random things. And whatever it was, like, I thought about this a lot because I've seen this with like my little nieces and nephews and stuff. It's like that natural thing for babies and children to want to imagine. Yes. Like make believe in dream and things like that. And I think I just wanted to. I wanted to live in that. Because that was like. And then a movie was like the ultimate make believe dreamy thing that I was like, I don't know what this is, but I got to. I got to do it. I'm not sure why it happens so young, but I was like, this is it. You just know you felt a calling. Yeah. Well, I want to get to the fact that you were somehow able to convince your family to move to Hollywood. I want to get to that and how that what magic you used in order to do that. But before we do, I want to talk about that you grew up like we all did in a historically protected house constructed in 1695 rural Pennsylvania. Of course. If I had a penny for every time I've heard that. Can you tell our listeners a little something about pen cottage? Oh my god. I would love to. First of all, it was haunted as is anything else in the way it was so haunted. It's a beautiful it still is there today because it's it's not legal to ever demolish it. Yeah. A protected home. I love it. The historical society because I remember that we we moved in and it's just a very lovely old home. But in on the east coast, it's not very it's not like a big deal to live in an old house. You don't know. Right. But there is a stone carved thing that says like 1695 or 90 whatever insane. You're that could be on it and every year the historical society would do a tour through the house. So but I we lived there. So I'd be like eating my like Barbara's flakes or whatever. And reading Calvin and hops and inward come like 15 little old ladies like with pamphlets like what like looking at our house like as if it were like. Look at this relic. Yeah. So they did that every year and and it was just hilarious and you know it the walls were like five feet thick these stones like they don't make them like that anymore. Nope. And it was it was haunted. It was haunted. There were the classics like you know lights turning on and off. Um doors opening and closing. Did you see the door open and closer to hear it? No, I saw that shit. There were like places on the stairs that were ice cold. There were I of course lived in the attic. As if the old man and all these movies I mean I don't know if there's an attic at home, but there's all these movies there's an attic for a reason. Yeah, like heat the ghost rise to the top. Wait, you were like Lydia Deets. Yes, like a real life Lydia Deets. Yeah. I will listen. Now I did find a photo. You can tell me when the right time to show this photo was any time that it encapsulates my awkward teen. Please let's see it. I was like, I'm not sure. Now I lived in the attic. And it was very creepy, but speaking of teen beat. Yeah. Every time I go to New York for an audition, I would go to the. What's it called Hudson news? What I have Hudson news. Pick up a teen beat. Tiger beat. Most of what she were in. I would tear out the Jonathan Taylor Thomas's and I would tear out the Hansons. And I would paper my room with these things. You're attic. Yeah. This is my room. And this is me. Oh, my goodness. Perhaps you see the Hanson standoff. I sure do. My standee, yeah. I wouldn't say I'm good. I wouldn't say I'm goodies. Perhaps the children don't know what that is, but I know you do. Of course I do. And. And I can send you a better res photo of this. Yeah. So we will need to post that. And I went there and they have like CDs on that thing and I was like, hey, listen. Were you? What happens to the standee when you're done? They were like, I don't know. I was like, I am going to need it. And they were like, I ain't. And I got. Did they just give it to you? Or did they charge you for it? No, they gave it to me. I think they took pity on me. Or they were scared, which I wouldn't understand. And they were like, I need to take this Hansen. Stand into my attic. I don't know how I got to this, but. From the house, but yeah. So I made this terrifying haunted house my own. Let's just say that. How did you then end up in a Hansen music video later on? And what? What? What must have that been like for your little brain in your heart? To this day, it is probably my best, my biggest accomplishment in my career. And I'm not joking. Right. Right. It's a, that's a true statement for you. This is called manifestation folks. Yep. You're right. You were doing the secret before anyone had heard of the secret. Secretting that shit since I was held. What is this 11? Yeah. I don't know. Okay. I was. Interesting before Pinterest. I was. Vision boarding my life. It's my ceiling size is on my ceiling. I love that. I love that. So look, I don't know how this happened, but once Twitter, RIP, came along. You could follow these people that you. Never could have access to. I mean, this is good and bad as we know that's very bad. But you could, you suddenly you could have access to the thoughts of these people. So of course I followed the Hansen. Black and Isaac or whoever was on her. And I think I had been quite vocal ever since I was doing interviews about how much I loved dancing. Okay. I still love. Listen, they're great. Yes, they are. Oh, it looks. So I had been vocal about how much I loved them many times and I think two broke girls was was popular or something at that time. So they they they saw something about it. And I straight up got a got a DM. Yes. Taylor Hanson. And he was like, hey, you ever get I was like, yeah. I'll do it for I will pay you. Yeah. Yeah. I will do the neat thing you want. I will clear the calendar. I will do whatever. Yes. So I got to be in a Hanson music video with my friend Nikki Rean. And um, it was one of the best days of my life. It was so surreal. It was it was so surreal. And I know that you know this. But like when you're a teen, I'm just gonna say girls. I don't know what it's like to not be that. Yeah. Like your obsessions are so important. Yes. Like my love for Hanson at that time was was so like important to me. And it they were a part of my daily existence in a really pure precious like sweet way where yes. You know, so as an adult, you kind of like you're bringing finally like closes up or whatever. Yeah. Like being insane. Right. Or maybe not. In my case, less a little less demented. Not not completely. But like, I don't have obsessions and I don't feel the obsession that I did as a young kid. Yeah. But something like opened up in that day where I was fully able to like close the circle and like recognize how like magical and and crazy it was that like this person got to like be in that music video with them. That's just, it's just nuts. And the fact that I'm sitting here talking to you is also crazy because I watch Boy Me's World religiously. I mean, it was it's just so weird how these things happen. I mean, it's just it's it's weird. Do you think I'm thinking back to your the haunted house and you talked about the fact that the ghosts were you saw you saw doors opening and closing and you were up in the attic and they rise. Do you think that do you have like like a guardian angel ghost who helped you manifest all of your dreams? Oh my god. That's so interesting. I wonder. I mean, I felt like specifically and this is very woo woo everyone. But yeah, in that attic, I felt very much like there was a little boy living up there. And I know it sounds creepy, but it wasn't. It was like a sweet thing because I was a little kid and I felt like there was somebody my agent there because I had all my toys and stuff and I would see I don't know. Lock me up. Copey in the padded room. Nope. I would see like I had a dollhouse and I would see like out of my peripheral like somebody kneeling like looking into it like playing with it. Yeah. And it didn't feel creepy. It didn't feel like scared. But you weren't scared. You were just like, oh, there's someone looking in the dollhouse. Yeah. So I felt like the presence of this little boy up there at all times. I don't know what that means. But at a house that old lots of people died. Yeah. So it was just a sweet thing and I always I think I named him. I don't remember what it was, but it was just like that was like a constant presence. How? Yeah. Exactly. So I don't know that would be very that would be so I mean, what if it was like Ralph? My ghost Ralph like, yeah. Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, have you ever now here's I sorry, this is a two woo woo for everyone. Then you can just go listen to another podcast, but I love this stuff. You was his name, Ralph? No. Okay. I thought I was wrong. Okay. Have you ever felt his presence ever again since after leaving the house? Did you ever feel anything like his presence again? No, I still have very much like the the house was contained in itself when we left. I did, however, I did feel when we were moving out or when we were leaving because my mom would leave to go to LA for my work and come back. And one of the last times we left, I felt I felt aggression towards me for leaving. And maybe I'm reading into it, but like little kids are really tuned into young people are tuned into like the veil or whatever. Uh huh. And so I felt like there was anger at me for like leaving for longer. Right. Yeah, I don't unfortunately like I missed that house it's a wonderful house. And I my brother and his now wife, my sister and I, when I love, they went to look at it and found out that it is now a an Airbnb. Really? So you too can experience the hauntings. I don't know if it's still as I looked it up, but they put and stayed in it, Daniel. And what did they think? hated it left in the middle of the night. Really? Left under cover of darkness. They were so and they were staying in the attic. This is so funny. They were staying in the attic. No Tino shade about the person who owns the house now. But like they were so creeped out and the feeling was so weird in there that they were like not allowed. Look at how they love it in the middle of the night. So that house, if it came on the market, would you buy it and go and think about living there? Yeah. I would feel very much like I could heal. I could heal. Yes. That's what I'm saying. I think I think that aggression you felt that last one of the last times you left was probably what your brother and sister in law were feeling which is like not it's not you. It's not you. Where is she? Where is she? She was my friend. Yeah. I mean, listen, I sound like an insane person and I probably am so it's why. But anyone who's like, I mean, I feel like a lot of people have felt something weird. It's still thing. Yes. Just that. It's just that expanded, you know, who knows? Totally. Were friends ever afraid to sleep over? No, I didn't tell them. I mean, I don't know how those sleepovers were reading, sleep it all. The lights were on blazing like, yeah, playing Dino, like three in the morning. Of course. Dino. Yes. Let's talk about Little Cat. Did you have any kid hobbies? Oh my god. Yes. Well, did you ever read? I feel like we're very close in age and we're very similar. So did you ever read Harry at the spy? Yes. And all the Nancy Drew books, which is probably a little too old for you. No, no, no. I'm here to my sister's whole Nancy Drew's. I heard in my hands. Yes. So, absolutely. So when I read Harry at the spy, I became obsessed with notebooks. Yeah. Obsessed. And now still am. This is my office, but it's beautiful. I don't have any work to do. But like, I have like notebooks. And I still like every day I come in here and I just know that book. That was a get down. I write in my little notebook and I I hope no one ever sees them. They're pathetic. I'm like, today, I don't know. Hey, bye. But that's like my diary from being a kid. I first of all felt like I had to everyone started with a deer diary. Like just the more you, how are you? Sorry, it's been so long since I've written. Who? Who? What? What is that? Your anthropomorphizing, your feeling, Gil, it's so it can go there. It can go too far. Yeah. And then it would just be like a real quick recap of like, oh, I got to fight with Jamie. Sorry. I know. Welcome to welcome to a don't like kids. So I love that you that. I love to like, you know, I mean, look, I we grew up without the internet. Yep. And it was a beautiful experience. I mean, I was born with anxiety. So to me, it was also like, well, what is how am I here? It's going to know where I am. How am I going to know? What are you going to think? Yeah, I was going to like, I didn't like that there was no like, obsessed. So like, when cell phones and deepers and whatever happened, I was happy about that. But without the internet, I would, you know, go outside. Oh, here's something I like to do. What a weird kid. You know how cicadas. Oh gosh, where is this going? Well, cicadas shed their skins. Uh huh. And they leave these translucent. Did you collect cicada skins? Well, one of my favorite things to do. We'll say get the cicada skin and attach them to my hair and body and scare my mom. Oh my gosh. That's hilarious. What's wrong with me? I don't know, but it's the plot to silence of the lambs. So I'm saying I would do that. I would, um, there was a platform next to the garage that I would do stand up for the ferns. I mean, I would do like a tight 10. A tight 10 for the ferns. Man, do you have any of that on video? No. Yeah, of course. I don't. But video camera's back then were like this big. Yeah, I would hang out with the neighbors cat all day. I was home school. I was, you know, yeah, there's we could, we could, we could diagnose me easily from this podcast. But, you know, I, I was, I started acting young. Yeah. And it was just my life. It was my life. And I was, I was a not cool. I was not pretty. Co-ocording to the industry. I had, you know, I was an awkward kid who was very, very confident. I love that. Very absurdly confident in myself. And I think that is part of why things worked out in the way that they did. Mm hmm. If someone was like, she's not pretty enough like a year. Yeah. Yeah. You obviously don't have eyes. Yeah. I would like what it? Yeah. I mean, I boy, I love that. I think, I think that is just generally the way every kid should be raised. And, and feeling every kid should have is like, if you don't like something about me, that's a you problem. That's your fault. Has nothing to do with me. Yeah. And, and I, so therefore, don't need to know that opinion. Keep it to yourself. Thank you very much. Really? Like my, my mom, I mean, and my dad, I mean, they thought I was great. And I know not that is not everybody's experience. And some people have a real tough parental situation. And it will affect you for the rest of your life, which is what therapy and the air is worth. Yes. But my mom thought I was, does still does? Thought I was the best. Yeah. The most talented kid in the world, the cutest kid in the world. She told me she was like, you're so beautiful. You're so special. You're so smart. They don't know what they're talking about. I'm like, yeah, they and I, and I, and it really worked. But it worked. Right. Like I really felt, I felt like I was awesome. And, and, and they didn't know what they were talking about. And I think it's funny to think about like a tiny little girl with like enormous buck teeth and like huge frizzy hair like her mindy, like real deal. Her mind. Yeah. My teeth were huge. Just on just the front ones. And my hair was huge. And I wore like my brothers clothes. We didn't have any money. So I wore like thrift store stuff. And my brothers, I'd be cool now. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Thrift store stuff and recycling and vintage is very cool. Where your parents good juggling homeschooling. This is a true story. I can barely handle my first graders homework. They're doing new math now. And there's things called like factor families. And I, I, I'm an awe of homeschool parents. No, no, my dad had a job. So he wasn't, he wasn't involved. Okay. He was a scientist. So he had like curing cancer to worry about. My goodness. My mom tried, I mean, I went to a program like twice a week for homeschooled kids, which was actually fantastic. It still exists. It's called open connections. Or that now it's called couple of academy. And it's in Pennsylvania. It was wonderful. It was run by my parents friends. It sounds, it sounds a little colty. Uh-huh. Okay. But it was just, it was like Montessori for homeschool kids. It was like on their beautiful property. They were like sort of like teachers there to supervise. And it was just like open play. And like it was great. It really was fantastic. And there was a wonderful dog there named biscuit. Oh, biscuit. Um, it was just a nice environment. And it was helpful for kids who like didn't, didn't like, or couldn't really function. Like I, I tried to go to school. And I couldn't. I don't know what's wrong with me. When you, you tried to go to like a regular school, traditional school, I wanted to go to school in my like preteen time. Like I wanted to school experience. And I struggle with the structure. I mean, surprise. I struggle with the for me. Okay. Okay. And it's haunted me my whole life. But yeah, I mean, I had a time where I wanted to do that. But the homeschooling thing was, was great. And the program was good. But when it came to like, okay, now you're going to do math and English and history and this and that. Yeah. My mom tried with me for a long time. And it just, there was a point where I was like, listen, lady, get out of the room. I got the textbooks. I have the thing. Yeah. Let's say you have our relationship. Yeah. Cause you, I mean, I'm on 39 with my four year old five rule. How did she see six? Why six year old? Nice is like blah, blah, blah, blah. This is what I'm learning at school. What? She said, I don't know what you what's going on. I have a bearer the other day. She was like, it's Kappa Barra. Okay. I say, I have a six and a half year old. And he comes home with his homework. And I'm trying to help him with it. And I'm like, I cannot, I thought I had many more years before I felt like the homework was a problem for me. I don't know how, how you do it. Yeah. It's the kids on, well, little bear it on shifting gears. You play as my daughter who's not to pull anymore. Bear in our goal is wonderful. She was telling me about what she was doing in school. She was like, I just feel like I'm not going to use any of this when I grow up. Like, you're not. I'm you're, I know. I mean, you should pay attention because it's a word, but I was like, I don't remember anything. No. And that's why the school you were talking about where it was like open play. And even the idea that you had a problem with authority, like, I love that your parents, you know, it's basically raised you instead of being like, this is how you raised children. Like children are, they have different ways of expressing. They have different ways of learning. And yeah, if you had spent years forcing yourself to every day, go to traditional schooling, following the same structure, there's not a soul who meets you and thinks, what an uneducated lady you are. Like, right into my parents, they worked with with me. And my mom was a stay-at-home mom. So it was like, I think if they both worked, it wouldn't have been possible. Yeah, what do you do? So she could stay home with me and indulge my every with or whatever. But like, I learned then to love reading because I wasn't forced. Yeah. To me, and nothing against school, I really think like school is amazing for lots of like personalities really thrive. Now was an adult, I liked structure a lot. Yeah, when I was a kid, I was, it was just not, I couldn't learn that way. It was too hard for me. And I think my mom, my mom was a speech therapist and worked with kids. And I think she also knew that I just wouldn't do well. Yeah. And I would suffer mentally. Yeah, he was absolutely right. So credit to her for that. But I did learn then to love, I loved math. I felt like I was good at math. I loved math. I went past the graduate level in math before I like after I needed to. I just went past it. Yeah. And I just loved reading. I loved Shakespeare. I loved under Allan Poe and I could like pursue those interests. Yeah. You know, so that was nice. So it did cultivate like a lot of passion for me. Even though you were homeschooled, was there ever a time where you were boy crazy? Oh, other than the Hanson and Jonathan Taylor, Thomas, I was. And by the way, readers, readers, did he official be my dreams come true on the shifting gears? Set because Jonathan Taylor, Thomas came to visit you. He did. Well, yeah, he came to visit me. And of course, it helped that Tim was there. But it was another like closed circle thing, which was so crazy. Yeah. So I was insane, boy crazy. So just to the point where it was really embarrassing. Like I kept so many notebooks and I read them. I'm like, good, Lord, what is wrong with you? Do all of them end with like PS. I love whoever you loved at that time. That's how I live. This is this. This is that. Yeah. So embarrassing. I mean, I was like the kid who I waited in line at like Macy's for like three hours to do a meet and greet with one of the guys from Roswell. And he was lovely. Good. Good. Redden Fair. I don't know where he is now. I haven't checked in. I'm sure he's doing great. I don't know. But I waited in line at that store to meet him. And I got a picture with him. And I blew it up. Did you know that you can blow photos up to be like four by two feet? I didn't know. I found out. And that's what I did. And I hung it in my room. Was it in the attic? Oh my gosh. Redden Fair haunted the attic along with the actual ghost. Poor guy. Do you remember who your first in real life crash was? I sure do. And you know what? We are friends on Instagram. To the lady. And I will be okay with me shouting about. Oh, he's he's we're. Listen, this is a child thing. I think that we were both like four. His name was Paul is his life. Paul. I won't say it's not saying for his privacy. Yeah. Um, he works in fashion. Now he's married to a beautiful woman who's a lawyer who's like very smart. And he turned out I still have like a little jewelry box he gave me for my birthday. Our moms were friends we took French class together. And my mom told me later that Paul was a prince in Thailand. What? So my first love was a prince. Wow. His palace. Paul's mom is from Thailand. And apparently she's a princess. She's royalty there. So I had no idea. I mean this kid was the key. He was so sweet and so cute. And we love each other so much. And I the biggest crush on him. And he grew up to be a very handsome man who works in fashion. And he's lovely. I love that. I love that. My first crush. My first crush and I are also friends on Instagram. And his name was Eric. And Eric was the cutest boy I had ever seen in my entire life. And he had he had kind of like Zach Morris hair before there was ever before Zach Morris existed. You have the highlights. The blonde. He had blonde hair that was like in a wave in the front. It was very popular in 1986. And oh my gosh. It was beautiful. And my mom came to school one day to help with like you know, it was around Valentine's Day. And they were asking for parent volunteers to help pass out the Valentine's. And so my mom knew that I had this crush on Eric. And one of her responsibilities in the classroom was to take photos. And so I told her before she came. I was like just please get a picture of Eric alone because I wanted to print it out and put it in a frame in my room. And then I remember my mom like I have very few memories of being this young. But the memory I have of watching her go to take the photo of him. And you know that feeling when you're like everyone knows it's too obvious. I like may I caused a huge see. I was like mom. And she like turned and looked at me like what? And I was like I mean you over a year. And she was like but I'm and I was like no one was suspecting of anything. She was just walking around taking pictures. But I was so worried that he was going to know that she was like my personal paparato that it panicked me. But she ended up getting one. And when she printed the photo out I used to walk home from school. And she taped it to the door that led into the house so that the minute I arrived at the door his picture was on the door. And I had a white ceramic heart picture frame at his little face fit in. Oh my god. And years I mean this is Jensen and I are married and somehow it comes up like our first crushes. And I say oh mine was Eric and I go I wonder what he's up to now. And I find him on Instagram. And he was in a speedo with his husband at burning man. And I was like oh and so then I reached out to my mom and I said mom I found Eric on Instagram and he's married to a man. And my home said of course yes that was very obvious. And then we went to go see pop patrol Jensen and I with our kids. And Eric was the choreographer of pop patrol live. And we ran into him with his husband and we got to reunite and we followed each other. And now we're friends again. That's insane. Isn't that crazy? That is wow what a hero's journey. Yeah really. I've just the pop patrol live choreographer. Yeah did all the choreography for pop patrol life. What what a success. I'm so proud of him. So yeah. Awesome. Our first crushes both became like I know we had good taste like you know like that's yeah I'm proud of us. Me too. God what a beautiful. So one of the things that when I saw you on the shifting gear set that we talked about was because one of the shifting gears writers Miss Morgan Murphy Oh yes. Reddably talented. She is completely obsessed with baseball carts. Collecks. She looks through all of them and Morgan has an Allen and Ginter tops card. That's great. I have an Allen and Ginter tops card and Morgan and I decided we wanted to bring each other one and sign them for one another. And so you saw us doing this and you said what what is this? Where how did you get these cards? And I said do you would you want one? Would you want to have a card made? And you said I sure would and it ended up happening. You now have your very own Allen and Ginter tops card. You are my manager because you made this happen because I didn't I mean it blew my mind. First of all I don't know anything about like baseball cards and stuff. My brothers huge into that. Yeah. When I saw that I was like wait how is this possible? Uh-huh. And then you made the magic happen because they got in touch with me and they were like yep I reached out to them. I was like listen I'm with Kat. Kat needs a card. You're my rep. You should get 15% beyond. Then they paid me. Yeah. I was like you signed them right? Yeah. I was like you're gonna pay me. Okay I'm not gonna argue. And I did it all like just I I wanted my brother to think I was cool. Yeah. And that you know it worked I think a little bit. He thinks it's hilarious. It is the coolest thing maybe that I've ever seen. Yeah it's pretty amazing and it's gotten me into baseball cards and my sons are into baseball cards. We like to open packs together. It's been very fun. But I bring it up because I stumbled upon a guy on Instagram actually who opened a pack of cards live on Instagram and he had your one of one. So they're all they're all numbered. What? This is one of one. There's only one of these and he got it and I reached out to him and I said I need to buy that from you. So I bought your one of one. It's my gift to you. The next time I see you I'm going to gift this to you. Look you split money. I did. I had you you need to have your own one of one. Look how beautiful this card is. Oh my god. So shout out to Jason who was so like the minute the minute we reached out and said can we buy this? And he was like yeah but you know why? What do you what do you want with it? And I said I would actually like to gift it to Kat and he said it's all hers. It's so he easily handed it over. He said shout out. Yeah so I have this for you the next time I see you. And yeah stop. I can't mind blowing. Okay. What do I do? It's going it's going on. I'm going to wear it like on a little lanyard around. I recommend you get it graded. Get it PSA graded. So you send it off. We can actually bring it. I think it's down to Orange County. Maybe I'll get it graded for you. I might do some more work but I want to have it graded because you want to you want it to be like a nine or a ten you got to get it graded but it's a very cool thing for you to own forever and to have in your family and yeah it's it's very cool. Thank you so much. Thank you to you and Jason my god. Yes you are welcome. Now on shifting gears you are famously around some of the most gorgeous cars. Yeah of all time. Has it made you want to buy a car from when you were a teenager and if so what do you think you'd get? It's like you're in my brain. It really is. Yeah first of all I've always liked vintage cars because they're beautiful. Every time I ask Tim Allen about a specific car he's like a tone. My he's like they're so difficult. So you see if you go on a set of shifting gears or I mean any day there's like four immaculate beautiful like mint condition vintage cars that belong to Tim Allen and if you ask about any of them he just goes because when you learn as they require he has a staff a staff. Uh-huh correct. He has a staff just for the cars. Yeah because he has a lot of that a lot of cars they require a full time making it staff so he has people who shammy the car. Yep Drive and start the engines change the oil. They die. Yep. Okay so so he's got a full time nanny staff with these cars and they seem to be a huge pain in the ass. However the one I'll give two answers. The one there that I was very struck actually two that I was very struck by of Tim's. One is the Ford F-150 from the from the 50s. It's beautiful. Like a cartoon of a car. Like bubbly like rounded like a toy like a toy come to life like every kid's dream is this car. So that one yes he said it's difficult to drive. Yep. A vintage Bronco that's the dream as an other. Mine too. It's sick. He's got a orange. He's got like a crazy one in there that sometimes in the set but the vintage Bronco is my like dream and I found this company who does like beautifully restored vintage. Ronny like how much could they be the 200,000 dollars. Uh-huh. I think I know that place that you're talking about. I also have found that. Yeah and then there's also a land rover one because I also love a vintage land rover. Those are over 200,000 dollars. Excuse me. I know. I know. That's not happening but I mean maybe what hey listen if we get Tim's season the media. I'll buy it. Yes manifest that. I will but then the car from my childhood that my mom had that I forever thought about was a Mitsubishi Montero. Oh it was a black Mitsubishi Montero and it was bopsy and had no uh safety things at all like no bags forget. No um it was just it looks unfortunately the only thing that looks like it and is the G wagon. Yeah which I don't have. I mean I would like to get a G wagon and take off the branding and like put a Mitsubishi thing on. Montero yeah there you go. My dreams um I love like a boxy vehicle so the Mitsubishi Montero I don't think they're they don't exist anymore. But that was that was like my childhood car that I just loved. She also had a minivan that was like the wood the wood siding on the front. Oh yeah that's great. A minivan with wood siding. Yeah yeah that that seems wonderful. How do you think Tim sources his cars? I bet if you told him you wanted a Mitsubishi Montero one of those staff members might be able to find one for you. I think they can do anything. I mean yes I wonder if it was it might have been after your episode but there's a storyline where my son Carter played by Max Wilsonkins. Mm hmm. Um once is gonna fix up a car with Tim in the show and they didn't have the specific car so Tim got one. Tim Tim got it for the show I'm sure it was right off but like he found and purchased this car for the show. I mean he's very like he's very detailed oriented. I think he can find anything. I don't know how these people do it. I don't I don't either. I really don't but I mean I guess when you are that experienced in that field and you know as many people as you do because you know over the years he's had to I mean he knows every this is not just like he has a purchasing problem. Now this man knows every single thing about cars. He's it is his passion. Yes it really is. It's not a vanity thing. He it's like a compulsion. Mm hmm. Yeah he has to do it. He has to do it and uh his daughter Katie is on set all the time also an absolute expert. She's so awesome and she loves her. I love her. I know her exact title but she's like the car handler supervisor and she knows everything about cars. She knows everything. And she knows whatever the thing is you can ask any question. She knows the answer. She's really unbelievable. Yeah she is and she also dresses really cute and she gets she's like in cute high heel boots and jeans and it looks adorable and then she gets down on the floor and is underneath working on car parts and working on the engine. I don't know on tinker. I mean it's amazing. Yeah it's pretty and it's pretty incredible. Yeah. If I were going to get a car I'm torn because I also a vintage Bronco is probably my number one. But for like just because I love the way they look and I think they're so beautiful and they're so classic but like nostalgia wise for me all I wanted the minute I turned 16 the car I really wanted to buy. I wanted a red Toyota Celica convertible. What? And my mom was like absolutely not. I was really not. You're not driving a convertible. I ended up getting a Toyota forerunner because that's that she was more comfortable with me driving was it red? It was not it was black. Okay. Very cool. Very cool. Oh very cool and I loved that car. I told it immediately but very very cool. So I think I think I might have to like fulfill because like you said the vintage Broncos we want we cannot afford currently. Oh good. Yeah good. You just have to choose exactly. I did ask him about a vintage Bronco and he did exactly what you said. He was like don't do it. Yeah exactly. He's like yeah I know but that's me. I can't really imagine you in a in a in a car with the thing down with the hair blowing. You've got to live that truth. I do. I have to have I really do have to I don't know that I would need to buy it. Maybe I could find one. Is there like a luxury like I don't know if that's a luxury car but like is there like it's very maybe a vintage car rental. That's what that's what somebody should make is a rental car company just for cool older cars and then this might be because maybe like one of our outings together can be a convertible like ride along. Wouldn't that be fun? I would I would love that. I also would love that. Okay. Looking back if you could go back in time and tell young cat anything. What would you tell her? Start Zoolops sooner. Oh listen I I could laugh but I also know how true that feeling is my husband is medicated for OCD and was in an out of therapy for his life for a very long time and nothing was working and he thought just thought he was going to be in shambles for the rest of his life until he found the right medication and had he not been on fluvoxamine which is the medication that works for him. If he did not have fluvoxamine we would not be able to be married. He would not be able to have children. His entire life would was and would be different until he found the right medication. So as much as with you baby. Yeah. It's it and I'm not I'm not joking. I know. I know. As I said earlier I've like I have had anxiety my whole life. Yeah. And I was listening to the boy meets world podcast, pot meets world. Shout out really. Yes. Thank you. I wanted to start from the beginning because there's so hundreds of episodes and I know. I was listening to Will talking about his struggles and stuff and I really identified with that and I it I thought I'd grow out of it. Yeah. And I did not. And it only like intensified and changed shape as I grew up and I decided to like you know what why not. And it is great. Yeah. Life changing. Changing I tried I tried changing diet I tried a lot of actually exercise like strenuous regular exercise helped a lot. Yeah. But who was the time exactly. I know for Jensen it was running like he would have to aggressively run like fast long runs helped when before he had medication. What are you children? He has a wife. He has had to presume other thing multiple jobs. Yeah. Yeah. I mean to in order to exercise for your mental health that much you got it's your whole day. Yeah. And some people can do a kim card as you can do it. I can. Yep. So yeah. That's my answer. It's it's not a depressing thing. It's like a great it's a great thing that these things. Yes. They're available to help. So yeah. That's my answer. Start a little sooner and keep being the confident little weirdo that you are. Because it's going to definitely pay off. You have such a beautiful life that you have manifested for yourself and you work with such wonderful people who speak so highly of you and no matter what job you go to you leave that job and people go when can I work with her again? Like this there are people me included who would jump into a project without knowing a single other thing about it other than just knowing you were involved. I don't I would just be like yes. I'm there. Damn. Hey you and me. I watch that. Hey. Honestly I don't know dancing. I can't dance. Don't okay. But we won't do a show together about dancing. Yeah. But I would chop off an arm to act alongside you in something. I would. I don't know that that would be good for the career. Don't do that. Listen. If I can make this happen. Yeah. We can make that happen. I think it'd be pretty easy. Okay. I'd be pretty. Ten years. Okay. Ten years of shifting gears. Then you buy your vintage Bronco. Maybe you buy me one too. I'm just buying you know. Well buy us matching vintage Broncos when you get ten years of shifting gears and then we'll go into you know our sitcom together where we're living together. We're basically the Golden Girls. It's basically two roadgirls except also not except not broke. I'm it. I'm it. Okay. I love it. There may be a better pitch. We have some time. We have some time to come up with it. We have some time to figure it out. Yeah. Maybe we just two old girls. Yes. No. Listen. If you haven't aged a day. No, no, no. Tell that to my Grace. Oh yeah. Well you know what? You don't even want to get into it with an Grace. I mean I can't. I literally just didn't I washed my hair and as I was blowed during it. I'm like I mean look at this. Hand. It's blonde. Those are all great. Nope. Those are all great. You can't see if you're a dark blonde that you're a **** good. This is you can't see because of around the zoom but there's they've decided to be right in the front and then under here. Yep. I would like to like if I went all gray I'd go with thin that'd be sick. That's how I feel. It's not a little bit is just what it just looks like I'm balding. Yep. That's exactly how exactly how I feel. But I have wind winds the time. When do we go all gray? I don't know. I'm not sure when that is. I only have sprinklings but when it happens I'm gonna I'm gonna embrace it. Yeah. Guys cat dennings is just the best. Right? You can catch her on shifting gears on ABC Wednesday nights at eight seven central and streaming on Hulu the next day. And this Friday we have a bonus episode with cat. We'll listen to one of our listeners personal stories of childhood embarrassment and learn a bit more about one of my favorite people around. So make sure to subscribe now to the dedicated teen beat podcast feed by just searching for teen beat on your favorite streaming service. And you can share your own embarrassing stories. Just send a voice memo to teenbeatpod at gmail.com and you might just hear yourself on an upcoming episode. Teen beat is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Daniel Fishel. Executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman. Executive in charge of production Daniel Romo. Producer and editor Tara Sue Bocks. The theme song is by Mark Hopis. Yes that Mark Hopis. Follow us on Instagram at teenbeatpod. This is an iHeart podcast guaranteed human.