Episode Transcript
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0:00
I'm Brian Tedde, executive producer of The View,
0:02
and this is our special podcast series Behind
0:05
the Table.
0:12
On this series, The View co-hosts are going to take
0:14
a seat at the table with me every day
0:17
to give you a deeper dive behind the scenes of America's
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number one daytime talk show. You'll
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hear personal stories from the co-hosts, some
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of the things that didn't make air, their reactions
0:26
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our guests will stick around to continue their conversations
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0:58
I am very excited today because I am
1:00
here with Alyssa Farrah Griffin, and
1:02
we are talking about her first year
1:05
on The View. We are back with season two, and
1:07
she made it through the first year.
1:09
Barely made it, but I'm
1:11
here. Not everybody does. Not everybody does.
1:13
But I wanted to just talk about it because the process
1:15
of you becoming a co-host was kind of different.
1:18
We took a whole year of
1:20
actual open auditions, and
1:22
I was curious what that was like for you. Was
1:24
it stressful? Tell me about it a little bit.
1:26
Well, okay. First and foremost, I
1:28
loved my first year. I mean, I can't believe
1:30
that the year's already over. It flew by.
1:33
I came into this with a million trepidations
1:36
and concerns and fears. I mean,
1:38
it's an iconic show. We have so
1:41
many loyal viewers, and I have
1:43
felt embraced. I felt embraced by the table
1:45
and, like, most importantly, our team. A lot of people
1:47
don't get to see everyone who's behind the scenes. So it's
1:50
been really cool. But man, the audition
1:52
process. I
1:54
had a weird approach to it. So yeah, there were so many incredible
1:57
women. Every one of them that you guys auditioned, I
1:59
thought was amazing. thought would have been fantastic
2:01
honestly. And I
2:04
watched, this is embarrassing
2:06
to admit, I watched the first time everyone
2:08
went on to guest host. I think at
2:10
least all of them. And then after that I stopped watching
2:13
because what I realized is you'll get in your
2:15
head if you're trying to be someone else or like they did
2:17
that really well, I need to be more like that. The
2:20
best advice that I'd gotten from prior
2:22
hosts, long time viewers of the show too is just
2:25
be your authentic self. There's no
2:27
rule on how to be, there's no one
2:29
rule of how to be a view co-host. Everyone
2:31
brings their own self to the table. So
2:34
I mean I would come on,
2:36
I would feel like
2:38
I was excited about my performance,
2:40
I felt like I found myself getting a little more
2:42
comfortable with the table every time.
2:45
But then you go home and it's a, you know, you
2:47
don't know. I never, I did not know I was going
2:49
to get the job until the very end
2:51
of the season. So you'd get excited
2:54
about the possibility but I tried to even stop my mind
2:56
from going there of like you might end up being
2:58
an actual view co-host.
3:01
It was a wild period. And I do
3:03
want to mention, you've heard this story
3:05
and I kind of briefly shared it on air
3:08
but I think our listeners would be interested is
3:11
the other audition I had the hardest
3:13
time with was Stephanie Grisham. So we
3:15
had worked together in the White House and
3:17
we were just honest to God nemesis,
3:19
nemesis. We
3:22
didn't get along a lot, I think
3:24
probably had to do with outside factors
3:26
and people pitting us against each other. But
3:28
she got in my head because there was this already
3:31
existing sort of rivalry and I would
3:33
feel like I did such a good job on the
3:35
show and then I'd see, oh, she's coming on the next day. And
3:37
it'd be so defeating. Like you're a masochist
3:40
in how you do this to the poor women. But
3:42
what people don't, most people don't know is
3:45
unrelated to the show in the middle of the kind
3:47
of audition season. She and I connected
3:50
at CNN and we hashed out
3:52
all our issues.
3:53
And she actually approached
3:56
it and kind of I
3:57
think had put a lot of thought into it and expressed that. as
4:00
she had watched me, she felt like maybe the way
4:02
we felt about each other wasn't fair and we'd
4:05
let outside factors influence us. And
4:07
she's become one of my dear friends and somebody
4:09
who's like an incredible support system to me. She
4:11
was proud of me and congratulated me when I got the
4:13
job, which I think shows just a ton of character and
4:16
not something you see a lot in this industry. And
4:18
I'm very proud of her. She started an animal sanctuary
4:20
in Kansas and is doing what she loves. So it's
4:22
like, that was like this beautiful kind of icing
4:24
on the cake of I think what could have been like a
4:27
chaotic, drama filled audition
4:29
season. That's
4:30
great. Now, I love that you guys are close now
4:32
and we really enjoyed having her too. It
4:34
does feel a little dramatic to have everybody
4:37
back and kind of whittled down the way we did it. But I
4:39
think it's
4:39
like survivor after being well, we've had
4:41
co-hosts that were from survivor. But after seeing
4:44
being here for a year, I bet you get it a little
4:46
bit more now because it's so important.
4:49
You know, we've added co-hosts in different ways
4:51
quickly, not quickly, things like that. And it was
4:53
really important to everyone involved, me,
4:56
the hosts, the back of the team, that we found
4:58
someone that had the right chemistry over
5:00
time, that we really got to know these people
5:02
and know that they could do because the views such a
5:05
different show. We talk about
5:07
different things every segment. We could be talking about
5:09
relationships, then we're talking about Trump
5:11
indictments. We could be talking about someone
5:13
that is multifaceted. One of the things that I really enjoyed
5:15
seeing in you, I knew you were solid
5:18
on the hot topics and the news and the politics, but
5:20
getting to see the part of you that is really
5:22
excited about reality TV or really
5:24
diving deep on relationships and talking about
5:28
the lighter stuff, which I thought you could
5:30
do, but you really came into your own this year as
5:32
a talk show host. Thank
5:32
you. Which is a lot of fun. I
5:34
think that was what I was most intimidated by coming
5:37
onto it because it's like none of my background,
5:39
the Department of Defense or the White House. But I
5:41
wouldn't even probably admit that I watched some of the shows
5:43
I do just to be taken more seriously. So I had to
5:45
like I had to get myself comfortable
5:48
with showing that side of me. And I actually
5:50
remember when for folks at home,
5:53
like Brian and I did a you'll remember we
5:55
did this like zoom maybe 15 minute
5:58
interview that was basically deciding if you're going to do that. you're gonna
6:00
have me as one of the many women to guest
6:02
host. And I was so frickin' nervous for that. And
6:04
I remember being most nervous to try trying to convince
6:06
you that I knew pop culture. And
6:09
now as we're just doing the show naturally, I
6:11
was like, wait, I actually watch a lot of these shows
6:13
and actually fall way more celebrity gossip than I realize.
6:16
So I think it's actually always been there. It was just something I
6:18
put in the back of my brain and never talked about. Honestly,
6:22
I can't tell you how often we're in the Hot Topics
6:24
meeting, more toward the end of the week usually, that
6:26
I'm like, can we just do all like fun topics today?
6:29
I'm like, screw politics. You
6:32
mentioned that you had trepidations also. What were
6:35
they based around? Just the idea
6:37
of
6:38
the seat or what exactly was it? A
6:41
lot of things. So this
6:44
show is iconic, but it's also, it's
6:46
seen as high stakes. That's kind of the,
6:49
you're going on talking about the most serious things happening
6:51
in our country. And then you're also talking about much
6:53
more light things. And
6:56
I had big fears over how
6:59
I would be received by the rest of the table and
7:01
by the audience. And to your point about chemistry,
7:04
I felt
7:04
more and more like I can do this the more times
7:07
I guest hosted. And I saw the other sides
7:09
of the other co-hosts who might fundamentally
7:12
disagree with me on politics, but
7:14
could see me and see me in
7:16
a different facet and talking about different things. So
7:20
how I would be accepted by the audience
7:22
and the co-host was part of it. And it's also
7:24
just, I mean, we have so many viewers.
7:29
There are so many people watching at any given moment
7:33
and that is a heavyweight to wear.
7:35
And then finally the seat. You are, it's
7:37
the most, it's I think in some ways
7:39
the most unique seat at the table in that you
7:42
are the Republican there arguing
7:44
five days a week trying to represent the
7:46
Republican viewpoint. And what I
7:49
realized after the end of the audition series,
7:52
and I wanna mention, I've talked to a
7:54
bunch of the former co-hosts
7:56
and I love talking to them and kind of
7:58
something that
7:59
they all. all
8:00
thematically shared with me was it's
8:03
your seat. It's not you're not Twitter conservative
8:05
seat. You're not, you know, Republicans
8:08
in Pennsylvania's Republican
8:10
seat. That's Alyssa Farris Republican seat.
8:12
People, the audience wants that authenticity
8:14
and they want to know who we are. So when I
8:16
stopped trying to like carry the weight of like I
8:19
am the sole voice of the Republican party at this table
8:21
and more just authentically saying what I believe, I
8:23
actually felt very liberated and that's
8:26
when I think I started
8:26
growing into the role. Who have you talked to that gave you
8:28
the best advice of the former host?
8:30
I don't want to say the best among them. I think
8:33
Abby Huntsman's been a big support system. She's
8:35
just such a kind and decent person. And
8:37
I think when I watched Abby on
8:40
the show, she was probably more, I would have
8:42
seen her as more moderate than me. But as I've, you
8:44
know, come into my own on the show, I think we're pretty
8:47
ideologically similar and she
8:49
just has a grace about her that I've always
8:51
hoped to emulate, which is like you can disagree
8:53
without being disagreeable. I
8:56
keep in touch with Debbie who I think is just like,
8:59
I just love hearing her perspective because
9:01
she was a different universe of the view. Like her
9:03
experience is so different than mine, but
9:06
the common theme among all of them is authenticity.
9:09
Yeah, you know, it's funny, Lisa Ling guest hosted
9:11
a bunch of times last season and she
9:13
brought something up to me which I had never really thought about, but
9:16
she said, you know, it was hard for her being the young
9:18
one because before there was a Republican
9:20
seat, there was the young seat because the show's always
9:22
been generational. And Lisa said the hardest
9:24
thing she thinks for everybody now is
9:26
that somehow along the way, the conservative
9:29
seat also became the young generation
9:31
seat. So you actually have, you're speaking
9:33
to people that have lived long lives and feel very strong
9:36
about what they're saying and also might
9:38
be politically, ideologically different than you
9:40
too. So it's almost a double hard.
9:43
That's a really good point. No, because I'm the youngest
9:45
at the table and I'm the only person
9:47
five days a week that's a Republican at the table. So it's kind of
9:49
twofold. It's happened maybe once
9:51
or twice that Joy brings up Dan Coyle to make a point.
9:54
And I'm like, I was only alive for two years of
9:56
his vice presidency. I don't have strong
9:58
thoughts or background on this.
9:59
Good move, not bringing that up. But yeah,
10:02
no, I think that's, it's an interesting
10:04
part of it too. It's a tough seat, you've done a
10:06
great job with it. The important thing for
10:09
us, and the thing that was really most important
10:11
to me was having someone in that seat that could
10:13
disagree, be strong, make
10:16
the tough arguments,
10:18
and then also
10:19
recover if things got
10:21
awkward or heated at the table, and the next segment,
10:23
come back and have fun and move
10:25
on. And that's what
10:27
all of you have been able to do in a terrific way, and
10:29
I think it's been great.
10:29
You and Robin have both shared with me
10:32
the idea of leaving it at the table, which I think is really important,
10:34
because yeah, we do have to do these hard pivots to different
10:36
segments, but what I try to think
10:38
about is think about it like a dinner,
10:41
lunch or party with your girlfriends, where my
10:43
girlfriends have different political views, and we sometimes
10:46
delve into heavy issues, but we
10:48
don't turn into, with your respect, real
10:50
housewives, where we're gonna be screaming at each other and we're gonna be pulling
10:52
each other's hair, we're gonna end the conversation
10:55
and move to the next thing, and I think that's kinda
10:57
like real life. I think it's good
10:59
to see
10:59
that we can do that.
11:00
My favorite story is the story
11:03
of when you got the job and you found out you got the
11:05
job. Please tell us that.
11:06
Okay, this I
11:08
think speaks to the fact that I can keep a secret.
11:11
So I got the
11:14
job, I was in the airport, it was in like
11:16
a Delta lounge, I had just done
11:18
a call with one of our executives where I
11:20
was convinced I was getting the job when he asked to talk
11:22
to me, and then I didn't at the end, it was kind of
11:24
like, okay, good talk, and so then I was
11:26
like, oh, okay, and it was like bummed but
11:28
not, whatever, we weren't putting a period
11:31
on it, and then you reached out and
11:34
you told me you're going to be a co-host
11:36
of The View, and I mean, I cried, I
11:38
laughed, I hugged my husband, I was so excited,
11:40
and I'm also in an airport trying
11:42
to make sure no one hears this, and you said,
11:45
don't tell anyone, and I take that super
11:47
seriously, and again, I consider this
11:49
super high stakes TV, I mean, this is an
11:52
iconic show, so I didn't even
11:54
tell my agent. It had been like working
11:56
behind the scenes and coaching me through this for
11:59
the last year.
11:59
And it was later that night that
12:02
I'm at dinner celebrating with my husband
12:04
that she calls me like cracking up But also
12:06
you didn't tell me you got the view But
12:10
hey, I can be trusted with a secret. She heard
12:12
from us before you heard from you
12:13
I was very I like that very
12:15
much. I said, you know what? This is this made me feel really
12:18
good about the decision I don't by the way I also love
12:20
how afraid of you I was until I've gotten to
12:22
know you just because I'm like he's the captain
12:24
of this ship Like it's Brian Tedda. You've
12:26
got to like take things really seriously with
12:28
him I liked
12:28
it better when you were afraid of me. No, you were
12:30
the only one All right, so
12:33
that that's all good stuff. So now being here
12:35
a year
12:36
what has been
12:38
The most surprising
12:40
thing would you say? Most
12:43
surprising So,
12:46
I mean there's a lot but I'd say
12:48
So guests we get a list
12:51
celebrities incredible amazing
12:53
stars and Hathaway Reese Witherspoon
12:57
We've had you know, the Jimmy Fallon's of
12:59
the world I am surprised
13:01
that when we have some of the finest
13:03
actors come on They're sometimes nervous
13:07
and it's really weird to me because I'm like I think of
13:09
them in all these amazing roles that they've had But
13:11
you realize it's a very different skill to
13:13
be a great actor and then
13:15
to go in front of a live studio Audience live
13:17
on TV and our tables unpredictable. That's
13:20
the to me the coolest thing about the view You
13:22
don't know what you're gonna get asked like you were gonna get asked
13:24
about politics You're gonna get you know
13:26
asked to weigh in on cultural issues and we're always
13:28
fair and give people, you know A chance to say their
13:30
truth, but I've been really surprised
13:32
by that. I'm like, oh my gosh we just made that person nervous
13:35
and also just like how the
13:38
kind of
13:39
Normal humans a lot of these big celebrities
13:41
are when you actually meet them with a few exceptions But
13:43
for the most part it's like oh, they're just really
13:46
attractive talented normal human beings
13:48
Considering
13:48
the rooms you've been in it's fun that you get excited
13:50
by eating and Hathaway, but I like that too.
13:52
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14:51
Now, how did people in
14:53
the Republican Party react when you told them you got
14:55
the job when it came out? Was that a weird thing?
14:57
Was it?
14:58
So this is what's funny. When
15:00
the seat became available and there was like
15:02
announcer was going to be a search, I heard from everyone
15:05
like I hope you go put your name in for
15:07
I hope you try for it. And everyone was super
15:10
like supportive. And then when I said I was going to take it,
15:12
everyone was like, we're
15:13
really proud of you. But like, be careful.
15:15
Good luck. There was like the again, this trepidation.
15:17
I think it's a little bit of it
15:20
might look scarier from the outside, if
15:22
that makes sense. I think
15:25
in the the the
15:27
advice that I got from from friends, from
15:29
former colleagues, from our bosses was,
15:33
you know, don't shy away from sharing the
15:35
truth as you know it. And just remember that even
15:37
if
15:38
even if you're not, you know, getting applause
15:40
or changing the hearts and minds of the table, because I've never set
15:42
out to do that. Like Joy Behar has been a
15:45
left wing liberal my entire life. No one's
15:47
trying to change her mind. She's not trying to change mine is
15:49
just be the voice of the of half
15:52
of America that, you know, may not
15:55
share those viewpoints, but do it in a way that's respectful.
15:57
People were it was really funny. like
16:00
this flip of everyone wanted me to do it and then they're like
16:02
oh good luck once I got it but
16:04
I found like I felt a lot of support
16:06
since we've been in I still I tell you like
16:08
I talked to a number of sitting governors
16:11
senators congressmen pretty regularly
16:13
and you I'm always
16:15
stunned by who watches the view well
16:17
I always laugh because you know I'll look
16:20
at conservative media a lot and sometimes people
16:22
take shots at the show or who can watch
16:24
that show or things like that and then I look
16:26
down at my notes and like oh yeah they wanted to audition
16:29
I mean everybody called
16:31
everybody reached out everybody wanted to have dinner
16:34
and so it always chuckles when
16:37
people told me it was their life's ambition to be on
16:39
a coast of the view or then ripping
16:41
into it the next day it's
16:42
also everyone everyone's
16:44
a critic on like on the outside and I've
16:47
tried to give
16:48
grace because we everyone on television has
16:50
stepped in it like it's just a fact I have
16:52
said stupid things I'm gonna get things wrong before and
16:54
I hold myself to the standard of I'm gonna correct it
16:56
but someone who had guessed hosted years
16:58
ago a conservative you
17:01
know talking head or whatever she had kind
17:03
of a big scandal when she
17:05
admitted something on air a policy viewpoint that
17:08
the conservative world just turned on her like
17:10
her career looked like it was over and I
17:12
felt for her and I was actually well I didn't
17:14
agree with her take I thought that she held
17:17
her own it was somebody that
17:18
I really respected how she conducted herself I sent her a long
17:20
message just support you're gonna have a long
17:22
career in this industry like I'm in
17:25
your corner and you know anything I could do to help okay
17:28
fast forward a few years I'm in the chair
17:30
and just coming after
17:32
me just not even not a shred of remembering
17:35
that that message was sent or how hard
17:37
it is in that moment when you've got all these
17:40
icons around you who might like nudge you
17:42
a certain direction but that's
17:44
life and you can't let it get to you exactly
17:45
no I agree speaking of those who
17:47
watch the show and pretend they don't you're a former boss
17:50
the president United States has Donald
17:53
Trump has kind of come
17:55
for you a lot lately
17:58
how has that been to deal with it and
17:59
that's got to be difficult.
18:02
It is. It definitely gets easier every
18:04
time. I think the first time that he put out
18:06
a statement about me, I was like, I was rightfully rattled.
18:09
I mean, I still have to like stop and be like,
18:11
the former commander in chief took
18:13
the time to write a statement about me
18:15
attacking me calling me like never had
18:17
on my life bucket list being called like a clown or backbencher
18:20
by the former president. But I
18:23
think I might have like abnormally thick skin. It's,
18:26
I think it speaks to the fact that what
18:29
I am saying is breaking through about
18:32
just his unfitness and his character
18:35
and what I saw firsthand in the
18:37
White House in the Oval Office. I
18:39
never claimed to have been somebody who was like super
18:41
close with Trump personally, but I was in
18:44
countless Oval Office meetings, you
18:46
know, Air Force One meetings on Marine, one
18:48
with him, briefing him and advising
18:50
him and in critical moments in our history and just
18:53
like,
18:53
I wouldn't feel right not telling
18:56
the public what I saw because most
18:58
people won't have that experience with him. And what I
19:00
saw was scary and I'm open about that. And
19:02
luckily, we're in a political season where people
19:05
have other options and I want to keep
19:07
telling that story. But I also think the fact
19:09
that he comes after me so much is
19:11
because I'm on the show. He came on many
19:13
times back in the day. He loved
19:17
Barbara. He had like just this
19:19
respect and put her on rightfully on a
19:21
pedestal. But I think that this
19:23
show is powerful, outspoken
19:26
women who challenge him. And also there's like
19:28
a levity to our show where we kind of
19:29
mock him. I think that really gets
19:32
to him. I think the view gets under his skin
19:34
in a way that few other programs
19:36
do. One of the things you said to me when
19:38
you were auditioning that really stuck with me as to
19:40
why it was important to you to have these conversations
19:43
was because you're coming
19:45
at this from a perspective of somebody who
19:48
did think that
19:49
Donald Trump could be something interesting, that we
19:51
needed someone different. And then you got in there, as
19:53
you said, for a minute, you drank the Kool-Aid. And
19:55
then you got close and realized, oh no, this
19:58
isn't what people think it is.
19:59
realize. So I think there's no one better equipped
20:02
to speak to somebody who's under
20:04
that spell now.
20:05
I thank you. And
20:07
that's that's what I feel really strongly about.
20:10
I am about as like
20:12
conservative as you're going to find. My viewpoints
20:15
are I've pretty consistently throughout my
20:17
career had very strong ideological
20:19
viewpoints. I've continued
20:21
to champion like the same issues I've cared about. And
20:24
when Trump came around, I had I had my
20:26
concerns with him. But there was something about like he's
20:28
going to shake up what feels broken in D.C. and
20:31
he's going to you know sometimes the
20:33
outsider is the answer. And
20:35
in and there are policies of
20:37
his that I can and have defended.
20:39
But there's that element of character
20:42
which I've said on the show before that
20:44
matters to me as much as anything going forward and
20:46
any elected official down to like dog
20:48
walker and mayor that I vote for is
20:51
do I think they have the character to be in office. And
20:54
and I also feel like people don't like in
20:56
this moment we are so close to
20:58
doing that whole experiment again of being like
21:00
what if I mean he may be the Republican
21:02
nominee. He very likely will. And he
21:05
could beat Joe Biden. That's not an impossibility.
21:07
Statistically polling could show
21:09
that it is. And that's kind of uncharted
21:12
territory for us. And I'm I'm really
21:14
feel this passion to motivate the
21:17
actual core Republican Party
21:19
that I've believed in and been a member of my whole life.
21:21
And this is an incredible platform to do that and
21:23
like remind people we don't need to
21:25
be lumped in with this person who is
21:28
just so unfit.
21:29
Yeah. No that makes a lot of sense to me. It's
21:32
been obviously a topic during your first
21:34
year on the show often that you
21:36
worked there that you worked for him and it's
21:38
something you've had to defend or explain over
21:40
and over again. Is that been a frustrating thing. Do you feel
21:42
like you've gotten it out there now and
21:44
you feel like you've put a button on it or
21:46
do you feel like it's fair game. What do you think.
21:49
I think I definitely think it's fair game.
21:52
I think TV one of the challenges
21:54
is it's short periods of time. Oh that's one of the
21:56
most surprising things about this show. I
21:58
mean say it's a long.
21:59
segment, I'm going to get 90 seconds to
22:02
speak and I can't fully explain
22:04
my
22:04
experience, my rationale, and the
22:07
reason I made decisions to work for Donald Trump in that
22:09
amount of time. I think the more that I've
22:11
answered that question I've actually offered like a more
22:13
full perspective probably to the audience and to
22:15
my co-hosts, I
22:17
wish like where
22:19
I given a full hour to just kind of talk
22:21
it through, you know, I think there would be a lot more
22:24
that I could share but I
22:26
don't feel like it's unfair to ask it
22:28
and I'm
22:29
comfortable enough in my decisions
22:32
to talk about why I did decide
22:34
to work for him. And trust me, here's the thing that
22:36
people don't realize, I'm my own harshest critic.
22:39
Anything that any name someone's gonna call me,
22:41
any attack they're gonna or even if it's a subtle
22:43
thing that they're saying, I've with
22:46
my eyes closed at night called myself those names
22:48
and then reminded myself that's not true. I
22:50
have told the truth, I have done everything I can
22:52
to try to hold him accountable and to try to
22:54
speak truth to the public and I'm comfortable with
22:56
that.
22:57
Changing gears, let's talk about some of
22:59
the lighter stuff we've done in the last year. So I mean
23:01
when you're a spokesperson for the Defense
23:04
Department, do you feel like, I
23:06
mean the idea that you're gonna be dressing up for Halloween on
23:09
the view a year or two later is a
23:11
whole different world. Have you enjoyed that stuff? Is
23:13
it, how do you approach it?
23:15
I mean it literally is like
23:17
my two worlds are so different, it's so
23:20
funny to even think of, I mean just a couple years
23:22
ago I was on a C-17 flying
23:24
Afghanistan like strapped to the side of a plane for 17
23:27
hours doing like mid-air refueling
23:29
and doing a you know covert trip
23:31
there and now I'm like dressed as Carrie Bradshaw
23:34
on the streets of New York.
23:37
It has been, it's
23:38
one of those things that you just have to go with
23:40
it. Like don't ask questions, it's worked for some
23:42
reason, you can't like be afraid to do
23:45
it because it actually looks, things that
23:47
you're uncomfortable with on television,
23:49
it'll look more awkward if you show that you're
23:51
uncomfortable and if you're like being resistant
23:53
you just got to go for it
23:55
and be
23:56
in on the joke with yourself I think.
23:58
Yeah you gotta be comfortable in your own skin. But I mean Trust
24:00
me, there are days that I'm like, wow, this
24:02
is very different than the world that I thought I was
24:04
gonna be in. You're singing back up to Darling Love,
24:07
and yeah. Which, by the way, that might have
24:09
been my highlight. Christmas at The View is probably
24:11
the highlight of the year. It was so much fun.
24:14
Yeah,
24:14
that's one of my favorite things too. All
24:17
the holidays are great. So we talk
24:19
so much now about pop culture, sex and relationships.
24:22
What's that been like?
24:24
We had
24:26
Nicole Wallace on kinda early, and I think
24:28
it was when I was officially a co-host, I'm
24:31
a big fan of hers, and she made
24:33
the joke that she's like, yeah, The View forced me to have
24:35
to talk about sex and my
24:37
vagina, and now that's part of,
24:39
that is part of politics. So she's like, so
24:41
weirdly, it's prepped me for my role at MSNBC.
24:44
And that's The View, I mean, it's real
24:47
life. It's the conversations people are actually having.
24:49
And there have been a few days where we
24:52
do have those conversations. I feel uncomfortable
24:54
and think about, oh no, what are the Twitter trolls
24:56
gonna say? And then I'm like, I'm a 34 year old woman. I
25:00
have these exact same conversations with my girlfriends.
25:02
These people who are trolling me have them unless they have
25:04
really boring lives, and I need to just tune
25:07
it out because that's life. That's what people wanna
25:09
know. It's what they're reading about. It's what they're talking
25:11
about.
25:11
Have you ever walked away feeling like you overshared?
25:14
Once or twice, and Whoopi has been, shout
25:17
out to Whoopi, she's the mother
25:19
of the show, I think. I think she looks out for everyone
25:21
and having, being such a huge
25:24
star, she's very cautious of people
25:26
who are
25:27
newer to the public. I, you know, putting
25:29
themselves out there more than they'd want to, because she sees
25:31
what it's like. Whoopi's life is, it's
25:34
not normal the way anyone else's is because she's so
25:36
famous. And she has said to me,
25:38
you know, share what you're comfortable, you don't need
25:40
to put it all out there. And she reminds
25:42
me, and there have been times where like,
25:44
you know, she'll just say, like, peel it back, or
25:46
pull it back if you feel like you're
25:48
saying too much, don't feel pressure to. And by the way, I've never
25:50
felt pressure to, but it's a good reminder. You
25:53
know, mostly my husband bears the brunt of it, because I
25:55
do have, I have family who said they'd
25:57
prefer to not be talked about on the show.
25:59
And my husband's like, oh don't
26:02
worry, you can always talk about me. So he's the one who always
26:04
is gonna get stories thrown in. That's
26:05
great. No, I think the audience likes it because it gives it
26:07
another bit of a glimpse into who
26:09
you are as a person. Has being a host
26:12
changed you at all, do you think?
26:14
I think so. I think
26:16
it's been a growing experience. I think I
26:19
am, actually quite a bit, I am less
26:22
dogmatic in viewpoints. Not to say
26:24
that I've in any way changed my
26:26
beliefs, but I'm more understanding
26:28
and wanna understand other people's viewpoints better.
26:31
There are a lot of conversations we have at the table
26:33
that I've always peripherally
26:36
been part of, but race is a major theme
26:38
on our show. And I think it's really important that it is.
26:40
And I think hearing the perspective of the
26:43
other women has made me more
26:45
in tuned to issues around race and more,
26:47
I think, sensitive and
26:50
sympathetic to some
26:52
of what you see in our country in a way that
26:54
just wasn't always a front of mind issue to
26:56
me. And I really value
26:58
those conversations because I think it's made me a more
27:01
multifaceted person.
27:03
Yeah, I mean, just being in the Hot Topics room, you're just exposed
27:06
to different perspectives, even the stuff we don't end up talking
27:08
about on the show. Totally, yeah. A lot of it is the
27:10
conversations that aren't even necessarily on the airwaves
27:13
that our Hot Topics kinda generate.
27:15
Speaking of the Hot Topics meeting, was
27:17
that a revelation to you? What do you think of that? It's
27:20
a revelation. I think we need the view late
27:22
night where it's actually what
27:24
we talk about in preparation. The bleeps will
27:26
be gone, and the jokes that can't
27:29
make it to air can be made. That's,
27:31
I,
27:32
listen,
27:33
sometimes it's chaotic, but I actually really like that because
27:35
that, I think, is the most of the bonding
27:37
experience in some ways. Yeah, no, that's kinda
27:39
like a legendary part of the show, and everyone
27:42
has their ideas of what happens because we never show it,
27:44
really.
27:44
Oh, and yeah, I was saying, people
27:47
have curlers in their hair, one eye of makeup
27:49
on, others look like they just rolled out of bed. It's
27:52
just beautiful chaos.
27:53
I love that. Now that you've
27:55
gotten to know your co-hosts for over, now
27:57
over two years, what, what... relationships
28:00
do you have with them? Who do you
28:02
find yourself hanging out with off camera?
28:05
So Sarah Haynes, I consider my big
28:07
sister of the view. She's just really looked
28:09
out for me. We talk all the time. And
28:13
I think she just has a nature
28:15
about her where she looks out for people. And
28:18
we have same sense of humor. We did this questionnaire
28:20
for the producers to get to know us, all the new hosts
28:22
do it. And we realized we have all the same favorite movies.
28:24
And it's like Anchorman's Step Brothers,
28:27
total child humor. So I
28:29
love Sarah. And she's been a support system to me, especially
28:31
in days that I'm like, I'm nervous about a topic
28:34
or I'm like not
28:35
sure how to share something that I want to. I've
28:37
really benefited from her wisdom. And
28:39
then
28:40
whoopee, like I said, is I feel like
28:43
she has this deep wisdom to her. And
28:45
she also has
28:46
unpredictable, not unpredictable tapes. Her
28:49
takes are never knee jerk. There's
28:51
a lot of thought behind things that she'll
28:53
share. And she's somebody you can always go to offset
28:56
and will give you sound counsel. And she's
28:58
always looking to protect her people,
29:00
which I really love. I'm always taken by
29:02
how everyone.
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