Mindy Sterling: And now, you know I found out that my son is on the autistic spectrum. So that is, you know, it's complicated and it's a lot to deal with but you think, I don't think I could have ever had a better baby. You have what you have and you go... And I do, I think that if I had a baby on my own and I gave birth it would have been as amazing and as challenging and as interesting and as funny and as smart and he's really a pretty cool guy.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the MILF Podcast. This the show where we talk about motherhood and sexuality with amazing women with fascinating stories to share on the joys of being a MILF. Now here's your host, the MILFiest MILF I know, Jennifer Tracy.
Jennifer Tracy: Hey guys, welcome back. Thanks so much for listening. This is MILF Podcast, the show where we talk about motherhood, entrepreneurship, sexuality, and everything in between. I'm Jennifer Tracy, your host. The live show is next week. The live show is next week, the live show is next week. July 24th at Dynasty Typewriter. I am so excited to see you there. I really hope your coming. It's just going to be such an amazing night of entertainment and bodiness and sexiness and just out and out. And so many people have asked me this but it is a co-ed event.
Jennifer Tracy: It's not just for women so I know a few men are coming, I hope there are a lot of men coming as well. We don't dissuade the men in our presence. Men are great, there's nothing against men. Men are kind of crucial. And as we are again, in the middle of July, very exciting. My son's birthday was last week, that was incredible. We went to the beach, he's a beachy guy, he likes having a beach birthday which makes it so easy.
Jennifer Tracy: So that was amazing, he's 10. My kid is now double digits which is such a thing. It's like your double digits now, and he's like, "What does that even mean?" Like that's nothing. I think he said, "That's not a thing." That's his new thing, "Mom that's not a thing." So again, just a reminder, this month's give is Every Mother Counts. You can donate to them directly on their website obviously or you can go to the link on my website. So I like to do that. And on with the show because today's guest is super fly.
Jennifer Tracy: We have the amazing Mindy Sterling on the show. Mindy and I had such a great time and we got to do the podcast recording twice because I fucked it up the first time and we were just all at a brunch together and she was telling everyone, she was like, "She had to come back to my house because she fucked it up." And we were all laughing because it's true, I did fuck it up. I ran out of memory and I was like, "I'm so sorry." And she's a very busy lady but she was so gracious and she said, "No problem, just come back."
Jennifer Tracy: So I came back and we did finish the interview and I just have so much respect for her as an artist, as a woman, as a mother. She's just so badass and she's so funny and she's so real and raw and raw isn't the right word. I said it and I was like, raw? What is that? Like raw meat? What does that mean. She's just very real, very down to earth and very warm and lovely and I just loved the chance to sit down and chat with her, so I really hope you enjoy my conversation with Mindy Sterling. Hi Mindy.
Mindy Sterling: Hello Jen how are you?
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my God, I'm good. Thank you so much for being on the show.
Mindy Sterling: I am so thrilled that you finally came over.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my God me too. Sorry I had to cancel I was so sick. Oh yeah, I'm glad I didn't because I would have given you this awful cold. So here we are in your beautiful Santa Monica home.
Mindy Sterling: Thank you. I know. It's really, I am far away from everything and once I'm out here I really don't want to go anywhere. I don't want to go in town, the traffic is horrible and it's gotten just more and more horrible as the years have gone by, so I just like to hang.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. And you and walk everywhere down here.
Mindy Sterling: Pretty much, yeah. Really nice.
Jennifer Tracy: So great.
Mindy Sterling: Until the tourists come and then it's a nightmare as well.
Jennifer Tracy: Right. So there's so much to cover, I have so many questions, but I want to start with where you grew up. Where did you grow up?
Mindy Sterling: I grew up in Miami, Florida. So I was raised in North Miami Beach and I think I was born in New Jersey and we moved there I think when I was two, so I have no memory of New Jersey. Then I was raised in Florida in Miami and I think I left there when I was 22, 23 to come out here. So I've been out here a long time, yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: And you came out here and immediately started acting?
Mindy Sterling: Well, not immediately but I came out here for that purpose. So I did, when I first came out here I did theater, like community theater. I don't know if they have community theater anymore.
Jennifer Tracy: I don't either.
Mindy Sterling: I know they have theater but it's waver or-
Jennifer Tracy: It's not community theater.
Mindy Sterling: ... it's not community like it was. And so I did a lot of that, and then slowly got into I think my first agent, it was like a commercial agent.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. And then you joined The Groundlings.
Mindy Sterling: And then jumped to many years later because you have to audition but I didn't, I was with another improve group first. I was with LA Connection which is still around.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh yes, I've heard of them.
Mindy Sterling: And I was there, but there were a lot of people there that were Groundlings and so they were the ones telling me, "Oh you really should go over." They were taking classes, "You really should go over to The Groundlings." So that led me over there and because I had done a lot of improv and the director of The Groundlings knew me or taught me or something, I was able to bypass a basic class and just go into intermediate. But I had to go through the whole program and be voted on, this is what happens at The Groundlings and luckily I was.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. And then you were there performing for how long? You still perform there?
Mindy Sterling: I do every now and then yeah but I was a member for 10 years.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my gosh.
Mindy Sterling: And then when my son was born I tried one more show to give it one more show to say goodbye to and I remember writing material and sketches and characters and they just weren't going well. It wasn't like... I wanted to go out with a bang but I felt, you know, maybe I already did it. Maybe I already finished it in the last show because it just wasn't happening. So I ended up just dropping and going, "I think I'm done." Which I think that's what happens. You end up going, "You know what? I'm busy." Or "My life has taken me somewhere else, I think I'm done."
Jennifer Tracy: Well and becoming a mother, I mean. So let's talk about that.
Mindy Sterling: Yes.
Jennifer Tracy: So your journey to motherhood is its unique path.
Mindy Sterling: Yes. I tried to have a baby and that was not happening and then we went through the fertility treatment. So I think I was in my... was it late 30s, early 40s and it was tough. It was tough you got the shots, and you know and its all the stuff that you're doing, and it just didn't work out. It didn't work out and so it was one of those things you were like, "Okay, well I just really need to have a baby." And then a friend of my ex-husband's, she wanted to talk to us and have a meeting with us, she had adopted.
Jennifer Tracy: But you were married at the time?
Mindy Sterling: Yes.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay.
Mindy Sterling: She wanted to talk to me about, because she had adopted a daughter who was older and because I think for me and maybe other people too in adoption you think, will I feel like I'm babysitting somebody else's child? Will I feel like it's mine? Will I have that same bond that you would normally when it's growing inside? You know all of that kind of stuff.
Jennifer Tracy: Sure, of course.
Mindy Sterling: And this woman was awesome and she said, "Mindy." She says, "You want to be a parent. You want to be a mother, and when that baby is placed in your arms and it's yours, you are. You're the mother. You're the one that takes care of it." So I was like, okay, okay, I think I feel better. We hooked up with a lawyer who was I guess the lawyer to go to out here back 24 years ago and he probably still is. And when we met with him he said, "All right, well you'll probably, you'll have a child within a year or something." I was like "Oh, okay." An what we did was, you advertise in different cities.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay.
Mindy Sterling: He says it was easier to get a baby outside of LA, the type of baby that you want, otherwise here it could be, I guess it's a longer process, or maybe there's a lot of people waiting for children. But he says it would be easier if you go outside the city and you put these ads in and then they give you all this information about what kind of an ad, don't ask for a white baby.
Jennifer Tracy: Don't ask for a white baby?
Mindy Sterling: Well, yeah I mean it's not like you were going to get a different race but there was a way to word it and I don't remember what it was.
Jennifer Tracy: Right to be sensitive.
Mindy Sterling: Yeah because that shows you're, you know.
Jennifer Tracy: It's a little gosh.
Mindy Sterling: Yes.
Jennifer Tracy: Just to be... it's a little gosh yeah.
Mindy Sterling: So I remember we got one call from this family and what you do is when you get the call you go out there and you meet with them, perspective parent or a mother or whoever. And I remember my ex and I went to Tennessee to meet with this mother and her husband and she had already had a son but she was pregnant again and I don't remember the reason but she just didn't feel like she could have this child and who knows.
Mindy Sterling: But I remember being there, meeting her and everything and then leaving I remember saying to my husband at the time, she's going to keep it and she did. She let us know. So it's so disappointing you know when you go and you think, oh wow this is happening. But then as fate has it, July 11, 1994, July 11th is my birthday. I'm out shopping for myself and I get this call from my husband at the time saying you need to call this woman, she's having a baby and it fell through.
Mindy Sterling: She was going to give it to a single woman and something happened, it went through, so the lawyer wants you to call. So I called her and we talked on the phone and I was like, oh my God it's my birthday. She was very cool and very sweet, blah, blah, blah. Met with the lawyer, what we do is we have her come out here and she could either stay with you or you put them up somewhere.
Jennifer Tracy: Wow. Where was she from?
Mindy Sterling: She was from St. Louis.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay.
Mindy Sterling: And she wasn't married, she was pregnant and she knew that she wanted to find a home for this baby because it was a one-night thing.
Jennifer Tracy: One-night stand.
Mindy Sterling: One-night stand. And the guy didn't want to have anything to do with it. She said to me, "I do not want this baby to be raised on-"
Jennifer Tracy: Welfare.
Mindy Sterling: Welfare, yes.
Jennifer Tracy: Assistance.
Mindy Sterling: Yes. All that. I thought oh that's pretty cool. So she came out here. So we had her stay here because it was just easier. They want you to put them in Burbank or somewhere. You know all those apartments that actors come out to? They thought that was better and it's a better situation, and we were like, you know I think we're going to put her here because we have the room.
Mindy Sterling: And she came here, we bring her to my OBG. You know, we just got to know each other. She was very sweet. The only thing she did was smoke, like cigarettes. The only thing she did was smoke and I was like, all right, well my mom smoked too when she was pregnant, we're all okay. So then she goes back and then we're hoping that she's here, she wanted to have the baby before thanksgiving because he was due right around then. So then you bring them back, I think there were a couple of times she thought she was going to give birth and it was false.
Mindy Sterling: I think the second time we went to the hospital, it was right up here at Santa Monica Hospital and I think that they just were like... Because I kept going to the doctor like, "She really wants to have this baby, she's got to get back please is there anything we can do?" So I think he helped that out. So she gave birth, I was in the room, I mean I get the whole different experience of seeing my baby born and she is laughing because she's like I want to be on meds. So she's laughing, 20 minutes later boom, that kid was out.
Jennifer Tracy: He was ready.
Mindy Sterling: I heard from many pregnant woman like, "Oh it was horrible. 30 hours. Oh, it was the worst time of my life." And it was like and she's laughing. So and then the coolest thing was she was like, give the baby to her you know, so, because your thinking oh she's going to hold the baby. But she was so determined, it wasn't about that, it was really what was best for this little baby, who she didn't really have any attachment to.
Mindy Sterling: I think she was there for a day at the hospital and then they say that the thing is, don't bring them back to your home where the baby is. You put them up wherever they want, you put them up because then there's that grace period where they can change their mind or they have to sign all the paperwork and all of that before they can go back.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my gosh were you holding your breath that entire time?
Mindy Sterling: Yeah. I think for me it wasn't so much that I was worried, I was so concerned about her and how she was and if she was all right. And we put her because she loved the beach and we put her somewhere in Venice and she loved all of that and then I'm supposed to visit her and bring her food. She just was so, you know, chill about it all.
Mindy Sterling: And it wasn't a chill of ugh thank God it's over. We sort of connected in a way and I remember bringing her to... saying goodbye to her and bringing her to the airport and I had bought her this little porcelain angel and I gave it to her and we are both sobbing. And I'm like you are my miracle, you gave me this miracle and I will never, ever forget you. And we keep in touch. And then my son and her keep in touch.
Mindy Sterling: She was like on Facebook, they started corresponding and I never wanted them not to. And she came out here when he was I guess maybe 18 but not for his birthday. She couldn't get here for his birthday but when he was 18 she came out here, she stayed with me. My husband and I were divorced then. It was the three of us and it as awesome.
Jennifer Tracy: That's so cool.
Mindy Sterling: So my experience of having... And now, I found out that my son is on the autistic spectrum, so that is, you know, it's complicated and it's a lot to deal with but you know you think, I don't think I ever could have had a better baby. You know, you have what you have and you go, and I do, I think that if I had a baby on my own and I gave birth it would have been as amazing and as challenging and as interesting and as funny and as smart and he's really a pretty cool guy. I know.
Jennifer Tracy: What an amazing story. What an amazing story. And how old was your son when you discovered that he was on the spectrum?
Mindy Sterling: When he was born, I mean everything was fine, and he was the happiest baby in the whole world, and he didn't crawl, he would just do the... he would roll. So he kind of went from rolling to eventually walking but there was no crawl. We just thought everything he did that was maybe a little odd or maybe not in the... It's just cute though, it's very cute.
Mindy Sterling: So I remember he was in preschool and there was this one preschool where he was having some difficulties, the kids were making fun of him, and he wasn't talking, and the preschool teacher got ahold of us and was just like, I don't know, Max is not verbalizing. We took him to a speech therapist and once he started talking and whatever, because one of the scales, he's got something called non-verbal learning disorder. So his verbal skills are impeccable, but once he was allowed to, I guess if he could put that together with his head, he was amazing.
Mindy Sterling: But then it just wasn't a fit, and we hired this psychiatrist or this therapist who went into the school and said, "I'm going to be honest with you about the school that you have him at, there's no laughter. The kids, they're all doing what they need to do, but your son has this... he's got such a huge spirit, and he's always smiling and laughing, and he's silly.
Mindy Sterling: So he's not intense." So he suggested we move him to this other place that he had his kids. We went, we met with them, we loved it. The thrived, but the woman that ran this place said, "I want you to know I talked to my daughter who is a psychologist, and I was talking to her about Max and blah, blah, blah." And she says, "You know he may have Asperger's."
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my gosh.
Mindy Sterling: Yeah. And now you've never heard of that until you have to.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my gosh. I'm saying oh my gosh because of the delivery of that. Not because of what it is but because like wait, what? Like yeah, you've never heard of it. Your son is four now right?
Mindy Sterling: Uh-huh (affirmative). Three or four, yeah. Three I think he's three and so they were like, "Yeah you might want to just take him to a neurologist and check it out." She goes, "I don't know and he was just having some difficulties with things." So yeah. You know that's like saying to someone that doesn't know what Asperger's is that's like saying, "Your son might have cancer."
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Mindy Sterling: So we took him to a neurologist and then she did some testing and then she said, "Well he has something called nonverbal learning disorder." Which is, again, he has more cancer. So I remember crying and it was horrible because we thought everything about him was just cute. So when he entered kindergarten there was some difficulties and we got an IEP because we had this neurologist checking in.
Mindy Sterling: Then we hired a therapist, child therapist who came in because Max was constantly getting in trouble during PE and nobody knew why and his name was always on the bad boy list every time I came to pick him up from school and you're like, there's a pattern here, can you figure this out? And he would be crying, it was awful.
Mindy Sterling: So the therapist came and she met with us after and she said, "Well, of course, he's hitting and biting because they are teasing him because he's kind of awkward and he doesn't know what to do." And I said, "Well wouldn't that be the teacher? Wouldn't you want to look at that?" Anyway. That started everything, the ball rolling to what he needed and what we could do and how we had to get him into physical therapy and occupational therapy.
Mindy Sterling: So he's had that all through school and he's always been the odd, different kid. He hated school. He hated it in elementary wasn't as bad but once he got to middle school and high school he hated it. He was paranoid, he felt because it's a social issue for him. He trusts and then people will say something, he doesn't pick up cues. So it was pretty hard in his younger years getting through everything.
Mindy Sterling: We went to therapy and I put him on Concerta for a little bit to help focus him and that helped a little bit. It's very interesting, the teachers loved him and kids are kids. Kids are kids. They don't know, they don't know and it's hard at home. Every parent is not teaching a kid now, first of all, there's Autism, then there is Asperger's, there's this, there's ADD but now everything is related to the spectrum. So everyone says he's on the autistic spectrum. He is not, he can speak, he is bright, he's articulate.
Mindy Sterling: There are certain things he has trouble with. The great thing about Max now at being 24 is he is such an advocate for himself. So he will tell me and tell people, "Well I need to know. You need to tell me this and I don't see it that way." It's difficult to deal with him because you may say one thing and he'll go, "Why would you do it that way?" Well just because it's easier. "Well I don't understand, why would it be easier? This makes sense to me." I understand it doesn't make sense to you, I really do but this kind of the way we do things.
Mindy Sterling: But that's his brain and you know what, he ain't going to change for us. That's how his brain is wired so we have to find ways, you always have to find and tackle or navigate a situation to where I understand, I know what you're going through. Well, I don't know what you're going through because I'm not like that.
Mindy Sterling: But I understand that it is how you see the world. So how can we work through this? So he's so much better getting older where he... And I think a lot of it too is just he's on the computer and he learns from that and a lot of people that he talks to are people that on the autistic spectrum and not all of them.
Mindy Sterling: But he has a job now that I got to tell you if anybody is listening and you have a child that has a hard time getting a job and doing something that he's good at and feeling awkward and blah, blah, blah. This is a company that is branching out, it's called Auticon, A-U-T-I-C-O-N, Auticon and they test software. Big companies bring their software to them and they test software but all of the employees are on the autistic spectrum.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, that's amazing.
Mindy Sterling: All these young adults are on the autistic spectrum. So when my son goes to work and there is an issue, somebody painted a portion of the wall and one of the guys in there was like... he had to go home, he didn't understand why are you doing this now and why did you have to do it? It totally disrupted his life and nobody gets mad at him.
Mindy Sterling: You know, how we live our lives around people that, remember, we grew up with, they're weird, they're nerds, they're this, what a weirdo. Get it together, what's wrong with you? No. There's nothing wrong with them, they're different. And more, you know, more and more people are coming out on the spectrum of some way. And adults that have gone through it and didn't even know.
Jennifer Tracy: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Mindy Sterling: It's like, so now, you can be more aware and I'm a little more forgiving and I try not to be as impatient and I have that sympathy and empathy for, that must be difficult. So we try to talk things, but like the other day he said, this just gives you an idea sometimes how hard it is. If we're at the airport, airports are very stressful for me, I've gotten better but when I'm with him who's intense at the airport because it's very overwhelming, there's a lot of stimuli going on, they don't do well with that.
Mindy Sterling: So he may walk slower and "Max we got to hurry up, we got to get there." Or if I make a mistake it's like, "Mom you're not supposed to be over there, you're supposed to be over here." Okay well, can you say it nicely? There's a lot of that kind of stuff. So what we do now because we're going away a couple of times this year, we talk about it before we go.
Jennifer Tracy: Make a plan it always helps, yeah.
Mindy Sterling: Oh, what could we do? Okay so sometimes I have to let him do the talking. You know we just have to try to check in with one another and he knows me so well and I know him so well and so there is a little bit of that co-dependency. We kind of take care of each other because it's just us, but no, he's got his own way of doing stuff and it's not always mom's way. As you know. You have a 10-year-old?
Jennifer Tracy: Oh yes, oh my gosh yeah, no we're already starting with the sass but you're an amazing mom.
Mindy Sterling: Thanks.
Jennifer Tracy: Your an amazing mom.
Mindy Sterling: It's hard. It's hard but that is the one thing that I always wanted and that is the one thing that if it was my son over my marriage, yeah guess what?
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. So I want to back up. First of all, thank you for sharing all of that. That is so beautiful.
Mindy Sterling: Oh my God, I hope I didn't like go blah, blah. I feel like I've just given a whole, yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: No, no, no, that's what this is for.
Mindy Sterling: Great.
Jennifer Tracy: That's what this is for, we want to know. We want to know, and it's so beautiful and I'm just smiling listening to you talk about how you communicate with your son and how much empathy and compassion you are just exuding just in explaining it. And it's really exquisitely beautiful. So yeah. Great job.
Mindy Sterling: Thank you.
Jennifer Tracy: Great momma. So I want to back up to The Groundling show where you were just like eh, I want to go out with a bang and then it just kind of [inaudible 00:26:02] you know. And then you got Max and then you were just in that bliss of being a mom. When did you make a decision or was there a decision that you were like, you know I want to go back to work or I want to start acting again? Or did you keep auditioning right away?
Mindy Sterling: Oh, I did because I didn't have any downtime. It wasn't like... I didn't have any postpartum.
Jennifer Tracy: I mean you still had a newborn.
Mindy Sterling: I had a newborn, but I had my husband at the time. He worked, but he also did his own thing because he was in the... and he still does, he installs sound systems for homes and things. So he kind of could work around it. So I wasn't very busy because remember I mean I hadn't done Austin Powers yet. The Austin Powers, especially after the third one that's where things started-
Jennifer Tracy: It really amped it up.
Mindy Sterling: Yes, yes, yes. So I really wasn't, so I wasn't working much so there's a part of me that was very grateful that I wasn't in constant demand because I was the mom. I raised him you know? I mean I loved that part of it. He was always with me and then if I did have to go out or something my ex was here. Yeah and he was very into the baby thing but the first time we had to... Well, first of all, I hired a couple of people to help out when I had long days or whatever. I think I was doing The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and we had, I don't know if it was, it might have been Kristin Wiig.
Jennifer Tracy: No. She babysat for you?
Mindy Sterling: She babysat because I was at The Groundlings once, it was a bunch of students and here and I didn't know her and we were talking about my son and babysitters and she said, "Well if you ever need a babysitter." And I said, "Okay you know what, don't say that unless you really mean that because I'm going to call you." So she goes, "No, I really do, I love babies." And he was a little boy.
Mindy Sterling: So I called her, I offered her this job and so when I would work she would come and pick him up at school and they loved each other. They loved each other. And then another time I hired, you know someone when I was working a lot, a nanny thing that ended up being a nightmare. Well, it wasn't like... she kind of was maybe bi-polar or menopausal or something.
Jennifer Tracy: Jesus Christ oh my God.
Mindy Sterling: But believe me, we checked all of her-
Jennifer Tracy: The way you said that, "She was maybe bi-polar or menopausal."
Mindy Sterling: Bi-polar. But we checked her, yes or menopausal. But we checked all of her references so it wasn't like we didn't do our work and everybody was like-
Jennifer Tracy: Well, those things you can't know that until you're in it.
Mindy Sterling: And she would do these weird things like she would pick him up from... And it was never about him but she would pick him up from preschool and she would say something like she didn't like the other mothers there. And I went, "Oh really?" And they were all really nice and they were so sweet to me and I went "Really?" And she goes, "Yes they're all gossiping." and I was like, "Oh okay."
Mindy Sterling: And I remember talking to one of them, they were like, "Yeah she's kind of weird." And I went, "Yeah, okay." And then there were things like she started telling me what I needed to do with Max. "You need to do this, and you need to do that." And finally, I remember talking to my husband at the time and like, "Okay, I can't have this. This is not okay." And the mothers are complaining about her that she's short and mean because they're all trying to include her on things and it's very obvious she doesn't want to be around these beautiful, not you know, they take care of themselves.
Jennifer Tracy: Santa Monica, California moms.
Mindy Sterling: And they were amazing moms and some of them I'm still friendly with.
Jennifer Tracy: Of course. Yeah, the preschool days you get so close because it's so vulnerable, you're taking your... yeah, yeah.
Mindy Sterling: And everybody's wonderful to each other. So we had to let her go. Well, and then after that is when her manic behavior started. So it was never about Max but she started calling the house all the time and saying things like, leaving messages and saying, "I saw your husband having a lap dance with some woman."
Jennifer Tracy: What? That's nuts, like why would you see him having a lap dance?
Mindy Sterling: It was crazy stuff. So we finally had to get a restraining order.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my God.
Mindy Sterling: Because I was nervous about Max.
Jennifer Tracy: Of course.
Mindy Sterling: Then she evidently, we hired a lawyer. But then she was her own lawyer.
Jennifer Tracy: Wait what? She had a law degree?
Mindy Sterling: No.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, she just represented herself.
Mindy Sterling: Yeah because she was crazy.
Jennifer Tracy: I'm like she had a law degree?
Mindy Sterling: No, no she was crazy. She was crazy. So that kind of happened, I was really freaking it. I have no idea what happened to her.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my. And did that scare you from hiring more nannies? Yeah of course.
Mindy Sterling: Well, I didn't really need a nanny. He was getting older and the lovely thing about when they're little and you can, "We'll bring him to my house." And because my ex didn't have, he had his own business, he could make the hours. He could leave early. He could do that if I was working. So that never really was a problem and again, I've been around other nannies. She just happened to have been a weird lady that luckily we found early enough.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh absolutely thank God there was nothing tragic.
Mindy Sterling: And it was never about my son. It was just about I think she wanted to be in charge. The things she said about all these other mothers were like, I knew they weren't true so it was kind of creepy.
Jennifer Tracy: Wow. So then you continue to audition and then at some point your career really ramped up and you were working non-stop.
Mindy Sterling: I mean I was working a lot. I don't know about non-stop but I was working a lot.
Jennifer Tracy: Well, when I went on your IMDB page this morning little lady.
Mindy Sterling: But those are all little. But it's not like I'm in a...
Jennifer Tracy: But still, even if you're doing like you had several regulars on some Nickelodeon thing and you had other things that you were-
Mindy Sterling: Which I always had... But he was in school.
Jennifer Tracy: Right and those were kid's shows so the hours weren't as crazy.
Mindy Sterling: The hours yes and his dad would be able to come home and deal with him. So that was never, yeah. Really that part of it was never a problem. My dog is more of a problem because she cannot be left alone because she's got that Shepard.
Jennifer Tracy: She has anxiety?
Mindy Sterling: Oh, major anxiety. So literally she is more of a problem than my son ever was and I got to tell you, Max was just such a happy kid until I think, like I said, middle school-
Jennifer Tracy: Middle school.
Mindy Sterling: And he never understood especially high school. I totally get it. He never understood, why do I have to learn this? I don't want to go into this. Why do they keep pushing college on me? Maybe I don't want to go to college. And you're like, Your right. That is, there's trade schools, there's other things and I thought, you know what Max? These are not things that you're saying that are completely insane. I get it because I was always horrible in math. Especially nowadays why do you have to write it all out?
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, you don't. There's a calculator on your phone. You don't.
Mindy Sterling: But you know what I mean? We want to see if he knows how to do that. It doesn't matter. So we got amazing help in school for him. The physical ed department is completely overworked and I always made friends with those mostly women. Always made friends with those women. Not to get anything extra but what could I do to help?
Mindy Sterling: What could I do with Max? I want to know how you're working with him. Let me blah, blah, blah. And then I would go, "You are a hero to me because you don't have one, you have all these kids and you have the parents." And she goes, "Oh Mindy the kids are easy. It's the parents." And I had to be educated, like what do you mean? "Oh they're in denial, they don't think you're doing your job and their kid is this and this and that."
Jennifer Tracy: Perfect, right.
Mindy Sterling: And then I was like, "Oh no, no, no, everything you say about my kid is true. What can I do? So he had, and again, Max always got along with women but it was the adults and still, that's part of I think his diagnosis is his peers will always be difficult because they're judging him. He doesn't like babies but adults they get him and that's kind of where he's always been in his life is that the adults find him fascinating and people his age that have not been around or been educated to this person's a little different. I think everybody should read about autism in a book. There should be a class, it's like bullying. Because it's not always taught at home.
Jennifer Tracy: I so agree with that and I think, I mean so many things are running through my head right now. So my son went to a very progressive preschool and then a very progressive elementary school and now he's actually in a specialty school for children with language learning differences because he was diagnosed dyslexic and we were so grateful to discover what it was because he was having such a hard time in school. Having panic attacks, having anxiety, not focusing, goofing off, you know.
Jennifer Tracy: And so luckily we found a solution and now he's thriving and it's so great and he's in a school where he's not other. All the kids have the same, I mean different levels of it obviously but they're all there because of the same reason and its so great. But you know, in his old school and in this school too, they really and I think this is a movement and I'm hoping that this continues to expand. I don't know if it's because of the time we're in but I'm so grateful that there is more education around that kind of thing.
Jennifer Tracy: Like they had social awareness where they would have a whole day or class or curriculum for a month or two about disabilities. Different disabilities, talking about it you know? And one of my dear friends who was on the show, Kelly Hampton her daughter, her middle child has Down's Syndrome so she, and she's in Florida and was horrified that they weren't being educated.
Jennifer Tracy: But so she would go in and be like nope. She would get the teaches and take their arms and they were like, "Yes, whatever you need." And at the beginning of the school year they would go in and Nella, her daughter, she and Nella they would explain what it is and let's just lay it all out. This is what it is, this is how it happens, [inaudible 00:36:42]. And I just was like, that's so beautiful.
Mindy Sterling: Well see that's the problem, you can say, "Oh this person has Asperger's." Well to someone who doesn't know what that is, and that never is on their own going, "I'm going to study it myself." Well what's the difference between Asperger's and nonverbal learning disorder and...
Jennifer Tracy: Audio processing and dyslexia.
Mindy Sterling: Yes. And they all have different traits and every child is different. I mean I met up with a mom who her son also had nonverbal learning disorder but when we were speaking and talking and sharing about oh does your son, how is he? Is he athletic? "Oh, he's very athletic." My son is not. They're different. They're still different.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, of course. So the last time I was here and we got cut off, we had just been kind of talking about educating kids, the importance of educating kids on other children's differences. Different disabilities, different disorders, you know like I mean my example for my child was when he was diagnosed with dyslexia and there were several other boys in the class that were assessed at the same time and it was so interesting to me because a couple of the moms didn't want to tell their boys "Oh you have this thing, now it's clear, it's called this." You know and that's their personal thing. For me, it was such a relief to be able to name it for him and he felt more relaxed. And also to name it, so that he could name it for other kids and explain what it meant.
Mindy Sterling: Well yes and again maybe those kids if their parents weren't going to label them or give them that diagnosis, you still want to know what's wrong with me? And it's like God I have problems with that too. And you know that's just all about sharing and educating each other. So I can't even imagine that a parent, though parents are kind of weird sometimes, not wanting to share that or open up or finding a way to find somebody else that has that too. So the kid doesn't feel alone.
Jennifer Tracy: Right. And I think probably if I have to guess, and this was a while back now but there's a feeling of, well it comes from shame. And denial and not wanting it to be true and you know. It's hard like you said in the first part of our conversation last time. So I wanted to talk to you about more so about balancing, like after your divorce and after, so Max was in middle school, high school when you got divorced?
Mindy Sterling: Yes. I think he was just graduating middle school. So he was 14, 13, 14.
Jennifer Tracy: So you're still in it at that point.
Mindy Sterling: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: And how did you balance work? Because you've always worked.
Mindy Sterling: Well, I had, when he was little I had hired people but by then, God what happened? Well, see he was in school and I don't know. I guess-
Jennifer Tracy: It just worked out?
Mindy Sterling: Yeah because I can't think if I was who's going to take him to school. I guess his dad picked up the slack. I'm trying to remember what was going on at that time but it just somehow, yeah I guess his dad had to help out.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. And how was it balancing all of that? Were you still performing at The Groundlings?
Mindy Sterling: No.
Jennifer Tracy: Or did you start again performing? You had not.
Mindy Sterling: Well, I left in '94 as a member. So I wasn't a part of the troupe. So if I was performing it was on Thursday nights which is an all improv show called Cooking With Gas. So I would do that. So I don't remember if I left him here alone when I would go do that.
Jennifer Tracy: Right. Well, but he was 14, so you can do that. I always forget that. I have yet to experience that freedom. I'm so excited for it.
Mindy Sterling: Yeah, it's sort of nice. I mean he's 24 now but it is sort of nice to be "Bye." "Oh, you ordered dinner for yourself? Okay bye."
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah you know he's okay.
Mindy Sterling: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: That's amazing. Oh my gosh. So what's next for you?
Mindy Sterling: Gosh, I don't know. You know our future is so in this business, it's so unpredictable and it's so... you just, you don't know. I mean all you can do is keep busy. Little things that come my way, I do a lot of shorts, I do a lot of independent films. Crazy television shows. I'm trying to write something with my friend Annie Sertich.
Mindy Sterling: You know I don't have anything definitive and it's hard because you don't know when your next big job is. When your next little job is, or any job. I mean I don't have anything set right now. So you try to do in between commercials and voice-overs and television and films, you hope something comes through. So one or the other so that you keep making money and I can keep my insurance and it's just, it's weird.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, it's a very bohemian lifestyle but you get used to it.
Mindy Sterling: Oh, I like that bohemian, yes. I guess you do, I guess you do and you don't but yes if it was something that I just could not tolerate then I would have to...
Jennifer Tracy: Change. Fear.
Mindy Sterling: Change or figure it out.
Jennifer Tracy: Something that I just remembered that I wanted to ask you last time that I forgot to or didn't get around to it, was I wanted to ask you about being a woman in show business.
Mindy Sterling: Oh yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: For as long as you have been, and have seen probably quite a lot of changing of the guard as it were. Also more specifically being a woman in comedy because just even from my little experience of being a woman in comedy, improv and the little theater I was a part of, it's a boy's club. I mean...
Mindy Sterling: It's a boy's club everywhere. It just is. It's a boy's club everywhere and I think as a teacher when I am teaching and I am teaching women especially to empower them, because they're so intimidated or they're so unsure of themselves or how to defend themselves in a situation like that, I'm always telling them, you've got to take care of yourself. Do not let him overshadow you, do not.
Mindy Sterling: You find a powerful woman inside this character that you're playing and you are just as good as he is and you are just as talented and you have the same training. So that's up to you if you want to be invisible on stage, or find powerful women within even the most insecure women. There are ways to make that important. So I'm always looking out for girls that are unsure of themselves and you know it's so sad because it's really it's everywhere.
Mindy Sterling: I mean this whole movement is raising so many red flags and how women feel about themselves. And you know it's really hard to say, "Well, just stop it and be powerful." "Well, I don't know how." I was very insecure when I was growing up. I was very sweet and girls you know, want to please everybody and don't be a bitch. So and men have the stronger voice and they're bigger, and you know we're just girl girls and it's always like the man, the man and then his wife. It's never like the woman, woman, and her husband.
Mindy Sterling: So we are, we've just been raised that way for so long and we have to find ways to empower ourselves and still have our femininity and still be coy when we want to be coy and I mean there's nothing wrong with that either. So, yeah I do think that comes from something inside you that just, it's like I'm not going to let some man take over my time on stage, or my time in the classroom or my time. Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. And do you feel that there's a shift of that in the arts? In the movie business and in TV?
Mindy Sterling: Oh definitely. I mean look at the women that are superheroes now and that they are really not only staring but becoming a magnificent force. Yeah, I think for sure it is changing. It will always be, I don't know if it's a battle but you always have to keep our eyes open and our head above the water because there's always men that again, and how they were raised, and how their mothers were, how and then we look at how was my mother and how was my father to my mother? So it's hard when you're being raised that way not to think that way.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. And just all the messaging that we got as kids and young adults, young teenagers and young adults as what we saw on television. I mean, you know. I grew up watching Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley and I grew up watching... Well, Friends came later, I wasn't a kid when Friends was on but even that. I mean there's a different-
Mindy Sterling: All in the Family.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my God yeah, all of those.
Mindy Sterling: I mean look at that. It was like yeah I just think that that's... women are always going to have a little bit of a harder time. I think that it gets better and better but you know, let's wait to see if there's ever going to be a woman president. I mean, you know that would be very-
Jennifer Tracy: Almost.
Mindy Sterling: I mean there's a lot of powerful women that would make great presidents but people are... Let's just see what happens. I can't imagine that it would never happen and certainly, in my lifetime I would love to see that happen and her be just an awesome addition to show yeah sorry, so you know. I've already gone through menopause, so I don't need... or yeah, I'm emotional, is that such a bad idea because I'm not crazy but I'm emotional. So you know I have empathy, I have sympathy, I feel for people. So too bad.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, I love it. I'm on board. I'm on board. I'm a voter, I'm a voter.
Mindy Sterling: Yes.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay, so we have come to the time in our interview when I ask you three questions that I ask every guest.
Mindy Sterling: Okay.
Jennifer Tracy: And then I ask you a round of lightening questions.
Mindy Sterling: Okay.
Jennifer Tracy: So the first question is, Mindy, what do you think about when you hear the word MILF?
Mindy Sterling: Milk. I don't know why. It's as if MILF is that, is she saying Milk or MILF? I don't, yeah. I guess milk.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, I get it. Your not the first guess to answer with that exact answer.
Mindy Sterling: Okay, okay good. That was my first instinct. Okay.
Jennifer Tracy: What's something you've changed your mind about recently?
Mindy Sterling: You know, well, just about my business is slow for me right now and changing my mind that I can wallow in it or worry about it, or I can go "You know what this is where I'm supposed to be right now so make sure that you are grateful every morning when you get up. Do your gratitude list and know that work is around the corner and I'm not broke." You know, just like it's okay. Go take some vacations. It's okay, you're not broke. Your not broke, don't worry about it.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. I love that. So important because otherwise, we miss out on all the good stuff that's right there. But it's so easy as a bohemian artist to get into that, when's my next job?
Mindy Sterling: Well and this is like I said, this is the worst and the best of jobs. When it's good it is great and even when it's mediocre it's great. And when it's bad, unfortunately you make it even worse. You know it's like that breaking up with your boyfriend and then wanting to go back and read those horrible letters over and over to make yourself even feel worse. That's what we tend to do to ourselves. It's like, I'm no good, I'm not good anymore. Nobody likes me. I will never be able to act again and all that.
Jennifer Tracy: And that happens at every level. I mean you're a very accomplished actress with a huge resume and you're saying that still happens to you. It happens at every level.
Mindy Sterling: I think it happens to some of the bigger people, they're not getting the scripts, they're not getting... they don't feel relevant and that is... it's a bad feeling to feel. Because there is no one taking care of me. You know, and even when I was married I still felt that. It wasn't like he wasn't taking care of me, he was in addition to me, but he wasn't taking care of me.
Jennifer Tracy: How do you define success?
Mindy Sterling: Oh, that's a good one. Well, I think that it is something within yourself. It is having a family and for me, it's having a son. It is having a place that makes you happy where you live which is where I live right now. Thank you, it's having money and doing something I love to do. I think that's really, really important. It isn't you know, having a star on the walk of fame. It is all the things that I have and I need to appreciate that more. But when somebody says, "You're really successful."
Mindy Sterling: I forget sometimes that, you know I am and when I was growing up and I was in this business in the very beginning, my bar was I just want to be able to make a living at my acting. I had other jobs when I was acting and that is how I want to make my living is acting. I don't want to have to do any other jobs. I don't want to wait tables, I don't want to have to do phone work, whatever it is. So I definitely have accomplished that.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. And beyond. I know your being humble but you've accomplished that and way beyond which is amazing.
Mindy Sterling: Yes, thank you.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, and there's more to go.
Mindy Sterling: Yes. Oh my gosh yes I'm not stopping.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay, lightning round of questions. I know. It's just so cute, I can't stand him. I'm pretty sure he peed somewhere I'm going to have to go clean it up afterward.
Mindy Sterling: It's okay. No, no, no, no you're not.
Jennifer Tracy: Lightning round of questions. Ocean or desert?
Mindy Sterling: Ocean.
Jennifer Tracy: As we smell the ocean breeze.
Mindy Sterling: Oh my God, desert is too, yeah, it's too dry.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Favorite junk food?
Mindy Sterling: Oh, cookies.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, what kind?
Mindy Sterling: I'm a cookie person. Oh, by the way, I bought two things of cookies but they have coconut in them and I can't eat it so I'll give them to you.
Jennifer Tracy: I love coconut.
Mindy Sterling: Okay, I'm going to give them to you.
Jennifer Tracy: Are you allergic to coconut or you just don't like it?
Mindy Sterling: Yeah, I'm allergic.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh okay.
Mindy Sterling: So really I mean chocolate chip cookies but I think cookies. I just don't like anything too sweet.
Jennifer Tracy: Gotcha.
Mindy Sterling: So it has to be a little bit more texturized and less sweet.
Jennifer Tracy: Like oatmeal raisin?
Mindy Sterling: Oatmeal cookies yeah those are good too.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay, but without coconut in them.
Mindy Sterling: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay.
Mindy Sterling: But cookies are definitely. I will always have cookies in my home.
Jennifer Tracy: Movies or Broadway show?
Mindy Sterling: Broadway show.
Jennifer Tracy: Daytime sex or nighttime sex?
Mindy Sterling: I have no sex. But when I did it was nighttime. I love that.
Jennifer Tracy: Texting or talking?
Mindy Sterling: Texting. I'm bad.
Jennifer Tracy: Me too. Well, there's so many reasons for it though. Cat person or dog person?
Mindy Sterling: Oh God, I can't.
Jennifer Tracy: Can't choose.
Mindy Sterling: No, because I have both.
Jennifer Tracy: Have you ever worn a unitard?
Mindy Sterling: For?
Jennifer Tracy: Any reason.
Mindy Sterling: I think I tried one on and said, "I will never." And it was for a sketch and my friend said, "Oh my God it will make us look naked, it'll be great." And I'm going, "You have no idea what they look like on do you George?" And he was like, "No."
Jennifer Tracy: George.
Mindy Sterling: George. And we both put them on and it was like, "No. No." I said, "No, I will not wear a unitard. I will wear a leotard and tights but I will not wear a whole unitard. No."
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, it's a thing.
Mindy Sterling: It's horrid.
Jennifer Tracy: Well you know they're in style now. The kids are wearing them.
Mindy Sterling: A whole unitard?
Jennifer Tracy: Yes. With a belt, it's just that 90s revival.
Mindy Sterling: Yeah, but they weigh like 80 pounds. So no.
Jennifer Tracy: Right. You and George in the unitard. What color was it? Was it a nude color.
Mindy Sterling: Flesh.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, God.
Mindy Sterling: Because we were supposed to be naked.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my God.
Mindy Sterling: No, no never will happen.
Jennifer Tracy: George, what were you thinking? Shower or bathtub?
Mindy Sterling: Shower.
Jennifer Tracy: Ice cream or chocolate?
Mindy Sterling: Chocolate.
Jennifer Tracy: On a scale of one to 10 how good are you at ping pong?
Mindy Sterling: Oh, I used to love ping pong. I'm probably a four. I haven't played in a long time but I used to love it.
Jennifer Tracy: What's your biggest pet peeve?
Mindy Sterling: You know there's so many. No, the keys are over there. You know there's so many. I think one of them that comes to mind, I don't know, it just popped in is you know when you see children out and about like at the mall or something and they have a leash on them. I cannot tolerate that.
Jennifer Tracy: I know. It's the oddest thing to me too.
Mindy Sterling: Oh, I find it humiliating. I find it abusive, like if you can't deal with your child then you should not take them out. I don't know what that proves, I think it's horrid.
Jennifer Tracy: It's funny, you know my parents, I'm an only child so... And they didn't have that when I was a kid obviously but I remember when my son was two and my mom asked me, "Are you going to get one of those leashes for him? You should get one of those leashes." And I was like...
Mindy Sterling: Your mom asked you about you getting one for your son?
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, because he was...
Mindy Sterling: A little boy.
Jennifer Tracy: A little boy. I mean he just, he was a toddler and you cannot take your eyes off him because he also, from the moment he could walk, which he was, which I even hate this, "a late walker and a late talker" but whatever.
Mindy Sterling: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's what Max was, yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: They're all so different and I learned from the panic of someone telling me, "Oh he's got a speech problem." And I took him to a speech therapist. "Oh, he needs speech therapy. He needs $400 a week [inaudible 00:54:59]." Which ended up being crap. And luckily my sister-in-law at the time, her husband was a child psychologist and we went to Louisiana for a visit and he was like, "Oh give that kid six months, he won't stop talking.
Jennifer Tracy: Just relax, don't even do anything." And sure enough, that's exactly what happened. But anyway, so yeah I remember my mom saying, "Well it's hard to keep an eye on him." And I was like, "It is and I just do it and I'm exhausted and I come home and it's why I don't take him out for much longer than an hour or two hours or whatever."
Mindy Sterling: Well and also too, and also my other pet peeve with kids is when you're out in the store and stuff and they are just crying. They don't want to be in the store. They don't want to be there. The mom is looking at clothes and stuff and no attending to it and it's like-
Jennifer Tracy: It's telling you something. They're communicating with you.
Mindy Sterling: Yes. Go home and get a babysitter you can't. It's not A, it's so inconsiderate for other people to be shopping because it bothers, it makes me sad. And it's neglect and it's like my needs are more. And it's like no, this is what having a child is. And some of them are very rambunctious and they're a little out of control and you, unfortunately, you have to figure that out.
Mindy Sterling: And that's why I think it's really important that mothers have a baby... I don't care if it's for two hours to give a mom a moment to just be in her car by herself and have a cigarette, whatever it is. Take a walk, go to the store, it is really hard taking your kid everywhere you go. But there are people that will watch your kid for two or three hours and it's okay. You know when some people go, "I don't want them to bring up my kid." Or putting them in preschool early, that's the other thing. It's like why? They need to be around other people.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Other children, other people.
Mindy Sterling: And you need that.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah absolutely.
Mindy Sterling: So it's that kind of stuff that really bothers me.
Jennifer Tracy: Absolutely. Yeah, I'm so with you. If you could push a button and it would create 10 years of world peace but it would also place 100-year ban on all beauty products would you push it?
Mindy Sterling: That is just the oddest question.
Jennifer Tracy: I know. Wait until you hear the next one I'm going to ask you.
Mindy Sterling: World peace and then a ban on all beauty products.
Jennifer Tracy: For 100 years.
Mindy Sterling: Well, that would certainly affect me. I don't care if it affected anybody else, but I love my beauty products, so I don't know. But you do want world peace.
Jennifer Tracy: But only for 10 years of world peace. Then it would end.
Mindy Sterling: Oh. Oh yeah. And then I'd look horrible. I would look horrible. No. I need the beauty products. We'll figure it out, world peace.
Jennifer Tracy: And beauty products could help world peace right? I think they do in a way maybe. I don't know.
Mindy Sterling: Well and also too you can make beauty products too.
Jennifer Tracy: True.
Mindy Sterling: Because the beauty product industry is insane. I'm sorry because people will always try to sell you something, I go, "Really? And you're going to tell me that, that cream is going to wipe away all of my wrinkles right? And it's $180 a month right?" And I make them laugh because they know it's true. I go come on you guys.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, it's crazy.
Mindy Sterling: You know, no. Creams don't do that. It may smoothen your skin, it may give-
Jennifer Tracy: Moisturize it, yeah. But it's not going to... It's not a miracle.
Mindy Sterling: No, it's not. But we do and it's beyond out of control.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh yeah, it's insane. It's insane and I participate in it.
Mindy Sterling: We all do, yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Superpower choice. Invisibility, ability to fly or super strength?
Mindy Sterling: It's so funny, when I was young, when I was little I used to always have this recurring dream that I could fly and that I always went to school without my shoes. I would forget my shoes.
Jennifer Tracy: Just your shoes? Interesting.
Mindy Sterling: I don't know what that meant. I don't know what that meant. So I think because I'm afraid of heights, I think it would be invisibility.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, you are afraid of heights?
Mindy Sterling: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Were you always as a child?
Mindy Sterling: I think so.
Jennifer Tracy: Interesting.
Mindy Sterling: I'm not like [inaudible 00:59:05].
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, but you don't want to go on a roller coaster.
Mindy Sterling: Oh no. I have no desire. Roller coaster or Ferris wheel. Nope. No desire.
Jennifer Tracy: Me neither. No me neither, yeah.
Mindy Sterling: So I think invisibility because boy wouldn't that be just... To duck into a place that you want to hear or see people do things, yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay here's the really weird question. You thought the other one was weird. Would you rather have six fingers on both hands or a belly button that looks like foreskin?
Mindy Sterling: Oh, I think six fingers. I think six fingers would be kind of cool. I don't know if it would be a hazard or if it would help.
Jennifer Tracy: I mean if it was just an additional finger that you felt like you'd always had I think it probably would help, don't you?
Mindy Sterling: I would think so. I guess you would learn how to make it help.
Jennifer Tracy: Right.
Mindy Sterling: But.
Jennifer Tracy: She's touching her belly, like ew.
Mindy Sterling: I know right? Because every time you get dressed I think that would be repulsive but the finger thing you would probably go, "This is kind of cool."
Jennifer Tracy: That's right.
Mindy Sterling: Kind of cool.
Jennifer Tracy: You could type faster.
Mindy Sterling: Oh yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: What was the name of your first pet?
Mindy Sterling: It was a cat and her name was April because we got her in April. She was white.
Jennifer Tracy: What was the name of the street that you grew up on?
Mindy Sterling: Ninth Court.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay. So your porn name is April Court.
Mindy Sterling: Yes. Court. Oh, that is good.
Jennifer Tracy: I love it.
Mindy Sterling: April Court.
Jennifer Tracy: April Court. She's either a high priced lawyer-
Mindy Sterling: Hi, my name is April Court. Oh, I love that.
Jennifer Tracy: Or what else?
Mindy Sterling: I don't know, but I'm going to have to use her as a name, as a character when I do improv.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh definitely.
Mindy Sterling: My name is April Court. I love that. What is yours?
Jennifer Tracy: What is mine? Mine is Smokey lariat.
Mindy Sterling: I love that.
Jennifer Tracy: It's so weird.
Mindy Sterling: Oh my God I love that.
Jennifer Tracy: It's weird because lariat I mean it actually, no I'm sorry, lariat was my second house. The house where I was born was Smokey Rock Lane. Rock. Smokey Rock... Rock Lane was the street so would it be Smokey Rock? Or Smokey Rock Lane is kind of cool.
Mindy Sterling: Oh, Smokey Rock Lane.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Mindy Sterling: Smokey Rock Lane.
Jennifer Tracy: That's what I should go with.
Mindy Sterling: That's awesome.
Jennifer Tracy: S-M-O-K-E-Y.
Mindy Sterling: Yes. Oh yes. That I like. That's a cool name.
Jennifer Tracy: I think Smokey Rock Lane and April Court could have capers together. We could do a detective show or something.
Mindy Sterling: Oh my God yes. And wear the unitards.
Jennifer Tracy: Flesh-colored.
Mindy Sterling: Yeah because we always think that we're being invisible.
Jennifer Tracy: There you go. She is yes handing me, everybody.
Mindy Sterling: If we put it on we'll be invisible, no one will see us. Can you imagine? That's insane.
Jennifer Tracy: Mindy, I love you.
Mindy Sterling: I love you, Jennifer.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my God.
Mindy Sterling: And I know I just, like I wish this was a weekly thing.
Jennifer Tracy: I know. Well, we'll have to have improv parties or do stuff, we'll hang out.
Mindy Sterling: Do something. Going out and drinking.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes.
Mindy Sterling: I can do that.
Jennifer Tracy: I don't drink but I'll order a Shirley Temple.
Mindy Sterling: You'll watch me drink, yes.
Jennifer Tracy: That's right.
Mindy Sterling: We can eat. You'll eat.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes, I eat a lot.
Mindy Sterling: Yeah. I don't eat that much but we can still have fun.
Jennifer Tracy: Perfect, you can drink, I can eat.
Mindy Sterling: Perfect.
Jennifer Tracy: We'll sit by the ocean.
Mindy Sterling: Awesome, oh my God yes.
Jennifer Tracy: It's a date.
Mindy Sterling: Boom.
Jennifer Tracy: Thanks so much for listening guys. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Mindy. Join me next week for a fresh episode of MILF Podcast and always remember that you can check out all of our stuff online on MILFpodcast.com or on my website, JenniferTracy.com. Next week we have Katie Brown on the show. Katie is an entrepreneur, she's brilliant and she's a clothing designer and she's also become a really close friend and we are doing some really cool shit together right now, which I can't talk about yet but I will be. Tune in next week for Katie's episode, it's going to be awesome and I love you guys. Keep going.