Ione Skye: I think it's good that people are paying more attention, but I also don't know that it's more than it ever was. I think people are just ... The kids are maybe more comfortable talking about it, so we see it, and people say, "No, the kids are so much sex and drugs," but I don't think it's more. There's always those two kids who do things really early, and then those group that does it, whatever, and then these people who watch and the people who are late. Like I don't know, or there are certain grades or classes that just someone found. They introduced a drug somehow or they ... It seems like that.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the MILF Podcast. This is 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 to the show. This is MILF Podcast, the show where we talk about motherhood, entrepreneurship, sexuality, and I'm your host, Jennifer Tracy. Today on the show, we have Ione Skye. So great to sit down and talk with Ione in her beautiful home. We talked about all things motherhood, a very interesting upbringing, and her acting career. Ione is currently starring in HBO's Camping. So exciting. Such an amazing show. Really great. I'll let the interview just speak for itself because it was fascinating, and I love talking with her, so I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for tuning in.
Jennifer Tracy: Hi, Ione.
Ione Skye: Hi.
Jennifer Tracy: Thank you so much for being on the show. Oh my god, I'm so honored. I was driving up here thinking like, "I'm interviewing Diane Court." This is really exciting. So, I want to start with you from your childhood because you have a really interesting story because you grew up in Hollywood and with famous parents, and so can you start from the beginning a little bit?
Ione Skye: Yes. Mm-hmm (affirmative). Sure. Well, my mother is a New Yorker. She's from the lower middle class, Jewish, not immigrant, but that type of New York Jewish family who moved from like Queens to the Bronx, and there was a whole kind of a big group, great people from New York. But then, her older sister took her out to LA in the '60s, and she never looked back, and met my father at the Whisky I think, was like the ticket taker or something just to be in the scene, and then she and he went ... They lived in England, and then Scotland, but they broke up when I was really young and ...
Jennifer Tracy: You were born in Scotland?
Ione Skye: I was born in London, but my ...
Jennifer Tracy: Okay.
Ione Skye: I was conceived in Scotland.
Jennifer Tracy: That's what it was. I remember. Yeah.
Ione Skye: Being hippy-ish, I guess they ... My middle name is Skye actually, so when I started acting, someone suggested I drop my last name and just use Ione Skye, which was good. Although, I worried people would think I had made it up because it sounds a little, I don't know, made-up. I don't know. I don't think it sounds made-up anymore, but I was concerned at the time, but yes, so ... but I lived. They separated, and he remarried pretty quickly, and that generation and being artistic, he wasn't dutiful father type, and he didn't really keep in touch with my brother, and me, and my mom. He just moved forward and for whatever reason, kept going, so I grew up with my mother and my ... We had a couple stepfathers, but we grew up in LA, and it was very ... It was great, and my mother, thank God, was ... She could do it all.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, so what did she do? What was her ...
Ione Skye: Well, when she was young, she modeled, and then she ... I mean, I think she could have probably done more, but was a little insecure for some reason, and it's interesting watching myself making sure I don't fall under the same kind of ... I mean, I have a different path a little bit, but she modeled. She's very beautiful. So, at one point, she had a restaurant with her best friend, which was probably her most ambitious thing. It was at The Improv.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, wow.
Ione Skye: It was in the early '80s, and I hung out there a lot. Had I been older, I probably would have really appreciated all the comedians in and out, but there was a great little restaurant in the front that she and her best friend had, but that restaurant aren't ... That's a hard business, but she was a waitress. She drove a limousine at one point. She worked at a ... like delivering tickets for ... not flight attendants, for working ... I don't know what it would have been called. Like for a ... I'm forgetting the word for it. Anyway, delivering tickets to people before, I don't know, to drive around [crosstalk 00:05:03].
Jennifer Tracy: Travel agent?
Ione Skye: Travel agent.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Ione Skye: She worked at a travel agency. She did a lot. She was a caterer for a little while. She just did a lot of different things.
Jennifer Tracy: She worked hard.
Ione Skye: She worked really hard.
Jennifer Tracy: So, you grew up ... That was your role model?
Ione Skye: That was my role model. Yeah. She really worked hard, but she would put herself down like, "I'm not that smart. I'm not ..." She didn't think of herself as educated, but she's very funny and ...
Jennifer Tracy: She's still around, your mom?
Ione Skye: Yeah, and she's around the corner.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, she is?
Ione Skye: My brother, and I, and my mother, we've lived pretty much in the same apartment when we were ... My brother and I at some point lived in New York, but mainly, she's been very, very lucky mom because she's had both of us, and we really like each other. Like I get surprised when I meet people who really ... They don't really want to hang out with their family, and not that we don't drive each other crazy, but we ... At the core of it, like we love spending time together, so I guess it's unusual.
Jennifer Tracy: That's so nice.
Ione Skye: Yeah, it's really nice.
Jennifer Tracy: How old were you when you started acting?
Ione Skye: I was 15.
Jennifer Tracy: Wow.
Ione Skye: I know. I mean, when you're 15, 15 feels like, "Oh, I got this."
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Ione Skye: Now, looking back, it's like, "My god, I was just such a child."
Jennifer Tracy: I know. I know. It's so true. Were you thrust into that, or did you jump into that and you're homeschooled? Were you like ... Was that just your whole life all of a sudden?
Ione Skye: Yeah, I was ... Well, because my mother also ... She went to Paris and modeled a little later, probably 17, but I think for her, she knew what that felt like to just want to start being on your own, and she wasn't ... I mean, she didn't ... Well, actually, it was in the '80s, and it was popular for the industry like to emancipate kids who are underaged so they can work adult hours, so I was in that group of kids who were emancipated, so I was legally 18 and didn't ... but I never got my high school diploma. My best friend who also left school in high school and started working just got hers, so she's been pushing me to do that, so I might. Yeah, I wasn't homeschooled. I just left school basically in like the end of 10th grade, and I used to be very embarrassed about it, but now, I'm not embarrassed. Not anymore. Not that I don't think school is good. That's just what happened to me.
Jennifer Tracy: Right, your story. That was your path.
Ione Skye: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: You've got a way different kind of education in the workforce of Hollywood.
Ione Skye: Yeah, and luckily, the quality of the films were good and the TV in the beginning, and also, I was like in France or England, so I felt like I was getting an education by traveling, and it wasn't ... I wasn't working on something mindless and silly. It was like good quality, and luckily, my experiences were very good. I don't have bad experiences, and I felt like I was ... and I am well. I loved reading, and I was very ... Like my best friend was at Yale, and every year, I made sure I like hung out and spent the night or just to see if I could have a conversation with someone who went to Yale just to make sure. Can I speak? Can I write? You know what I mean?
Jennifer Tracy: Of course. Yeah.
Ione Skye: I was fine.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. So, at some point, you had your older daughter. I don't know how old you were. How old were you when you had ...
Ione Skye: I was 31.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay.
Ione Skye: Again, young like looking back like ...
Jennifer Tracy: Less so. Yeah.
Ione Skye: I was married when I was ... I got married really young, and it was really ... to an amazing person, but I was so young, and it didn't ... I was too young to be married, but we're married a couple of years, but we didn't have kids. Yeah. Then, a few years ... I guess we separated when I was like 26, but by ... When I hit 29, 30, I really wanted a kid, and I had ... I got set up with somebody. For the first time, rushed into getting engaged and getting pregnant, and during the pregnancy, realized like, "Uh-oh, we are not going to work out."
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, wow. Oh, wow.
Ione Skye: That was a bit impulsive. I mean, there are some great things I did pick I guess you could say or we picked pretty well like he's an amazing ... He's very dutiful father, and we were almost always on the same page with parenting. We're very different in some ways, but we love each other very much, and it's been hard for our daughter I'm sure and for us because sharing a kid ... We've shared her. it's just ...
Jennifer Tracy: It's difficult. I'm doing it now, and it's a ... and as amicable as I am with my ex-husband, it's really hard. It's hard on my son like he just asked me the other day. We just got divorced. We just finalized it in October, and he said ... He's nine as you know because your daughter is nine. He said, "Are you guys divorced officially?" I said, "We are," and he said, "I don't like that." We had a discussion about his feelings about it, and it's just ... It's hard, but it was the right thing, so I understand. Okay, so wow. That's intense. So, you're immediately a single mom right from the beginning?
Ione Skye: Yeah, I was a single mom. I know. It's wild. I mean, I had my little brother's nanny, and then it became more political. It's funny. Like now, everyone is a babysitter, which is nice because "nanny" sounded really formal, but back then, it was more like people were saying "nanny," and so she was like my sidekick. At first, which was good, I had my daughter more, which make ... I feel like it's nice for the mom when they're babies, and then by the time she ... He was in the picture, but we didn't start really doing half-half for a long time. It really worked its way into that, and he got remarried and had a baby, and so she had this family over there, and then eventually, I have my family over here. It's weird. I'm more than made up for it though with my new husband because he is like Mr. Mom.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah?
Ione Skye: Even though I was pretty much a single mom emotionally and physically for a while, I ... Now, I have such a different type of family, but it ... I don't know. It worked out as best as it could I think.
Jennifer Tracy: Did you just continue to work during that time? Was there a break for you? Was there ...
Ione Skye: Yeah. I mean, I never stopped working on purpose because it always seemed ... There was always periods of not working anyway. I was never ...
Jennifer Tracy: Right, just organically.
Ione Skye: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Ione Skye: Yeah, I never was ... When I was back to back, occasionally, it was before kids. Sometimes, I would have a job back to back, but once I had kids, it wasn't like that, so that worked out, but yeah, I just ... It seemed to just work out where just when ... I mean, sometimes. I once had a job in Ireland for five weeks when my older daughter was ... I guess she was like eight, and it was super stressful like, "Do I pull her out of school?" And I did because five weeks felt way too long to be away from here, and that was only here and there where it felt like stressful in that way. Mainly, it was mostly with the kids.
Jennifer Tracy: How old was your daughter when you met your current husband?
Ione Skye: She was just five.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, wow. Okay, okay.
Ione Skye: Yeah, so it was a while. So, it's a while, and that was nice. I mean, she's the type where she's a bit cautious in a way. Like she loves humans and people so much, but she also picks or chooses. She's a very cautious person in a way too, so she didn't like throw herself into it, and he's really great because he wasn't demanding of her. They have a really nice friendship. Really good. She's got a great stepmother on her other side too.
Jennifer Tracy: Nice.
Ione Skye: That's been great.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, that helps a lot when it's just easy and amicable. Yeah, that's wonderful, and then how old was she when your second daughter was born?
Ione Skye: She was eight.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay, so eight. Yeah, you already said that. Okay, or maybe you didn't. Okay, got it.
Ione Skye: She was eight, so it was good. I mean, they're really far apart and one ... They never were both around the same age that would go to the part together. Like their interests have always so far been very far apart, but also, there's no ... I mean, it's not much competitive kind of stuff. My little one just looks at her like she's this magical creature.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, yes. Oh, yeah.
Ione Skye: My older one thinks that the little one is really sweet.
Jennifer Tracy: Is she in college now?
Ione Skye: No, but it feels like it because she's in boarding school.
Jennifer Tracy: Boarding school. That's right. Okay.
Ione Skye: It feels like she's at college. She's in 11th grade.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my gosh, and you recently went to visit her?
Ione Skye: I did. Well, yeah. We met up actually in DC for a little family vacation. She was thinking about coming back home, but she decided to stay, so we've all aged like five years because it's so like, "You're coming home. Yay. You're not coming home. Wow."
Jennifer Tracy: Because boarding school was stressful?
Ione Skye: Yeah. She wanted to go. At first, I didn't let her, and so she waited a year, and then she went, and I think ... She was at the same school for her whole life, so she was just getting like wanting to spread her wings and do something. She also is the type to make big moves like she have a splashy kind of personality, so it make sense that she's at boarding school. But then, she got there, and academically, amazingly because I was not the student she is. She's a really good student.
Ione Skye: She was fine academically, but emotionally, she was like, "Wow, this is ..." and the type of people in the East Coast. It was a different breed for her, and her friends were very like artsy and like LA type of kid actually, and she's not. Her dad is like from that world, but he's also artistic, and he moved out of that world, so she just felt like, "Where are my people?" Now, she's starting to find her crew.
Jennifer Tracy: Wow. Yeah. That's big stuff for a 17-year-old? 16?
Ione Skye: Yeah, almost. Yeah, almost 17.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. I mean, that's ...
Ione Skye: I know. She's really ...
Jennifer Tracy: That's amazing that she's stepping into it and staying.
Ione Skye: Yeah, and it's funny because kids, and teenagers, and just humans, like we go through a lot, but it feels like there's a new kind of phase. I don't know however many years of like being alarmed that people have like big emotions, and she's a 16-year-old girl, and so she's ... There's nothing like out of the ordinary about her ups and downs. Very enthusiastic about things and loving. But then, sometimes, she's down, or anxious, or whatever, but it's a funny time where even with little kids, it seems like everyone is like, "Whoa, whoa. Wait. Why are they doing that?" There's like this alarm, I've noticed, and I'm watching ... It's just been interesting to watch that.
Jennifer Tracy: I totally agree, and my son ... So, we were at a little private school here in Hollywood for his ... the first part of elementary school, and recently ... So, last year, he was in third grade, and he started having these panic attacks in the morning like massive, crippling, like on the floor in fetal position. "My stomach hurts. My head hurts. I can't go to school. I can't go to school." He had already been diagnosed with dyslexia. We had tutors. We had all the support. We were trying to be ... give him what he needed, and he just had these crippling panic attacks, so we got a therapist for him, and it was just crippling anxiety. Crippling anxiety.
Jennifer Tracy: Part of it was the dyslexia, and then it wasn't ... The school ended up not being the right fit, and he was the one who advocated for himself, which is amazing and said, "I want to go to this other school." That's a specialty school that he had been to for summer school, and so I said, "Of course, yes," and his father and I agreed, and we did that, but just the general ... So, that's my story with my kid's anxiety, but I have noticed at least with kids my son's age because that's who I'm around most of the time, there is so much more anxiety right now that I just don't ... At that age when I was a kid, I had some anxiety just because it's in my family and whatever, but I just ... Even then, I didn't have.
Ione Skye: I did.
Jennifer Tracy: You did?
Ione Skye: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay.
Ione Skye: I mean, I feel like ... I mean, I'm not like a denier of like things like I am an optimist in some ways, but I just think ... I think it's good that people are paying more attention, but I also don't know that it's more than it ever was. I think people are just more ... Like the kids are maybe more comfortable talking about it so we see it.
Jennifer Tracy: That's a good point. Yeah.
Ione Skye: You know what I mean?
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, that's true.
Ione Skye: People say, "Now, the kids are so much sex and drugs," but I don't think it's more. I think it's like ...
Jennifer Tracy: True. It's always been there.
Ione Skye: Yeah. There's always those two kids who do things really early, and then those group that does it, whatever, and then these people who watch and the people who are late. Like I don't know, or there are certain grades or classes that just someone found. They introduced a drug somehow or they ... Whatever. It seems like that. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I think ... I don't know. I feel like people maybe ... and the same with, yeah, just even grownups and their own anxiety. I think it's just more ... People are more aware of it, so maybe it just seems like it's more, but I'm not 100%. I just feel like ... I definitely. I mean, I grew up in the '70s, and I had terrible stomachaches, and there's definitely dyslexia kids and definitely kids who where different, or this, or that.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. You're bringing up a good point, and I'm going to flip ... I got to just let it just ...
Ione Skye: I mean, I do feel like it is ... There's more awareness around it, but I just had a memory of myself at nine and actually ... Okay, so I don't remember this happening, but my mom recounts this story when I was nine, and it was the middle of the night, and I was on this ... She calls it a crying jag like where I couldn't stop crying.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Ione Skye: She says I kept saying over and over again, "I don't know what I'm going to be when I grow up. I don't know what I'm going to be." She said she could not calm me down no matter what she did.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Ione Skye: Now, I'm remembering I did have anxiety and periods of anxiety, and then I remember being 12 and 13, and that awkward stage of tween, and before I got my period, and then I got my ... Like all of that stuff.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Ione Skye: I mean, it's just it's ... and school for the kids, every single day, they have to show up and like ... I mean, I remember, which is probably great, how intense it was for me, for example, every Valentine's day, like did you get the right card? It's like, "I did a homemade card. Oh, no, I'm going to be the only one with homemade cards," and I made my mom go to like the Mayfair Market, which is now Gelson's because I live near Beachwood, get like store-bought cards, so I spent hours on homemade cards. Then, I had the store-bought cards. "Oh, they're too cheap or they look to cheap."
Ione Skye: Every day, there's just ... In school, they have to show up and remember their homework. I mean, yeah, when you get older. I mean, for me, when I worked the night before the first day or even until you get in a groove, like I can't sleep at night. I'm like up at night like ... or before a trip. I know I may have one night, the night before, the night before, the night before. One of the nights where I'm like up for an hour just for no reason because I'm anxious about the trip or something. I don't know. I think it's ... I don't know. I just think it's a lot, but it's ... That's life. I don't know. I mean, for better or worse, we're this like helicopter, which I think is better than neglect, but it's also ... I feel like I have to be careful not to get too "end of the world" about it like it's such ... Everyone is ... You know?
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, exactly.
Ione Skye: But then, again, it's nice to talk to other parents because you ... When my older one was having anxiety in junior high, I thought, "Oh, great. I've got the kid with anxiety attacks?" Then, you talk to a couple other moms. They're like, "Oh, yeah, Emma totally has anxiety," and you think, "Emma? She doesn't look like she ..." and then you feel like, "Okay. It's the age, and I'm not alone, and my kid is not the weird one." It's good to talk to people about it.
Jennifer Tracy: It really is. It's good, and I too like that's one of the reasons I love doing this podcast is that I get emails and direct messages about how this is helping.
Ione Skye: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: I remember when you and I met when the kids were babies.
Ione Skye: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: I was personally just drowning in postpartum depression, not knowing it was postpartum depression, but just like that one hour a week or two hours that we would go to that baby class, it was like, "Ugh, thank God," and we would just be like ...
Ione Skye: I know.
Jennifer Tracy: You're a second-time parent, so you had that experience.
Ione Skye: Yeah. Oh, man. I know. Busy Philipps is more friend of my husband. I mean, I'm friendly with her, but he ... I was reading some of her books, and she sang joking that she would write a book "How to Raise Your First Child Like It's Your Second" because I really feel like I do see the first children, the firstborns get a lot more because everything is the first time, and it's so intense.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Ione Skye: Yeah, it's definitely intense. Yeah. I have a friend in Australia who's ... She has two little ones, and she just posted something about finally getting a cleaner to help, and she's like, "I can get up again." Like I think she's having really major ...
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Ione Skye: I'm like, "Ugh, it's so common."
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, no.
Ione Skye: It's so wild.
Jennifer Tracy: It's so common, and it has so many ... There's such a spectrum of it, the postpartum.
Ione Skye: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: I remember ... You just reminded me. I think my son was ... My husband was gone because he was working away, so he was in Boston. I was here alone, and my son was like, I don't know, six weeks old, and then I was just like wasting away, and my girlfriend calls. She goes, "We're hiring you a nanny like you need a nanny." I was like, "I can't afford a nanny," because again, at that point, I was like not a full ... She's like, "No, no, no. A babysitter. You need someone like eight hours a week minimum," and so she found this woman. She came, and she was this El Salvadorian Mary Poppins, and my eye just like ...
Ione Skye: Just like having someone around. Like I would even not ... I wouldn't do anything. Like my babysitter, Grace, "Are you going out?" "No, but I just want you here. I know it seems weird, and you're probably ... You grew up with eight kids in the Philippines and you think I'm insane, but you had a lot of people around." So, I'm alone sitting in the house with a toddler or baby, and it's wonderful, but lonely and hard, so just knowing that they're there, even if you're not doing anything, it's really ... I know. That's one of the first things when people are like, "Do you have any advice?" "Can you afford some help? Like I don't want to sound spoiled." "Yeah." "Do it. Do it."
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, it's worth it. Whatever you have to cut out in order to pay for the help, it's just ...
Ione Skye: Yeah, it's the support and just having someone else there. Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Did you find that with your second daughter that you had any postpartum with her?
Ione Skye: Not much. I mean, I had a funny physical ... Like every evening for the first few days, I remember like clockwork like at 5 p.m. or something, I would have literally like five minutes, and it felt like more chemical or physical slump words. I say, "Oh, I'm super depressed," and then it would go away, but it felt physical. Whereas with the first one, I just remember just like my mom or someone to say, "Just take a walk or do things that people do."
Ione Skye: I would ask people, "What do you do when you're really depressed?" "I do this. I work out or whatever," and I would just think, "Oh, yeah, this is ... Nothing is helping this. I'm not ..." Like now, I actually will do stuff that people would use to suggest, and it makes me feel better. I'm like, "This is what normal ..." Not normal, but what people are in a different space. Yeah, the go out for a walk and feel better, or they talk to someone, or they watch something fun on TV. But when you're in that, like nothing seems to help.
Jennifer Tracy: No, you can't. You can't get out of it.
Ione Skye: You can't get out of it, so I don't know if it's ... I think it's partly ... Well, maybe. Yeah, obviously, psycholo-- I just think it's such a huge. I don't know. I wonder what it is, but it's definitely not just physical.
Jennifer Tracy: Well, and like for you ... In your case, the first time around, you weren't with a partner.
Ione Skye: Yes.
Jennifer Tracy: The second time around, you had an incredibly supportive partner.
Ione Skye: Oh, he was amazing because, yeah, I was ...
Jennifer Tracy: What a difference.
Ione Skye: Oh, man, he was, and he was ... A lot of men I feel like don't have that magnet thing where you watch the baby like when there's a newborn and you just can't stop looking at them, and every yawn, every little move, "Oh my god, oh my god." I remember my stepfather with my little brother was like, "What are you guys looking at? I don't get it," until they start walking, and talking, and interacting. But then, my husband was one of the rare ... like he just thought little tiny babies were amazing as well, which was just amazing because I ... Not having a father like that, and then the first time around, he was more of the old-school style where once they could interact, he was more ... He loved babies, but he was more into it, and Ben was just like loved.
Jennifer Tracy: From the get-go. Yeah.
Ione Skye: Loved, so that was just ... I really thought treated or whatever.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, that's so good.
Ione Skye: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Now, she's nine?
Ione Skye: Now, she's nine.
Jennifer Tracy: In third, fourth grade?
Ione Skye: She's in third grade.
Jennifer Tracy: Third grade. Yeah.
Ione Skye: It's great. She's basically an only child which is nice, but also sad. We have a lot of sleepovers, a lot of kids in the neighborhood over, and I was complaining the other night because I'm like not very good at sleepovers because once it gets 7:30 at night, I'm just ... I don't want anymore confusion like the one kid, and Ben will like ...
Jennifer Tracy: Me too. Me too. We're similar.
Ione Skye: I was grumbling the other night because he'll say, "I'll deal with it," and I was like, "See? Goldie was going to sleep, and this one doesn't want ... Like why do we want to ..." He's like, "She's basically an only child, and so this is her chance to like sleep next to another kid, and wake up, and there's another kid in the house." So, that's the good and the bad of this almost only ...
Jennifer Tracy: Totally. Well, I have a similar thing where my son is in ... He has an older sister from my ex-husband's first relationship who's going to be 25.
Ione Skye: Yeah. Wow.
Jennifer Tracy: I can't believe she's going to be 25. He's an only child like she's ... He hardly ever sees her, but we also have sleepovers all the time because of the same thing, and I'm an only child, and when I grew up, my mom ... My mom has some social anxiety, so it was very hard for her to let me have friends. That was very graceful. I just watched ione pull her sweater over her head and her headphones like without a hitch.
Ione Skye: Sort of.
Jennifer Tracy: So, one night, I had ... I let him have as many sleepovers as he wants, and a couple ... Like last year, I let him have two little boys over, and they didn't have a time. I mean, a bedtime or something. I can't remember. It's fuzzy. They stayed up till 1:00 a.m.
Ione Skye: Wow, yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Then, they were awake at 5:00 a.m.
Ione Skye: Whoa.
Jennifer Tracy: Then, they were grumpy and tired, and I felt bad because I was giving them back to their parents grumpy and tired, and so from then on, I said, "Okay. Here's the deal. Everybody has to know. All the parents have to know. It's in bed, lights out, fully releasing your body to sleep at 9:30, or the parents are called and the children will go home."
Ione Skye: Yes, that's what we do, and I'm the strict one like I'm like, "It's 9:00, I'm calling your parents." Like, "No, no, no."
Jennifer Tracy: Then they do, and then they'll get in bed.
Ione Skye: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: They're so tired. They will fall asleep.
Ione Skye: Yeah, they will.
Jennifer Tracy: It's like that just one ... and I was like that too. I remember just wanting to stay.
Ione Skye: I know. I've got the one who wants to sleep early, so there's a couple of her friends who are ... They're more like Italian style like they could stay or they eat late. They stay up late, and they come over. They know now to bring a book or they know that they're going to watch something on headphones while mine ... because mine is just sort of ... It's not that she's a goodie-goodie. She just like need to go to bed.
Jennifer Tracy: Needs her sleep. Yeah.
Ione Skye: Yeah, she has to go to bed.
Jennifer Tracy: Mine too. I mean, well, our ... He goes to bed at 7:30 during the week, which is amazing.
Ione Skye: Ooh, that's good.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Ione Skye: That's what I want to get back to. It's like in the beginning of the school year from summer, they're staying up a little later, and you have to move it back.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes, it is. It is harder, but we've gone ... because he has to get up before 6:00 so that we can catch the bus because he's in Encino now, but yeah.
Ione Skye: Oh, right. Right.
Jennifer Tracy: Then, last night, because of the time change, he was in bed. I think I got him to sleep at 7:45, and I went to bed like at 7:49. I was so tired.
Ione Skye: I know.
Jennifer Tracy: Tell me what you're doing now. I know you have a new TV show that's out.
Ione Skye: A TV show. Yes.
Jennifer Tracy: It's very exciting.
Ione Skye: Yeah, Camping on HBO, and so I'm just waiting to see ... Now, it's starting. I'm doing some press like this, and I've had a couple of almost ... like an offer that I didn't like, and then something I almost got that they didn't want me in the end, so a couple of jobs almost happening, but I'm just waiting for the traction of this new show, and I'm starting to going get great feedback, and so I'm just waiting to see if ... I'm sure I'll get more things after this.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, that'd be great.
Ione Skye: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: That'd be great. Can you tell us a little bit about the show?
Ione Skye: So, the show. It's based on an English show called Camping where this brilliant woman called Julia Davis who ... I think she did [Lead By 00:31:58] or no. Becoming Eve? Is that the show?
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, yes. Yes.
Ione Skye: She's this genius English showrunner actress, and so anyway, I think ... So, Jenni Konner and Lena Dunham who did Girls, they I guess were thinking of their next project. I don't know who found ... I think Lena Dunham found this show and thought, "Let's adapt it," and so they did, and this is the Americanized version, and it's a dark comedy. Half an hour, and it's very ... one of those stressful comedies, and Jennifer Garner plays this very controlling type A person who has a lot of ... Lena Dunham wrote her.
Ione Skye: She has a lot of ... Like she had a hysterectomy, and she has a lot of ailments like mysterious ailments that take over her life, and so she put on a very ... wrote a very semi-autobiographical thing in Jennifer Garner's story, and it's disrupting her marriage to David Tennant who ... They haven't had sex in a while, and she's using all of these sicknesses as an excuse not to be with him, and she just like wants everything to go well.
Ione Skye: Anyway, it all takes place over the course of his birthday party, and they decided to have a camping trip. Of course, everything goes wrong, and I'm her meek little ... Well, I'm not her little sister. It was like we were ... During the show, I was like, "I wonder who's older, be or Jennifer Garner, in the show?" because I think I'm a year or two older than her, and they ... I think I'm older. I'm the older sister, but I ... Yes. I very much like take care of her, and my character is like a very eccentric, strange, and like a hospice worker, and I take care of everybody.
Ione Skye: So anyway, it's really fun, and as it goes on, more and more is revealed, and everybody has their arc, and mine ends up in a good place where some ... I end up like on the road to happiness, and some of the other characters end up more just brushing the dust off after like a lot of emotion.
Jennifer Tracy: Wow, it sounds so good.
Ione Skye: The character was so fun.
Jennifer Tracy: How many episodes?
Ione Skye: It's eight episodes, and it's just meant to be this "this is it," and unless maybe if it just ... people love it so much, they will ... They left it open in the end, open-ended, so we can come back.
Jennifer Tracy: I see. Okay.
Ione Skye: It's not necessarily meant to have a second season, but they sometimes do, which would be great. Yeah. It just was such a juicy, weird character, and I don't think I've ever worked as hard on a character as this just because I didn't ... I read it, and I thought, "This is the weirdest. Who is this?" So, I was studying other like comedian actresses and really like trying to ...
Jennifer Tracy: Interesting. Yeah. What was that process like?
Ione Skye: Well, I thought of ... The character was so out of it and, I don't know, just very ... not ditzy. I didn't want to play her ditzy, but she's ... She could be read a certain way, and so I watched, for example, like Catherine O'Hara, and like one of the best compliments was halfway through, Jenni Konner said, "You remind me of Julie Hagerty. Remember?
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
Ione Skye: I was like, "Yes," because I was going for that kind of gist. They're not dumb. They're just ... Everything they say is ...
Jennifer Tracy: Quirky. Yeah.
Ione Skye: They're just quirky, and so I just leaned into all of that. That.
Jennifer Tracy: That's awesome.
Ione Skye: Yeah. So, yeah, so that was really fun, and I'm getting like texts from actors like I have this friend who I admire so much. He just said, "Great job." It was just it's so nice hearing that from your peers that you look up to.
Jennifer Tracy: That feels good. Yeah. Yeah, that's so awesome. Congratulations.
Ione Skye: Thank you.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my gosh, I can't wait to watch the show. I want to like binge it when everything ... Yeah.
Ione Skye: Oh, good. Yeah. It's better to binge because it's very stressful and short. Each one is like ... It feels like 20 minutes, so you're like, "Oh, okay." I think it's better to ... this type of show than ... It's not like this long ... The Romanoffs, where each one is like a film, and you're like, "I can't watch another one."
Jennifer Tracy: Yes. I can only do bite ... Size it down.
Ione Skye: Very long.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Ione Skye: Yeah, this is like bite-sized.
Jennifer Tracy: No, I'm excited, and then you also wrote a children's book.
Ione Skye: I did.
Jennifer Tracy: Can you talk about that?
Ione Skye: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: That's amazing.
Ione Skye: I know. I wrote it, and then I can't remember ... Oh, yeah. Ben, my husband who's helped me so much. He has a literary agent just to help with ... if he ever wanted to make a musical. He's a musician at William Morris, and he said, "I wrote this little kid's book, but I didn't think to do anything." They say, "Why don't you meet with one of the agents there?" Then, we got a publicist like pretty quickly, a pretty good one, and my ... So, my mom's side are Jewish, and it was just ... Yiddish is such a fun language, and I grew up with like hearing them speak.
Ione Skye: I'm not fluent, but a lot of Yiddish peppered in, and I love, love that group like I said before that Jewish New Yorkie, Eastern European crew, and they've all basically moved to Florida as a lot of the retired people in New York do, and there was a whole community, and I'm all in this retirement village. When I was a kid, I was like weirdly obsessed like ... Not obsessed, but I loved these old people and my grandparents, so I wrote a whole book describing Yiddish words around with all these old people in this retirement community, so it's cute. It's called My ... The working title, which stayed, which was My Yiddish Vacation, and so ...
Jennifer Tracy: I love it. Oh my gosh.
Ione Skye: It's very good, and I have such a soft spot for Yiddish and the whole cultural thing that that whole group had because we weren't ... We didn't grew up in a religious way, but we grew with the kind of flavor, and so I have a lot of love for that. Yeah, that's really cute. It's a cute book.
Jennifer Tracy: That's so awesome.
Ione Skye: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Does it make you want to write more books?
Ione Skye: Yeah. I wrote like another one right away, but it didn't sell enough. I sent it, and they were like, "It's great, but ..." But she did say publishers said, "You should try young adult," because also, young adult really sells better than kid's books or better sadly I guess or maybe not sadly, and so I started writing like a young adult book, but a proper book compared to a kid's book is really a whole ...
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, it's massive.
Ione Skye: Yeah, so I haven't gotten that far with that, but I do ... also starting to write at that age. It's painful like I realized. Although, I think of all these stories, and I remember so well young adult age stuff and what it felt like, and I thought, "Well, maybe I'll write more than like the sci-fi side," because I started writing more than just interpersonal like girls, mean girls, whatever stuff, but I just ... It was too painful, so I think ... I mean, like Tina Fey is so clever like Mean Girls because it's like only it's painful, but it's just that right amount where it's not. Mine was just like ugh. I just couldn't live in that any longer so I ... Too torture, but yeah, I've written stuff like that where I'm like, "I got to pick this away."
Jennifer Tracy: Yes. It's like, "I can't."
Ione Skye: Yeah. So then, I thought maybe if I did it a little more like ... I don't know.
Jennifer Tracy: Fantastical or fantasy?
Ione Skye: Yeah, either ... Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Ione Skye: Either fantasy or I guess ... I don't know, a more romantic ... Just a little bit more not so nitty-gritty.
Jennifer Tracy: Awesome. Yeah. I can't wait to see what you do next.
Ione Skye: Oh, cool. Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: I'm excited. So, we've come to the time amazingly.
Ione Skye: Okay.
Jennifer Tracy: This always happens where I'm like, "I could keep talking to you forever." In every interview, I ask each guest three questions, the same three questions, and then I go into a lightning round of just fun silly questions.
Ione Skye: Okay.
Jennifer Tracy: This is not like the actor's duty of questions at all, so no pressure.
Ione Skye: Okay.
Jennifer Tracy: What do you think about, Ione, when you hear the word MILF?
Ione Skye: Ooh, I think that I am in that category, I think.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes, you are.
Ione Skye: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: You're on the MILF show. What is something you've changed your mind about recently?
Ione Skye: Going back to parenting, like my reaction sometimes is to be a little strict with the kids that come over like, "Don't wipe your hand on the ..." I have thought now to try to get into their mind like a little quicker like, "Oh, well, they're not just like being a jerk right now. They're just a kid, and they're doing that thing that kids do," whatever they're doing, so I'm trying to ...
Jennifer Tracy: Being disgusting you mean?
Ione Skye: Exactly.
Jennifer Tracy: Generally speaking?
Ione Skye: Yeah. Whether it's like mean words or like disgusting physically like wiping stuff around, I'm trying to change my mind in that sense of just remembering that from their point of view, they're not trying to be horrible. It makes sense to them at the moment, so just first at least acknowledge like, "I know you want to do that because that's what you're doing, but don't."
Jennifer Tracy: Totally, totally. How do you define success?
Ione Skye: My grandfather always said, "I may not be rich, but I'm wealthy," so his success, he would always say wealthy because he had a loving family, and he felt lucky, so his success was emotional like he got a lot of ... So, that's probably the most important one answer. He says a lot of [crosstalk 00:41:43]. They're good. They're good.
Jennifer Tracy: I love that. Oh, that's a great answer. Okay. Lighting round.
Ione Skye: Yes.
Jennifer Tracy: Ocean or desert?
Ione Skye: Ocean.
Jennifer Tracy: Favorite junk food?
Ione Skye: Reese's peanut butter cups.
Jennifer Tracy: Hmm. Movies or Broadway show?
Ione Skye: Movies.
Jennifer Tracy: Daytime sex or nighttime sex?
Ione Skye: Daytime.
Jennifer Tracy: Texting or talking?
Ione Skye: Talking.
Jennifer Tracy: Cat person or dog person?
Ione Skye: Ooh, a little more dog, but cat is a close runner up.
Jennifer Tracy: Have you ever worn a unitard?
Ione Skye: No. I don't think I have. I wore a lot of leotards because I danced.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Shower or bathtub?
Ione Skye: Bathtub.
Jennifer Tracy: Ice cream or chocolate?
Ione Skye: Chocolate.
Jennifer Tracy: On a scale of 1 to 10, how good are you at ping-pong?
Ione Skye: Five.
Jennifer Tracy: What's your biggest pet peeve?
Ione Skye: I guess rudeness, any kind of rudeness.
Jennifer Tracy: If you could push a button and it would create 10 years of world peace, but it would also place a hundred-year ban on all beauty products, would you push it?
Ione Skye: Oh, yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Superpower choice, invisibility or ability to fly?
Ione Skye: Fly. It feels more brave.
Jennifer Tracy: Hmm.
Ione Skye: I also heard a podcast all about that, and by the end, I was like, "Yes, flying."
Jennifer Tracy: Interesting. All about flying? Superpower choice?
Ione Skye: It was like that, and part of it was that exact choice, and at first, it just broke it down. Invisible was more like sneaky type of person or something.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Ione Skye: The flying was more of a brave type, so I don't know what I am, but I guess I would try to be brave.
Jennifer Tracy: I love that. I love that. We got to get weird a little bit on the show because it is the MILF show.
Ione Skye: Right.
Jennifer Tracy: Would you rather have a penis where your tailbone is or a third-eye?
Ione Skye: Uh-huh (affirmative). Oh, man. I guess penis because I could hide it.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay. What was the name of your first pet?
Ione Skye: Smoke.
Jennifer Tracy: What was the name of the street you grew up on?
Ione Skye: Wilton.
Jennifer Tracy: Smoke Wilton is your MILF-y porn name.
Ione Skye: Ooh, I love it.
Jennifer Tracy: That's really sexy, Smoke Wilton. It sounds like she's on a lounge chair, a lounge [de von 00:43:55] smoking cigarettes.
Ione Skye: Yeah. Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jennifer Tracy: Virginia Slims maybe or no. She'd have the gold cigarette holder.
Ione Skye: Yes. Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: And fringe dress.
Ione Skye: Yeah. I love it.
Jennifer Tracy: Ione, thank you so much. This was such a treasure.
Ione Skye: Oh, thank you. So fun.
Jennifer Tracy: Really, really fun. Thank you so much.
Ione Skye: Oh, good. I'm so excited.
Jennifer Tracy: Thanks so much for listening, guys. I really hope you enjoyed my conversation with Ione. You can head on over to milfpodcast.com for show notes, links to anything that we talked about including the website for her new show on HBO, Camping. I just am so grateful I get to share this with you guys every week and bring you these amazing women that I look up to, women that I would like to follow, and I do follow, and show me the path to myself, and that makes me a better mom, and it makes me a better person, so thank you all. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.