Mm

... you don't get the majority of roles you audition for.

And as a child, it was very scary and intimidating for me, going in and auditioning.

And so, and, and then I spent nine years where I wasn't auditioning.

So now I was back into, oh my goodness, and I'm being told that I'm not right and people aren't interested, and I can't get hired in film and television because I'm typecast.

And so that sense of identity was like really sort of took a hard hit.

Um, so I reverted.

What advice would you give to a successful woman who suddenly lost their identity or their role and it defined them? What advice would you tell them?

But were there fears? Were there pressures being a child actor in Hollywood, either for you or for your family members?

Well, I mentioned that I started acting young, like around seven, and it wasn't so much ever the actual performing, like the getting on stage or getting in front of the camera didn't necessarily scare me.

But what really made me nervous and gave me anxiety and all that kind of stuff was the auditioning process.

because it was incredibly intimidating.

It still is.

It's an awkward situation on both sides.

But as a child to walk into a room full of adults, predominantly men, And, you know, they're all kind of looking at you and like, well, show us what you can do, you know, like prove yourself.

And what about the life you lead now? How important is community to your aging and aging well?

I mean, how did your passion for music start? You know, tell us about the albums you've had, and do you have any projects you're working on now musically?

Um, thank you for asking.

Uh, I always loved singing, so I don't really play an instrument.

I mean, I play at guitar, but I'm not very good.

Uh, from the time I was little, I, I enjoyed singing.

My mom sang professionally when I was young, and so there was always music around the house.

The radio was on, the record player, the old record players.

What are your current projects you have right now? Tell us a little bit about them.

So where do you think your strengths came from or were you building them on the fly?

For me, I credit having encountered the subject of Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard based on the book, Dianetics, Modern Science and Mental Health.

I literally came in contact with that when I was 13, about three months before I auditioned for The Homecoming.

As I said, I was not naturally the most extroverted or confident.

I could be very shy.

I could get very intimidated.

And that really manifested in auditions where I would go in and just be really intimidated by this room full of men, usually predominantly men, particularly at that point in the industry, still that time of the industry.

I wonder where you come down on some of that.

What do you think? Why do you think so many women over 50 feel so hesitant to reinvent themselves? Do you have an opinion on that?

I think there is a comfort in what you know, and it's risky and can be frightening to take some of those leaps of faith and you know, I don't want to sound like an ad here, but that's, you know, that's to me where, you know, what Dianetics is all about is that getting out of your own way and getting rid of those things that aren't aiding you, the ways in which you are not aiding yourself, that you're getting in your way, that you're sabotaging, that you're, you know, not intentionally, but, you know, and that's the whole thing.

That's what's so insidious about this reactive mind is that If you could see it you you wouldn't do it, but you can literally I found myself, I remember you know there'd be times where i'm like I could hear things coming out of my mouth and i'm like why stop talking, why am I.

And it would keep coming out and be like you don't know the little monsters come out, and you know the little demons in the handle you know and it's just it's.

it's a frightening place to be.

And it's, you know, I can understand why if people don't feel like they know what to do about it, you know, you try all kinds of things, but you know, this is the thing that I have found that has been effective and helped me every single time.

So I think it's, you know, And sometimes you just have to take it on whatever little steps you can.

Do you ever come to a point or even a crossroads where you think, okay, I need to start a new challenge, or you feel stagnant? Have you felt that way in your life? No.

Did you get tired of it? Was it like, I just want this to be over or how? What was the like your what's the word I'm looking for? What was like the graph of like your interest on being on the Waltons through the years?

There were always aspects that were fun, but yes, and I look back and I can't say that I'm proud of it, but proud of my attitude about it.

But yes, there hit times where I'd look at a script and because at that point, I think what people may not be thinking with is that how much the world has changed and how much had to be done in person.

So if you want to go to a bank, or you need to go to the dentist, or you need, I mean, some things still need to be done in person, but nowadays you can do so many things just in the blink of an eye with technology.

At that point, I couldn't even go to the bank.

And you couldn't, there were no ATM machines, you know.

So things like became, you had to try and maybe squeeze out a few minutes during your lunch break because businesses were closed at hours when we weren't working.

How did that come about for you and how did you find it?

Even all these years later?

It's so tough because I related to each of them in a different way.

As a number of viewers have commented, Tom was a lot older than me.

And our characters were married at a point when my character and I were both only 18.

And he was 20 years older than me.

So that relationship was less...

Like sometimes, you know, you can have a sort of flirtatious relationship with the actor that you're, that you're working with and you know, that you can, you can kind of have some fun with that.

What does it feel like when fans come up to you and tell you how much your performances have meant to them over the years?