You were supposed to be the role model.

Kathy is just...

She's so much fun, and we all hang out after work.

And you sort of forget that she's this incredible sort of Oscar-nominated, respected actress.

She's all, "Oh, fucking this and this and bah."

Melanie, can you tell the story of your, how you became involved in But I'm a Cheerleader?

I th- I read the script and I loved it, but I was supposed to be doing something else in England.

And then I wasn't doing that anymore and I went and did Detroit Rock City, and Natasha was like, "Oh, I just worked with her." What th- what happened then, Jamie? You just asked me to play that part?

What was it like on set? It's, you know, so much comedy chops there, but it's actually quite a raw family drama.

Yeah, I know a lot of really good, funny people.

The thing I learned about Adam and Jackie Sandler as producers is I think the environment is very important to them, who they have around and it needing to be people who are easy and people who are good and people who are kind because they're such good, kind people.

So it just got to a point where you weren't kind of holding your breath when a new actor came, but you weren't like, oh gosh, who's this going to be? What are they going to be like? Are they going to be a diva? You just knew like, no, they're not.

They're going to be easy and they're going to be wonderful.

Like Bebe Neuwirth in particular, I just love, I just love her so much.

She's so cool.

Sorry, or throughout your career? Like from there, who were the people who sort of guided you through and taught you how to be in the industry? Well...

How so?

I mean...

My whole focus in life is my daughter.

I have one daughter.

She's seven.

She's just everything to me.

So to play a mother who just loves her kids so much, now I'm getting emotional.

your daughter in this is played her name's sunny she's actually adam sandler's daughter in real life but i mean i truly kept on forgetting that you guys weren't mother and daughter in this movie the connection between you two what was that

And we began the conversation about how she got involved with the film.

I'm trying to remember.

It was so long ago now.

I think I got an email from Rob Sarkis, the director.

And I knew him years ago.

And it had been some time since we'd been in touch.

So I was wondering what it was about.

I feel like there's a great similarity between the two of you as actresses in terms of the roles that you take on and the way you two also resist conforming to an industry that is full of pressure

... sooner because you've given her the space to identify the feelings first, and then eventually s- to start learning what the tools are.

I hope so.

Yeah.

Like, I remember she was, like, 18 months old or something, and she fell down, and she started really crying, and there was a family member there who was like, "You're okay, you're okay." And it was very hard for me to speak up, but I was like, "We actually don't know if she's okay." Like, that's not our body, so I never, like, want to tell her she's okay.

Yeah.

Like, you don't have to sort of struggle through something.

You can ask for things to be better.

You don't have to be like, "Well, this is, like, better than my wildest dreams," you know? It's, it's just-Allowing yourself to want good things and good people around you and, like, I don't know.

Surely you have, it's a

book.

Wait, I'm sorry, the kitty.

What's his name? Oh, Donut, Gingy, Gingerbread, Simus, Meow Meow? Yeah, okay.

He's really cute.

My husband's in love with him.

I wish we had adopted two.

Like, how did you decide to play her?