Missi Pyle | From “Dodgeball” to Prime Video’s “Sterling Point” | Life is Just Lifey

00:00 Missi Pyle joins Story & Craft

00:00 Missi Pyle: You know, like there's, uh, like Fran Stalinovskovichdavidovitchsky from Dodgeball. Like you can get a costume on, like I don't have a bobblehead, but

00:10 Missi Pyle: you

00:10 Missi Pyle: can get a costume on Amazon with buns.

00:14 Announcer: Welcome to Story and Craft. Now, here's your host, Marc Preston.

00:19 Marc Preston: Well, here we are again, you and I, another episode of Story and Craft.

00:24 Marc Preston: Welcome back. Good to have you. Uh, if this is your first time popping in, welcome to the show. Glad to have you. Today, sitting down with one of my favorite actors, one of those people that every time they show up, uh, in a film or in a TV show, you know it's gonna be at least a really fun scene. Of course, talking about Missi Pyle.

00:43 Marc Preston: She has been in a ton of stuff over the years, uh, kind of like Galaxy Quest, Dodgeball, just a constellation of really cool projects. Uh, she's got a new show out on Prime Video right now. It is called Sterling Point. You can also check her out in the new season of Stick on Apple TV with Owen Wilson and Marc Maron.

01:02 Marc Preston: Uh, I really enjoy that show. Uh, do me a favor real quick, if you would. If you haven't done so already, please just pop over to your podcast app. Make sure to follow Story and Craft, whether you're doing it on Spotify or Apple or YouTube or where- wherever you happen to procure your podcasts. Follow the show.

01:18 Marc Preston: Get notified every time a new episode comes out. Uh, leave a like, leave a review, stars, whatever have you, helps people to find this show, and I appreciate that, so thank you. Also, storyandcraftpod.com, the website, past guests, past episodes, everything you wanna know about the show, it is right there. Okay, so let's go ahead and jump right on into it because today is Missi Pyle Day right here on Story and Craft.

01:46 Marc Preston: Yay. There you are.

01:48 Missi Pyle: I think my dogs are asleep. They might bark.

01:51 Marc Preston: Oh, that's okay. But the other room- I'm, I'm a big fan of the furry people. It's okay. I've got a, uh, two-and-a-half-year-old, uh, adolescent golden retriever down here at my feet, so. Th- and I just had a chat a little bit before yours with a, with a, uh, a young actor, and she, uh...

02:04 Marc Preston: I was like, "You know, I gotta, I gotta let my little guy get used to being down here." It used to be he would-- I live on an island in South Texas- Right ... and, and people get to the beach using my street out here, so he likes to run over to the

02:15 Missi Pyle: s- You still live on an island in South Texas?

02:16 Marc Preston: Yeah. Uh, I live on South Padre Island, if you've, uh, I don't know

02:20 Missi Pyle: if you- Yes.

02:20 Missi Pyle: Yes. I went on, I used to live in, um, Texas.

02:23 Marc Preston: Oh, you did? Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, everybody gets to the beach over here, so my little guy's gotta run to the window and bark at them. He's stopped doing that. He's- Of course ... he's like an adolescent, you know, so, uh, but he's chill now. So where'd you live in Texas?

02:35 From Texas to Tennessee, a Montana bear sanctuary, then L.A.

02:35 Missi Pyle: I actually lived in Katy, outside of Houston.

02:37 Marc Preston: I am familiar with... I'm a Dallas kid, though, so. Is that where you originated from, or you just lived for a period of time in Katy?

02:44 Missi Pyle: I was, um, conceived elsewhere, but I-

02:46 Marc Preston: You were

02:46 Missi Pyle: conceived- ... moved to Texas when I was born.

02:50 Marc Preston: Oh, okay. Okay. So how long did you live in Texas for?

02:52 Missi Pyle: Um, like, 13 years. Oh, okay. No,

02:55 Marc Preston: 12

02:55 Missi Pyle: years.

02:56 Missi Pyle: 12 years. My first 12 years of life were in Texas.

02:59 Marc Preston: So you, of course you know the ways of Whataburger, I'm sure, as a young'un.

03:03 Missi Pyle: Love a Whataburger. Yes.

03:05 Marc Preston: So where you l- where are you living now?

03:07 Missi Pyle: Now I live in, in Los Angeles, in Sherman Oaks.

03:10 Marc Preston: Oh, okay. In LA. When you left Texas, where'd you head off to?

03:13 Missi Pyle: Well, my parents got divorced, so I lived in Tennessee For, um, like junior high, high school, and then I went to North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, and then I moved to New York for a few years, and then after that I moved to, to Los Angeles.

03:28 Missi Pyle: And I, I've lived here mostly. I did get married to a guy from Montana for a while who had like a bear sanctuary, and I, I lived out there for a minute or two, and then I, um... Yeah, bought like a geodome.

03:39 Marc Preston: Wait, wait, wait, a bear sanctuary? Well, that is cool. It-- Yeah, I don't know much about Montana except it's, it's beautiful.

03:46 Marc Preston: Everything I've seen about it is just, uh, very picturesque. A

03:48 Missi Pyle: lot of it is. A lot of... The mountain areas are very beautiful. Uh, there's a lot of poverty too, and, uh, it's a big state.

03:55 Marc Preston: You know what's funny? A friend of mine actually is, uh, is a professor up there at I think-- I don't know if it's Montana State or y- you know, University of Mon- whatever university happens to be up there.

04:05 Marc Preston: And he was telling me that it's very polarized. You got some really, really wealthy people who have- Yes ... places there, and a lot of them are putting money into, you know, the school programs. It's, it's a little bit d- I guess it's one of those, uh, folks either with, with means who move to an island maybe, like a really nice exotic island, or they end up in Montana for you know?

04:25 Marc Preston: But it's, um- It's

04:26 Missi Pyle: quite beautiful. I mean, it re- where, where they are moving is beautiful. Like, where I lived was very beautiful. I lived just about 60 miles north of Yellowstone. Yeah, north of Yellowstone, so it was like a day drive to go into the, um, northwest entrance of Yellowstone.

04:44 Marc Preston: So, so when did you make your way to LA?

04:46 Marc Preston: Well, you said you spent time in New York as, as well, but is that where you kicked off your acting journey?

04:51 Missi Pyle: That's where I kicked off. Like, that's where I went. I went to drama school, and we did a, we did a showcase, like a, a consortium of scenes for casting directors and, and people and, uh, agents. And I got an agent and from that, and then I moved to New York, and I lived there for like three years, and I would go-- I went to pilot sea- out to LA for pilot season.

05:14 Missi Pyle: This is back in the day. I mean, this is like, I graduated in '95, so in '99 I moved. I, I decided I was gonna just go out there for a little bit-

05:24 Marc Preston: Okay ...

05:24 Missi Pyle: and see what it was like, and then I've been here kind of ever since. I've had some stints in New York, like I've gone to, to do theater in New York a couple of times.

05:33 Missi Pyle: Um, but But this is home base

05:36 Marc Preston: I think we're kids of the same era. I graduated high school in '91, so I guess it's kind of- Yep ... the same, the same era.

05:42 Missi Pyle: Me too, I graduated in '

05:43 Marc Preston: 91. You know, people don't talk about us Gen X kids nearly as much as they should. It's al- somehow we went from talking about, uh, millennials to boomers to my kids' g- generation, but the Gen, Gen X, we're just not getting talked about that much lately, so I think it's a

05:56 Missi Pyle: trend.

05:56 Missi Pyle: And we're the best. That was the be- I feel, I feel so lucky-

05:59 Marc Preston: Yes, yes ...

06:00 Missi Pyle: to have been a Gen Xer. Like, I can't ima- like, not having a phone, not having, you know, d- nobody knew where you were. My parents never knew where I was. We lived in a pretty s- very safe neighborhood, and we just, there were a bunch of kids on the street, and we were in and out of each other's houses, and it was just-

06:17 Marc Preston: It, it was a good pocket of time and, and I know I've mentioned this before on this show, and folks listening probably heard me talk about it a couple times, but y- there was an era in, in the '80s when you could advertise to kids and that kind of balled it all up, and MTV broke, and it was all, you know, it, it- Yeah

06:34 Marc Preston: the Gen X were really leading the, the whole culture thing. I don't know. It's, it's just so funny 'cause y- they always talk about millennials and G- Gen Z, but I, I've just noticed in reading different articles and stuff, Gen X never gets talked about. But ironically, I think we're just totally fine with it.

06:49 Marc Preston: Just leave us alone, you know?

06:50 Missi Pyle: I've gotten a, I've seen a few, and they're usually just like, and Jenna, you know, we, it was like, it just has to do with us, like nobody knew where we were. We had so much freedom, and, um, we didn't You know, we were all, you know, getting drunk and barfing on people's floors. You know?

07:09 Missi Pyle: You know, it was just sort of like it was a bit of the Wild West for us, and-

07:13 Marc Preston: Yeah, I, I, I heard, uh, Patton Oswalt d- kind of riff on the idea. He said, "You know, you don't really have a Gen X president yet," he said, "But, you know, there's gonna come a time when, you know, we're just gonna be like, you know, somebody's gotta do it.

07:23 Marc Preston: It's probably gonna be Janine Garofalo. She's not gonna wanna do it, but she's just gonna do it anyhow, and it's just gonna be like whatever." He kind of riffed on the whole Gen X thing. But, um, I have to say that, uh, you were in... Our family has our, our, uh, comfort food movie, the one my kids grew up loving, which I think is one of your masterpieces.

07:40 Marc Preston: Not a big p- not a big part of it, but, uh, uh, uh, 50 First Dates. I, you know- Oh, yeah. It's so funny 'cause, you know, my k- my kids know that movie backwards and forwards. Uh, your, your scene in that movie always c- always cracks me up. The whole drinking a drink. It's like, "Can we just pretend like there's alcohol in it?"

07:57 Marc Preston: I was like, "That was so-" Yeah. It was almost sweetly endearing. It's like, "Can we just act like..." I was just... I'm sorry. I- I'm

08:02 Missi Pyle: just going home with you anyway. Like, this is... I don't wanna hear it.

08:05 Marc Preston: Did you have a chance to fly to Hawaii to shoot that scene or...?

08:08 Filming “50 First Dates” at a Rainforest Cafe and Adam Sandler

08:08 Missi Pyle: What's really funny about that scene, my friend was the casting director, Elizabeth Boykagh- Boykewich.

08:13 Missi Pyle: She was, she was working with Roger Misenden at the time, and, um, she's one of my best friends. And they had hire- I had auditioned for a lot of stuff with them, and, um, they had never cast me. And that particular role was actually another woman was playing the part, and they filmed it, it... They went to go shoot it in Hawaii, and the night that they...

08:33 Missi Pyle: They had one night to shoot it, and when they went to go shoot it, they, um, were outdoors, and they turned the lights on, and there were locusts everywhere. Like- Really? ... apparently they just were fly- They d- so bad that they literally couldn't shoot. So they didn't shoot. And then, um, that girl was hap- was getting married the weekend that they wanted to do it.

08:56 Missi Pyle: So they called, my friend called me up and said, "Can you come and do it?" And we filmed it at a Rainforest Cafe outside of San Francisco.

09:05 Marc Preston: Adam Sandler likes to, uh, I think he shot at least a couple things in Hawaii. Just seems like he likes to shoot things based upon where it would be fun to make the movie, you know?

09:14 Marc Preston: Or, like, who he can make the movie with, you know?

09:16 Missi Pyle: I think he's had a, an extraordinary career in that capacity. Like, that person brings fun with him kind of wherever he goes. And, and he, he, he, like, I saw him like five years later walking through the mall, and like I don't see him on a regular basis, but...

09:33 Missi Pyle: And he was just like, "Missi Pyle!" You know, and he's with his kids, and it was just so- He's so nice and such a, like, fun guy. He's a super fun

09:41 Marc Preston: guy. It's like you have the one side of thing b- you know, award-winning movies and all that. Then you have the movies that people, their comfort food movies they always go to.

09:48 Marc Preston: You always know it's gonna be fun to watch, you know? And that's, I think he's- Yeah ... you know, really hit the nail, and he- plus he's just a real mensch. You know, he s- he seems like just a good dude. But when you were starting off, were you, were you angling towards, "Okay, I wanna do theater"? Or were you like, "Okay, I would like to do film and TV"?

10:05 Growing up watching TV and wanting to be in the show

10:05 Marc Preston: Was there a plan, or it's just like, "I wanna act"? You know, what was it like early on?

10:08 Missi Pyle: I remember seeing my first play I saw. It was, um, Tommy Tune and what was it? Now I can't even, now the name has escaped me of what it is. But it was in Memphis at the amphitheater, and I remember that was like my first time seeing theater that wasn't...

10:27 Missi Pyle: 'Cause I grew up in the church, so everything was kinda like church stuff. And I, I remember being like, um, "Wow, this is all I wanna do." And, um, or maybe at the time I just wanted to be, I watched a lot of TV growing up And especially when my parents were getting divorced, like I- my mom remarried this guy, and then the TV that used to be in the living room ended up in my bedroom.

10:49 Missi Pyle: So I watched, like, a lot of TV. Oh, okay. Yeah, my mom was a newlywed, and I was pretty unsupervised. I was an unsupervised child. Like, I mean, I think we were all just kind of raised by wolves. Like, I was number five, so

11:01 Marc Preston: my father- Oh, okay. So you had... I was about to ask, are you an only kid? But I mean, you've- you got a big family.

11:05 Missi Pyle: No, and my father remarried and had two more kids, so, like, he was really strict. By the time I came along, everyone was sort of like, "Where's Missi?" And my mom said my sister did a lot of my caretaking and stuff like that. So, um, I think it was a very, uh... It was a... You know, I just was-- I hung out with my friends all the time.

11:25 Missi Pyle: I thought my house was kind of weird and scary 'cause my dad was kind of a, you know, he was a rage, like, he, he was b- he had a big, big energy, and he would come home, and we would all kind of hide 'cause he would get mad right away about something. Well, what,

11:36 Marc Preston: what kind of, what kind of work did your folks do?

11:38 Missi Pyle: He, my dad was a state, he was the State Farm ins- insurance agent, and he also was the minister of music at my church growing up, like in the Southern Baptist Church.

11:48 Marc Preston: And

11:48 Missi Pyle: so- I was about to say,

11:49 Marc Preston: man, that part of it, I was like, I go, I'm gonna ballpark this Southern Baptist. Yeah. Okay.

11:53 Missi Pyle: Yeah. So he was Southern Baptist, and he quit at one point, and then he ended up, like, marrying the woman who was, like, a, the number one s- like, uh, soprano from the choir.

12:05 Missi Pyle: And then we moved, my mom moved to Tennessee with, uh, she married this guy that they had known when they lived in Chicago, like, that lived across the street from them. He was gonna come see my mom and dad, but she was like, "Oh, we're, we're getting a divorce." He's like, "Me too." And then they just got together, and then we moved to Tennessee.

12:21 Missi Pyle: So when, when I was in Memphis or German- I was in Germantown, Tennessee, um, I spent a lot of time watching shows and just wanting to be on the shows. Like, I just wanted to be in the show. You know, I wanted to be in Like I wondered why my family wasn't more like-

12:36 Marc Preston: The

12:36 Missi Pyle: Cosbys ... the family in The Cosby-

12:37 Marc Preston: Or maybe that's not a good example.

12:39 Marc Preston: Um-

12:39 Missi Pyle: No, that's, that's what I was gonna say. I wanted... I... They talked through everything. They, you know, everybody was important and special just as they were, and like, I just would be like, "Why can't we be more like that?" Yeah,

12:50 Marc Preston: that was- Which is- That was that like Thursday night, I think it was. Like there was Family Ties and there was, uh- Yeah

12:56 Marc Preston: all that stuff. Yeah, so-

12:57 Missi Pyle: Every episode. I saw every episode of all those shows. Um, I loved The Love Boat and

13:01 Marc Preston: Fantasy Island. I was just about to say, how do we spend our Friday nights? Is it Love Boat and then Saturday's the, uh-

13:05 Missi Pyle: Yep ...

13:06 Marc Preston: uh, uh, Fantasy Island, you know?

13:08 Missi Pyle: Fantasy Island. Yeah. And then, I mean, Magnum PI.

13:11 Missi Pyle: I watched every- I watched all the, you know, Different Strokes. I watched, um, what's the show? Um, What's Happening. I mean, every, saw every episode of that. I saw, you know, uh-

13:23 Marc Preston: Was it Silver Spoons? God. Everything. See, I can't remember. Silver Spoons. It's so funny. My kids, it should be so... My kids always like, my youngest always busts on me 'cause my memory sucks.

13:31 Marc Preston: I'm like, "I'm so proud of myself this moment that I can remember all this stuff," you know? Um- Yeah.

13:35 Missi Pyle: I'm trying to think of the one, um, The Jeffersons. I mean, I, yeah, me, me too. But you know, as I've gotten older, my memory does, is, kind of sucks as I've like hit menopause and that kind of stuff. But I also have adult...

13:47 Missi Pyle: Like, I have ADHD and I've always had it, but I could handle it before and it wasn't, you know- I think it was part of my charm and my ability to get things done. I just was like

13:56 Marc Preston: You know, I had a psychologist tell me once, she said, "People who have a little bit elevated or have a above average or, you know, solid IQ who have ADHD, they develop tools that allow them to navigate it.

14:07 Marc Preston: But at the same time they don't lose the kinda, I don't know, uh, that kinda thing that you get that helps creatively that I think helps you to-

14:16 Missi Pyle: Right ...

14:16 Marc Preston: uh, be fluid." Which I think is something I think actors kind of need because you're listening, you're improvving, you're reacting. You know, you kinda need that skill.

14:24 Marc Preston: But people with ADHD are my favorite people. They're my tribe, you know? So um,

14:29 Missi Pyle: but now- Me too. I, I do love someone with... that can keep the conversation going, and it's like, you blah, blah, blah, you know? But for me, it kind of hit a big standstill when I turned 50, and now I take... Like, I take an ADHD medicine, and I've just moved to, like, a time-release one, and it's, like, kind of incredible how it's helped me with things like executive func- functioning and-

14:49 Marc Preston: Really?

14:50 Marc Preston: You know, I... The last time I tried it- Yeah ... was, like, 20-something years ago. But yeah, I just kind of found that it, it, it, um, I could see benefits, but I also kind of felt- Right ... there was a dulling or it was not a... I don't know. Just for me to focus. Like, I did that thing in school. I thought I was not very bright in school, surprisingly.

15:07 Marc Preston: I did an IQ test. It was s- shocking what the number came out to. And the... And I asked a psychologist I said, "Dude, why is it I suck at math," you know? He's like, he's like, "That has nothing to do with it." I, I never understood people that read for joy because my brain would go somewhere else while I was reading, you know?

15:21 Marc Preston: But I was curious. You s- you mentioned the Southern Baptist. Were you the Southern Baptist folks who no drinking, no dancing, or were you more Pentecostal secular? No, we were with...

15:29 Missi Pyle: They were, they were definitely no drinking and no dancing. Um, but I was five and, you know, and then by the time I came along, I think everyone...

15:39 Missi Pyle: There was a lot of chaos. I have two, four older siblings, and my brothers were crazy. Um, really got into a lot of trouble, and there, there's a significant... Like, not a signi- Like, my youn- Uh, the one who's closest to me is three and a half years older. So, like, they kind of were all in this, like, they all kind of were born right around the same time, and then there was a lull, and then my mom just didn't even know she was pregnant, and then I was born.

16:02 Missi Pyle: Uh, she found out in a car accident that she was pregnant- Really? ... with me. And she kept... She always is like, "I just kept praying that you weren't gonna be a boy," 'cause she's like, "I can't, I can't do another boy." But, um, I think for me, because I was the last... Like, if I was the first, I would never have been allowed to go to North Carolina School of the Arts.

16:20 Missi Pyle: I would never have been allowed to be an actor. Like- I would never have been able to be in a play. I don't think my parents would've... My father would've been, would've stood for it. But he had an affair, you know, and when I was, like, 10. So by the... There was really no... There was nothing he could say.

16:38 Marc Preston: Um- Yeah.

16:39 Marc Preston: There's lots of irony in the Bi- Bible Belt, you know. I grew up in- There really is. Yeah ... you know. But being in the creative arts, what was that like for your folks? Were they, "All right. Well, that's cool," or were they s- you know, big- Again,

16:49 Missi Pyle: like, my dad had started a new family, and he... They were still living in Texas, and I was living in Tennessee.

16:56 Missi Pyle: And my mom was in, in love with an, a guy. I mean, they were... They... When I, I moved there in seventh and eighth grade, and, and, and all of a sudden I went from being... Like, my brother came out for one year, and then he decided to move back with my dad. So, like, from eighth grade until senior in high school, I went from being, like, the last of five to being basically an only child.

17:17 Marc Preston: Okay. '

17:18 Missi Pyle: Cause it was just me. And, like, my stepfather lived there for a little bit. My, one of my sisters came to live, to go to college for a couple semesters. Um, but it was just me. And my... They kinda loved it. My parents kind of... My stepfather and I had a pretty great relationship. He was German, and he drank.

17:35 Missi Pyle: So he was like... You know, my mom started having a glass of wine every once in a while and having fun. And, you know, they... It was just, it was a totally different experience growing up, I think, as a teenager than my older brothers and sisters had.

17:54 The Germantown High School theater teacher who changed her path

17:54 Missi Pyle: It just randomly ended up in this town, Germantown, Tennessee. I randomly ended up there. I would see these posters when I was in junior high for the Poplar Pike Playhouse, and I kept- for theater productions they would do. And I, I was like, "Where is this Poplar Pike Playhouse?" But really it's Ger- it was Germantown High School, and the guy who ran the program was this man named Frank Bluestein, who again, like one of the only Jews in Germantown.

18:16 Missi Pyle: Um, and he was amazing. He was this crazy... Like, he had this, we had this theater department plus a television station, and the way he ran it- Wait, in

18:26 Marc Preston: high school you had a television station? Yeah.

18:28 Missi Pyle: Well, that's cool. We had a television station. Um, I wasn't as involved in that as I was in the theater. Like, I was, I was a roving reporter, I think, for a couple years.

18:36 Missi Pyle: Um, but my f- some of my f- we had like a Germantown cr- we had a cross talk show where one of the, one of the students would interview people. Um, and then my year it was a guy named Greg Budzak, and he was so good at it. Like, he just was born to be like a, um, to be a newscaster. Uh, and then they all... I, I just was born to be an actress.

18:57 Missi Pyle: We did a lot, I did a lot of theater there, and it was, we were, we were not allowed to be a high school. Like, we were to do our best. Like, you had, the productions had to be extraordinary. And they were. Like, how many kids

19:10 Marc Preston: went to your high school? How big of a school was this?

19:12 Missi Pyle: It was a big school. Okay. I mean, it was like a public school.

19:14 Missi Pyle: It was like 600 kids in my class. But in the theater department there weren't that many people, because especially my year, there just weren't people. It was like a school that had, you know, a state, like our football's team was like, went to one state all the time, as did our cheerleading. We had like an incredible cheerleading.

19:32 Missi Pyle: We had, uh, with several squads, like the competition squad, and then we had the football squad- Mm ... and then we had the basketball squad, and even the wrestling cheerleaders. And it was like, you know, there were sororities and fraternities. Like, it was this Southern thing. But this theater department just out of nowhere show...

19:48 Missi Pyle: Like, it just, it was weird that I ended up there. I don't know how, 'cause it, it was the best thing that ever happened to me, that divorce, and-

19:55 Marc Preston: It's, it's interesting to look back and you can, I think as an adult, have an idea of like, "Okay, this person had a much bigger impact in my life than even I knew at the moment."

20:03 Marc Preston: You know? This, uh, Bluestein f- gentleman, was he, was he somebody that came from like a theater tradition? Was he like... You said he's the head of the theater department?

20:10 Missi Pyle: He was, he was the head of the theater department. He, he had, he taught acting, he taught, um, we had a production. If you, you, you would be in fourth period production, which was like, you'd come in and he'd have a thing on the board, "And this is what we need to do today."

20:25 Missi Pyle: And then you'd go scatter and do your projects. That was part of it. But I was in the theater, I was in the choir, I was in production, and it was like a s- a run, it was this television station, basically.

20:38 Marc Preston: I think the closest- Yeah ... we had to that, we had a video yearbook, uh, came out on a VHS tape at the end of the year that they put together.

20:44 Marc Preston: God, weird-

20:45 Missi Pyle: That's actually really cool. We didn't have anything like

20:47 Marc Preston: that. It w- it was r- You know, it was a really interesting time capsule, you know? Was your trajectory before, uh, you got into this department, was your trajectory in your mind going somewhere else like the arts, medicine?

20:59 Missi Pyle: The only other thing I wanted to do was either like join the Air Force, like I wanted to be a pilot-

21:03 Missi Pyle: or an astronaut. Like, I wanted to do those things. Um, I never really wanted to be a doctor, although now I kinda wish- Like having done this my whole life, I, I, I love it. It's, it's been an extraordinary time, but I just... And I am a mom too. Like, I have a, a, an 11-year-old daughter that I adopted from birth, 'cause my, I had didn't, like my, I had trouble holding a pregnancy.

21:28 Missi Pyle: So like for me, that, that became a huge thing. But like, I didn't know... I want- I just loved the escape of, of... Like I remember doing a monologue when I was in seventh grade or eighth grade that I like, just found a monologue from the library and I did it for the talent show. I just wanted to do it, you know?

21:46 Missi Pyle: I, and I remember it was called Mildred Mixed Up. I don't, I found it in a monologue book. I, it was, I've never been able to find it since. It was just this woman who kept getting things mixed up. And I think I had like, you know, a tie wrapped around my head, and one pant leg was, or shirt was rolled up, and one was, you know, different mat- different colored socks, or I don't even know.

22:03 Missi Pyle: But I remember that feeling of like the, they, you know, it was, I was next. I remember sitting against the wall on the stage, and then the curtains opened, and I think I just ne- maybe never, no one had ever really paid attention to me. So-

22:20 Marc Preston: No, no, no. That makes total sense. It's like maybe they never really saw you as being- Everybody was looking at me.

22:24 Marc Preston: Yeah.

22:25 Missi Pyle: Yeah. Like the light was on, and I was like, "Oh my God, people are actually..." 'Cause I was pretty shy, and they were just like looking at me, and I thought wow. I felt powerful. I felt like seen. Um, and I just wanted to, I wanted more of that, I think. And then I started, like the character, like I remember auditioning for stuff, and I just, the idea of playing a character was so cool to me.

22:49 Missi Pyle: And, and then I could f- and as I, when I would do it, I would feel something different like take over me. And I thought, "Oh, wow." Ah, this is nice too. I get to now escape my own skin.

23:02 Marc Preston: Yeah, I think the word escape makes so much sense. Even back in my radio days, you know, I, I, I had this thing 'cause the door for a radio studio, I don't know what it's like now, but there was this acoustic 400-pound door.

23:14 Marc Preston: It didn't feel like 400 pound. It w- it took a little- Right ... pulling. But when you went in and it would shut to like foom sound. And you really felt like, "Okay, the world's out there, I'm in here, and I can kind of dis- disappear," you know? Yeah. And that's, I think, what acting, I th- especially what I, uh, in my very, very brief nuggets here and there where I've done acting.

23:33 Marc Preston: I love the idea that you can be with oth- other adults and you can kind of, like, just play. Do you find that acting over the years has kind of kept you youthful or in touch with that kind of, uh, uh, foundational bit? You know, I need... I don't know if that makes sense at all.

23:49 Missi Pyle: I think, I think it, it's, it's my f- it's like Halloween.

23:52 Missi Pyle: You know, kind of, but every, every... You're working. You're pretending to be somebody else. It's definitely keeps you... And you never know who you're gonna play. And I've done a lot of comedy, so I've gotten to play weird characters that, that people resonate with. Um, and or when someone resonates with it. It's really cool.

24:09 The “Dodgeball” character fans dress up as for Halloween

24:09 Missi Pyle: It's fun to be a character that people are like You know, like there's, uh, like Fran Stalinovskih from Dodgeball. Like you can get a costume on... Like I don't have a bobblehead, but- ... you can get a costume on, um, on Amazon with buns and be a character that I originated. Like that's t- you know- That is cool

24:28 Missi Pyle: for Halloween. Like it's fun. It's... And those characters are fun to play and like I remember I did Josie and the Pussycats with Alan Cumming and he was like-

24:37 Marc Preston: I was trying to remember, in Josie and the Pussycats, I saw you did that. I'm trying to remember, were you like his assistant?

24:42 Missi Pyle: He worked with Parker Posey's character, and I was one-- I was Alexandra Cabot, so I'm from the original story in the comic book.

24:51 Missi Pyle: She has a brother. She's got a skunk stripe on her head- Okay ... and she and her brother are like, you know, they're just like the bitchy people from town. So she- Oh, okay.

25:00 Yeah,

25:00 Marc Preston: yeah, yeah ...

25:01 Missi Pyle: my character was very like wanted to be cool and be them, but since she couldn't and didn't know how, she would just make fun of them, you know, and just be like, "Whatever."

25:09 Marc Preston: Well, we gotta go back 'cause I'm an aviation nerd, and I gotta know, what was making you wanna maybe be in the Air Force and be a pilot?

25:16 Missi Pyle: Oh, I just, I mean, I really wanted to go to space. Like I love, I love outer space. I love the constellations. I wish I knew more about them.

25:24 Marc Preston: Uh, do you have more of like a wanderlust, exploratory vibe about you, you think?

25:28 Missi Pyle: Yeah. Like I've always just wanted to do... There's a million things that I wanna do. Like, I mean, a- and a lot-- and what's hard is that I very rarely get to hold anything done because there's, I have so many things that I wanna do. Like I have taken flying lessons and I, I took them for a while and then I put them on pause when I was trying to have, you know, have a family.

25:52 Missi Pyle: And then once I had a daughter, I was like, "Well, now I feel like I don't wanna- Yeah, same here ...

25:58 Marc Preston: go in the air to high." Same. I think when you're younger, you, you real- you, you realize the possibility of things. I mean, it's, flying is, is safe generally, but I'm like as I've gotten older, I'm like limiting the things that like...

26:10 Marc Preston: I'm choosy when it comes to things that are a little bit, not dangerous, but you know, there's risk involved. You know, I loved flying when I was... I used to when I was... How old was I? I was n- 19. I was a flying traffic reporter in a, in a, in a helicopter every mor- every morning and every afternoon in Dallas.

26:26 Marc Preston: The worst- Oh, wow. That's so cool ... traffic reporter in... Oh, I was a terrible traffic reporter 'cause that's back before GPS. We had something called Mapsco. You had to look through. I think they had something in the LA called, was it Thompson or whatever? Thomas Guide. Thomas, yeah. Thomas Guide. It's kind of the same thing.

26:39 Marc Preston: So I, I mean, things look different when you're in the air than they are on the ground, and I'm like, "I have no idea where I am." I was a terrible traffic reporter. But I loved flying, though. That was the fun part. So you were a... Did you find yourself being a quintessential theater kid when you were in school?

26:52 Marc Preston: Was that, was it kind of your life? Was it, you know, 'cause theater kids, they kind of take a big bite out of that.

26:57 Missi Pyle: Yeah, I think, uh, I really loved When, when I started doing plays in high school, that was when... I mean, the first show I did was No No Nanette, and then I did Into The Woods and I played the witch, and it was just such a...

27:14 Missi Pyle: I did a lot of musicals, so it's, I did, it was so incredible To play that character and to be able to, like, I don't know, just hold the audience. And then we did in, uh, no- we did, uh, Anything Goes, and I played Reno Sweeney, and then we did this show called Trixie Tru, Teen Detective, and I played this crazy character.

27:35 Missi Pyle: It was really fun. And then I started doing summer stock. And then, uh, uh, this guy came, Bob Moyer came from North Carolina School of the Arts, which a lot of the kids in my school had gone to North Carolina School of the Arts. So I wanted to go to North Carolina School of the Arts.

27:48 Marc Preston: Where is that located?

27:49 Missi Pyle: It's in Winston-Salem, and it's-

27:51 Marc Preston: Okay. Okay ... the

27:51 Missi Pyle: first state-supported art school, like conservatory, in the United States. 'Cause, and I think, and it's, it's, uh, yeah, it's still there. Now it's part of, it's, it's part of the university system of North Carolina. So it's U- a UNC school. So now it's UNC School of the Arts.

28:07 Marc Preston: So did you have anybody in your class or in the program who, who went on to, uh, uh, have a career in the arts or career in, on TV or film?

28:14 Missi Pyle: Yeah, I mean, uh, a lot of people have had careers in the arts from my school. Uh, Mary-Louise Parker, uh, Tom Hulse, um, Chris Parnell, uh, the, my name is, um, oh, what's his name?

28:26 Missi Pyle: I think Jada Pinkett Smith went there for a while, I think. I mean, there's a ton of people now that I don't know as much since I graduated 30 years ago. I'm, I'm literally looking at the older people. But, like, um, the guy who's in, um, The Righteous Gemstones, Simon-

28:42 Marc Preston: Oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

28:43 Missi Pyle: Danny McBride went there.

28:45 Missi Pyle: Yeah. He could've, he could've been actually, uh, a film student, I think, 'cause this film school started there when I was a sophomore or junior.

28:55 Marc Preston: Didn't he end up in, like, hasn't he set up some kind of fi- not a studio, but filming consortium of folk or whatever in South Carolina or something? I, I don't know.

29:03 Marc Preston: Uh, I-

29:04 Missi Pyle: Probably ...

29:05 Marc Preston: so when you made your way out to LA, what was your... Well, first of all, what drew you out there? Was it a project where you're doing pilot season just, you know, out there doing the hustle? I was

29:13 Missi Pyle: doing pilot season, and I felt like, and back in those days, like, all the work was in LA, all of it.

29:19 Missi Pyle: You know, now it's, now it's a very different story, but, like, uh, everything was in LA back in those days, and, um, I really wanted to do TV. That's what my dream was. I wanted to be on a TV show. I didn't even consider film and television, a, a film. I didn't even- Was there, was

29:34 Marc Preston: there a genre that you were focused on, where you like, 'cause we were talking about comedies before, and you do so,

29:39 Missi Pyle: like- No, like I wanted to do, I just wanted to do it, you know?

29:42 Missi Pyle: And, um, I went to classical, but I knew I was good at comedy because I would do these comedies, and I knew how to, you know, I knew how to make the la- and I love theater because theater would give you the, a different experience every night to do the show, and you would get the laugh in this moment or whatever, and you'd do, and then you would do it the same way, and then the next night you wouldn't get the laugh, you know?

30:00 Missi Pyle: So it's just, like, the audience would be different and different- You know, uh, different times of the day are different. Different, um, days are different, you know? It's kind

30:10 Marc Preston: of like in comedy, like depending, I mean, you get, you're one of my favorite comedic act- comedic actors.

30:15 Missi Pyle: Thank

30:16 Marc Preston: you. When you totally buy into the absurdity of the moment.

30:18 Marc Preston: I, I thought- Sure ... I mentioned the thing with, I, I saw, uh, Sterling Point. That was kind of inter- I, it was like you kind of channel a little bit of Stifler's mom, just brief, the little touch. The little touch. Um, I actually think, uh, comedy has gotta be harder, you know, 'cause that's really predicated upon timing and...

30:36 Marc Preston: D- does that come easy to you, you feel? Do you feel that that kind of cl- you can click with that a little easier? Um, or do you have to work at that?

30:44 Missi Pyle: Comedy is definitely a little bit easier for me, but that's primarily because you can feel it In a way. Like, it, it's a, it's a live thing, you know? Like, and it, and you can feel where it's going because it's going for a, a laugh usually or a moment that something is gonna happen.

31:04 Missi Pyle: And you can- if you get on the ride and you can actually feel where it's gonna go, then you can be a part of it. Like, it's just the laugh or whatever. And it isn't always a laugh 'cause sometimes it's just a situation and it's a timing of a moment of it, it, you know,

31:19 Marc Preston: When you're not busy doing something and you wanna kinda shut your brain off or just decompress, what are you watching?

31:24 Marc Preston: What are you, what are you enjoying?

31:26 Life is just lifey and the Shoney’s comment that drove her

31:26 Missi Pyle: It's so strange. I... Like, life is just lifey, you know? It just- ... like, it comes at you and you're just like, y- you know. For me, so much of my life has not been how I expected that it would go. Well,

31:40 Marc Preston: you've just given me the title of this episode, Life is Lifey. But I, I completely

31:45 Missi Pyle: understand.

31:45 Missi Pyle: You know? Yeah. Well, I feel like, you know, I thought, I thought things would be... I just thought things would be... I don't know what I thought. I just kind of was like, "Let's go." I never thought past getting a job, honestly. I just, I remember being, like, a waitress at Shoney's and this guy being like, "Well, you know, you're probably never gonna make it.

32:02 Missi Pyle: It's just too hard." And I just was like, "Well, then I, now that you said that, I have to." Mm. "I have to just at least make it." It never occurred to me that I wouldn't make it. It never occurred to me that this was stupid to even try. Like, I just kept going and going, and I just wanted to work. And, you know, getting some jobs...

32:24 Missi Pyle: This is all about what am I watching, which is hilarious. But I w- I, I, you know, I, I had, I d- I didn't really p- plan past, like, getting the job. I didn't, I always feel like I didn't quite dream big enough, if that makes any sense. Like, and I think a lot of people don't because we don't, we don't know what we can do.

32:43 Marc Preston: But, um- Well, maybe it's kind of like you're thinking about, like, right now I'm thinking about what I'm gonna do for lunch, but I'm not really thinking about dinner, you know? It's kinda like you're thinking about what's the next, what's the thing immediately- Right ... in front of me. Yeah. I, I totally, I wanna do the best I can at that thing and yeah, I get that.

32:55 Missi Pyle: Yeah. Although that's good. It's not future tripping. But, like, and then I think also being an actor is so much harder as a grownup than it is when you're young because you own a house or you have a child or you have, you have bills where you didn't... Like, when I was first started acting, I lived with three people, so I was like, my bills were very, very minuscule.

33:17 Missi Pyle: I didn't even have a car- Mm-hmm ... 'cause I lived in

33:18 Marc Preston: New York. Well, plus stuff was just cheaper back then, like, you know. I- Oh,

33:21 Missi Pyle: yeah.

33:22 Marc Preston: You know, when you talk about having roommates, were, were you finding yourself in a tribe of, of other people who were doing the same thing you are? Or were you living with somebody else who was

33:31 Missi Pyle: different?

33:31 Missi Pyle: Sorta. I, I, the people that I lived with my first apartment, one guy was from my school and he was, um... The two people were from my school and one was a waitress where I worked. And the two, and we were all creative types. Um, the waitress and I both were actors, and the o- the other t- one was a director and one was, like- I can't remember what he did, if he was, like, in cinematography, but, um, and then I ended up living with a girl who was, worked at my agency.

33:59 Missi Pyle: Like, I got in... I worked with Paradigm early on for about eight or nine years. Then I didn't, wasn't with them for, like, 20 years. I was with a bigger agency, and then I just recently went back to Paradigm because it just was too, too big for me. Um, I was kind of getting lost in the shuffle.

34:14 Marc Preston: The whole world is changing when it comes to- Yeah

34:17 Marc Preston: agencies. May- I, I do a lot of voiceover, and I've noticed that, yeah, I remember, God, Paradigm even had a really nice voiceover department. Now so much of the scale VO is just gone. The boutiquey thing, the smaller, the more manageable, that makes more sense to me, too. Yeah.

34:30 Missi Pyle: Yeah, and, and, and in the last several years, I think I just, I've gotten a little bit more heavy, and I started watching, lately I've been watching murder.

34:40 Missi Pyle: True. True crime.

34:41 Marc Preston: That's the, I think the number one genre of podcast is even, um- Right ... like, going back to Patton Oswalt, whose, whose, uh, rest his soul, his, his first- Yes ... his first one had done. Apparently, some of these podcasters are actually lending aid to cold cases. Yes. I don't know. I- I saw

34:56 Missi Pyle: that documentary about the Golden State Killer.

34:59 Marc Preston: I still wanna see that.

35:07 Megan Park and what is next for “Sterling Point”

35:07 Marc Preston: All of Sterling Point, I've gone through all the episodes. Have they said anything about a second season? Just

35:12 Missi Pyle: out of curiosity. Yes, there is a second season coming. Um, we're gonna film that in June of next year. So I, you know, I don't know exactly what's happening, but the girl who wrote and directed it and created the show, um, she didn't direct all of it, but she directed I think three or four of the episodes, is Megan Park, who is this...

35:31 Missi Pyle: She was an actress, and she played my daughter in a show, and we became really good friends. Like, I just loved her instantly, and I- she felt more like a friend than someone young. She's a little like, she's only like 14 years younger than me, but We just, I connected with her and we wrote a script together, and then she just kind of went off and she wrote, like, My Old Ass and

35:52 Marc Preston: a movie called- Oh, yeah.

35:53 Marc Preston: Oh, she did? Okay. I didn't know that.

35:55 Missi Pyle: And she wrote a movie called The Fallout, which is extraordinary, about a high school shooting, which is just, it's so well done. It's one of the gr- though both of those movies are so good. And her voice, obviously, is just different. That's why people have gravitated towards Sterling Point.

36:09 Missi Pyle: They didn't put any advertising into it. And I think it's

36:12 Marc Preston: still on Netflix. I, I like the tone of it. Uh, you know- Yeah ... it's funny, 'cause, uh, Rob Corddry told me, he said, "Dude, you just like the dark horses," you know, 'cause I, I like kind of off b- not, not funky independent stuff, but just things like, um- Well,

36:24 Missi Pyle: if you like dark horses, that's, uh, Rob Corddry is a dark horse.

36:30 Marc Preston: Yeah. I, I was like- That's a bad dark- But he, he, he nailed it. I was like, "Yeah, those are the kind of things I..." Like, I, there was a, uh, a film he's in called The Way Way Back with, uh, f- like, uh, uh, Nat Fax. Anything Nat Faxon's involved in writing- Yes ... I just-

36:42 Missi Pyle: The Way Way Back

36:44 Tim Curry’s advice and the “Two and a Half Men” near miss

36:44 Marc Preston: So when you choose a project, what is usually on your mind?

36:47 Marc Preston: Like, what... Is it, is it just, "Hey, it's a gig. I want to take a gig and have some fun and do my thing," or are you finding that as years have gone by, do you get more choosy? Are you... You know, kind of how are your s- how is your decision-making process refined?

36:59 Missi Pyle: I think it, I remember lis- I was at a, a festival, a film festival with the late, great, um, oh, I forgot.

37:08 Missi Pyle: Now his name has escaped me, from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. His name is-

37:14 Marc Preston: Oh, uh, Tim Curry?

37:16 Missi Pyle: Tim Curry. So it's me, Tim Curry, Jennifer Kun- Jennifer Tilly. It was crazy. We were on, like, the board of this, like, new festival. This is 15 years ago probably. And he said, they asked him that question, like, "Why do you choose the roles you choose?"

37:30 Missi Pyle: And he just, he had such a beauti- he just was like, "I'm gonna choose whoever is offering me the job." You know, "Whoever it is that's offering the job." And I was like, I mean, it's so true. Like, there have only been t- a, a handful of times when something comes up at the same time, for me, as other, as, as something else.

37:48 Missi Pyle: And they're, both of them have been odd ti- like, I, I had to choose between the Jenna McC- Jenny McCarthy pilot and the, and Two and a Half Men, which they didn't offer it to me, but I was supposed to test for it the next day. Mm-hmm. And Chuck Lorre was like, "I think you're gonna get the part if you test for it."

38:05 Missi Pyle: And I just was like, "Yeah, but I have this one for Jenny McCarthy today, so I can't say no to this one in the hopes that you'll give me this one tomorrow." So I had to get it b- Yeah,

38:14 Marc Preston: in the world of acting, that's, that's a pretty big gamble to make, you know?

38:16 Missi Pyle: Yeah, and Jenny McCarthy was huge at the time. Oh, yeah.

38:18 Missi Pyle: So I just thought for sure this one's gonna go forever and ever and ever, and then we didn't go, and then Two and a Half Men went for 400 billion seasons, and I would be in a much larger house right now.

38:29 Marc Preston: You know, the job itself is about making choices, right? You know, but it's, uh, the actual performance.

38:34 Marc Preston: But I think also your career is about making choices. And I think that's-

38:37 Missi Pyle: Yes ...

38:37 Marc Preston: really interesting to watch how people have made choices to sterling point. But I was like, I saw that as like, how are you going to factor in this? Because this is not a comedy. And I was like, this is interesting. I kept waiting for, uh, you know, it's not, it's, it's not a spoiler, but I was waiting.

38:51 Marc Preston: I was like, oh, is she gonna hit on him? Is she gonna take him back? Yeah, but I thought that- What's the... You know? But it's like there was a, there was a, there was a kind of like a line that's not getting crossed, but you're like flirting with it. I was like, I was like, she like flirted with that line just perfectly, you know?

39:06 Marc Preston: But going back to what Rob Corddry said, like the dark horses. I, I enjoy those things that are just... I don't know about you, but I'm looking through all the streamers like, "What do I want to watch?" Nothing's really landing. And I find something, it's like, that seems interesting, and have it become like, uh, one of those things like you're so glad you watched it.

39:20 Marc Preston: Not a favorite thing, but

39:21 Watching “Widow’s Bay” and movie nights with her daughter

39:21 Missi Pyle: where you're- Widow's Bay was like that for me. I loved Widow's Bay. Have you seen it?

39:24 Marc Preston: You're the second person in the last two hours to tell me I need to watch that, so, um. It's like a

39:27 Missi Pyle: horror comedy. It's, it's a little scary, but it's really interesting, and I thought it was extremely well done.

39:34 Missi Pyle: I liked it very much. I started watching, um, Demo, which is a Snowfall series, which is kind of set in 1991 in like the Watts area, South Central, and it's pretty, um, intense. But that's quite good. I, I, I was... I literally saw a billboard and I was like, "I've been seeing these Snowfall things forever. I'm just gonna turn it on."

39:54 Missi Pyle: Mm-hmm. I, I adopted my daughter by myself, but this guy named Josh adopted her. We were dating, um, on and off, and he adopted her. So he takes her a couple nights a week, and those nights, I have one of those nights is tonight, and I'll sit in front of the TV and just kind of like see what I see and... But I, I like...

40:12 Missi Pyle: I don't know what else to watch right now, though. I-

40:15 Marc Preston: Well, what's your, what does your daughter like to watch? What's mom, what's mom-daughter watch night like for

40:19 Missi Pyle: y'all? We watch, uh, a lot of... Like, I make her watch some of the comedies from... Like, I made her watch Goonies, and she really didn't want to watch it.

40:27 Missi Pyle: And then she loved it. Oh, really? Okay. She loved it. And like, um I'm gonna make her watch Sixteen Candles I think too. I think that'll be fun. Um, but I made her watch, uh, The Goonies and then she wanted to watch it again, so we watched it twice. I made her watch Josie and the Pussycats. She really liked that.

40:42 Marc Preston: What is your daughter's, like, uh, I don't even know if I'd say interest, but has she got that theatrical bug?

40:47 Missi Pyle: Not so far. Like, um, yeah, no. She's a d- she's different. Like, she's a different kid. I mean, we don't have the same DNA, and there's something about it being in our genes. 'Cause growing up, I mean, it was like people...

40:57 Missi Pyle: W- we all performed. Like, my sisters were very theatrical and everybody sang. And, and she's not interested in, in the spotlight. In fact, she's like, "Mom, can you just quit your job and do something else? Doesn't it bother you that people stop you all the time?" And I was like, "It doesn't happen that much." So I...

41:15 Missi Pyle: But it happens a lot, like when we're in an airport and she's with me a lot of the time.

41:19 Marc Preston: You got a kid who's growing up in LA, so it's probably not the same level of perceived magic as you would have growing up in Tennessee- Right ... where you see this thing from afar that, you know, sunset, the whole, the LA, LA, people think of Hollywood.

41:32 Marc Preston: But I was intrigued to like, okay, we're... Like I watched Poltergeist and I'm like, "Well, I know that's in LA. Where's that? That's the Valley. What's the Valley?" That seemed pretty magical. Ironic, I know. I think a kid of the '80s, 'cause everything was just-

41:43 Missi Pyle: Or like Beverly Hills Cop.

41:44 Marc Preston: Now- You

41:45 Missi Pyle: know, you'd see all these like, you know, Beverly Hills, and like-

41:48 Marc Preston: Yeah.

41:49 Marc Preston: It, it, and you go there and it's like it's not really that. Uh, where, where's your, one of your favorite places you've gone and shot something outside of LA?

41:57 Filming “Home Alone 4” with French Stewart in Cape Town

41:57 Missi Pyle: Recently working in Muskoka outside of Toronto. Like we did a lot of the interiors in Toronto, which I really like Toronto a lot, and Muskoka's super beautiful.

42:06 Missi Pyle: It's just north of Toronto, which is where Sterling Point was filmed. I love that. But I filmed, um, Home Alone 4 In s- ca- we filmed that in Ca- which yes, there was one. French Stewart and I were the bad guys, um, we were like a married couple, and that was-

42:21 Marc Preston: Oh, shit, I just saw him in something. I didn't even know it was him.

42:25 Marc Preston: Uh, Bob Trevino Likes It, I think's the name of the movie. You know what I'm talking about? I haven't... I'm gonna go write

42:29 Missi Pyle: it down. Bob Trevino. He just produced a movie that I- he and his wife, his wife produced a movie that I did with Tim Blake Nelson and Scoot McNairy and Anda, Amanda Seyfried, and it's very dark.

42:42 Missi Pyle: Um, talk about, like, me not being comedic. I'm not even kind of comedic.

42:46 Marc Preston: Yeah. Oh, the, uh, this is with, uh, uh, John Leguizamo. Mm-hmm. Uh, it's called Bob Trevino Likes It. I didn't know that was French Stewart. He was not a pleasant person, and it was so-

42:56 Missi Pyle: Right?

42:57 Marc Preston: I- The character he played, he nailed it. He... I'm sorry?

43:00 Marc Preston: Where'd you

43:00 Missi Pyle: see it?

43:00 Marc Preston: Uh, it was, it's on one of the streamers, saw it probably a few weeks ago. It was, uh, it's, it's about, uh, this girl whose, uh, whose father, and he plays the father, who's not a nice guy. And so she's trying to look for a father figure that, that's John Leg- Leguizamo. But n- I mean, I was sitting there, I had to go rewind the credits, like, "That's French Stewart?"

43:19 Marc Preston: And I rewound the end of the thing. I was like, "Wow." You know, it's so wonderful when you see somebody do something and just nail it like... 'Cause I'm used to him being, you know, you know, of course, '90s sitcom guy, you know?

43:28 Missi Pyle: He's very funny. And he's- He's funny. He was great in, when I worked with him. I loved him.

43:32 Missi Pyle: He was, like, a great fun... We had a lot of fun. Now, do you, do you enjoy the sitco- And we filmed that in Cape Town, South Africa. That's what I was gonna tell you. We filmed it in Cape Town.

43:39 Marc Preston: Really?

43:40 Missi Pyle: It was meant to be Chicago. Like, at one point there were like, the, uh, the house was supposed to be a house in Chicago, and they didn't have any houses that had trees, so they had to staple, like, bark to the, to a palm tree-

43:52 Missi Pyle: up to the camera line.

43:55 Marc Preston: Like, how are... I wonder how things are ending up in South Africa. They must have a, a good film credit or something going on down there, 'cause that was like- Very ... the second project in a

44:02 Missi Pyle: row I've gone- Yeah, well, this was 20 years ago, so it was a while ago. But it was also, the rand was, like, one...

44:08 Missi Pyle: It was, like, $1 was, like, 10 rand. So it was just- It was the money. It was, it's always about money usually

44:15 Playing a warden, joining “Stick,” and raving about “Pluribus”

44:15 Marc Preston: W- what do you have coming up soon? Or do you have anything in the can, or are you working on something

44:20 Missi Pyle: right now? I have this movie called, um, The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shed, which I was just mentioning French Stewart.

44:25 Missi Pyle: Uh, hi- his wife produced and Tim Blake Nelson wrote and directed, and it's with Scoot McNairy in it. It's

44:31 Marc Preston: great. Oh, Tim Blake Nelson wrote and

44:32 Missi Pyle: directed? Yeah. Oh, okay. And it's very dark. Very, very dark, and it's about, um, a, an inmate who has a relationship with a woman who starts teaching a class there, and I play the, a warden.

44:42 Missi Pyle: Like I don't... There's nothing funny about her. And it was really lovely that he cast me, 'cause even his creative team was like, "Huh?" 'Cause Margo Martindale was supposed to do it. I don't know if you know who she is, but she's like

44:53 Marc Preston: so amazing. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, she just, she just did a funny thing with, uh, I just talked to, I talked to Chris Diamantopoulos a little while back.

45:00 Marc Preston: They did something called The Sticky.

45:01 Missi Pyle: Yeah.

45:01 Marc Preston: I think it was about crime related to the maple syrup trade in Canada or something. She's great. Oh, that sounds great. But she, she's a force. Force. She's kind of, she's cool to watch. She's a-

45:09 Missi Pyle: Very cool ...

45:10 Marc Preston: so you were a warden. Okay. So that- I was

45:11 Missi Pyle: prison warden in that.

45:12 Missi Pyle: Then I did, I have a, a couple se- a couple episodes of Stick, the new, uh, the Owen Wilson show that's comes out. I'm in a couple of those.

45:19 Marc Preston: So h- how do you figure in to Stick?

45:21 Missi Pyle: Um, I am a love interest for Tim Oliphant. Oliphant? Timothy Oliphant's character.

45:28 Marc Preston: Yeah. I never know if it's Oliphant or Oliphant. I

45:30 Missi Pyle: know.

45:30 Missi Pyle: Yeah, he's -

45:31 Marc Preston: He's, he-

45:32 Missi Pyle: He's the happiest person I've ever met. Like, he's so happy. It's kind of delightful.

45:37 Marc Preston: He seems like the sweetest guy.

45:38 Missi Pyle: Good guy. Really

45:39 Marc Preston: good guy. He's just so unattractive though, you know. Just, it's hard to look at. It's hard to look at. But me too. Uh, I know. Yeah, that's one with Martin Marin.

45:45 Marc Preston: And I, you know, I had a, a... spoke with, um, a, a, Mariana Treviño.

45:49 Missi Pyle: Yeah.

45:50 Marc Preston: Uh- Yes,

45:50 Missi Pyle: Mariana

45:51 Marc Preston: Treviño. Yeah. I think that's how you...

45:52 Missi Pyle: She's incredible. Yeah.

45:53 Marc Preston: Yeah, she, we, we bonded because she grew up in Monterey, and she, we talked about she used to come to Padre Island also. Okay. And we kind of grooved on that.

46:00 Missi Pyle: Sea Horn is in this ea- this season.

46:02 Missi Pyle: I don't know if you... Rhea? Ray- Ray. Ray Sea Horn. Ray.

46:05 Marc Preston: Oh, really? Okay.

46:06 Missi Pyle: Um, and she's really terrific. And, um, I watched her show. I loved Pluribus. I can't wait to see season two.

46:13 Marc Preston: And I've yet to watch that. I wanna watch Pluribus. Oh,

46:14 Missi Pyle: do it. I've heard good things about it. So. It's, I mean, look. It's, it's one, it's basic- a lot of it is one person on a, you know, the...

46:22 Missi Pyle: 'Cause the world sort of, everyone gets this virus which makes them all one. One, basically one mind. Kind of like if there's a great alter is- Yeah ... then w- we come and in, in experience individuality here on Earth or whatever. Like, if that's your idea of what life is, and then you all go back. This is like, all of a sudden everybody's just one, but they're still m- moving pieces, but they can all, like, your, the g- the guy who's delivering your pizza can also give birth to a baby or fly a jet.

46:50 Marc Preston: I must watch this.

46:51 Missi Pyle: It's slow-moving, so the first few episodes, and then, but I think it's really, really well done. And she does, it's like she does this, she's just incredible. I can't even imagine what a thrill that must have been for her, and also terrifying. But she is mostly the episode, the whole show.

47:09 Playing a cult leader on “Y: The Last Man”

47:09 Marc Preston: Do you prefer, or is there a preference for you to be a, a big anchor? You know, where- Right ... the spotlight's really on you in a project, or do you prefer to be just part of the ensemble and playing your part? 'Cause to me it would be a little intimidating to be, "Okay, well, I'm carrying some of this on my shoulders now," you know, that kind of a thing.

47:28 Marc Preston: Do you have a preference?

47:29 Missi Pyle: Well, I did it in theater quite a bit, and have in theater, but in film I really have only done it a couple of times in films that really nobody saw. Um, I did do a, I did do a show called, uh, Y: The Last Man, and it was on FX, and I played, it was very dramatic, and I played this woman who Again, like I've done drama, it's just people haven't seen a lot of it because, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't, it hasn't stuck.

48:01 Missi Pyle: But this particular show I played a woman, like this, this, another like plague happens, which it came out after the pandemic and I think people were just like, "No." And anything with a, a Y chromosome died, animals, people. Mm-hmm. So it's just a bunch of women and trans men and I came in- Okay. I think I've remember that

48:19 Missi Pyle: I came in midway through as this character who becomes like a cult leader, but she's a cop, but she isn't who she thinks she is. And there was one episode, episode eight, that was all about my character, which they kind of do that. You know, you'll wa- be watching a show and there'll be fi- Mm-hmm ... the main characters, then all of a sudden there'll be an episode that's about this other character.

48:38 Missi Pyle: Like how they do that in, um, in The Last of Us with the two guys. Did you see The Last of Us?

48:43 Marc Preston: Yeah. Oh, yeah. God, that was, that was

48:45 Missi Pyle: a great, uh- And all of a sudden you're just on a journey about somebody else. And they do that too in, um, in, uh, Widow's Bay. They go back in time, and so there's an episode that's completely about this character that you've heard about, like it's a full hour.

49:00 Missi Pyle: So they do this about my character, so it's, it's her origin story, and everything is about... Like, so I'm in every scene and, not every scene, but in that particular moment, like for me, that was, like I had a relationship with the crew. Yeah. It was so incredible. I loved leading the ship. Like I've never done that before.

49:21 Missi Pyle: And as, you know, coming in every day and be like, "Ah," you know, and, and it just, and we all had, and like I was the, I was a cult leader, so I had all these go- girls underneath me just watching me as I would tell stories and-

49:34 Marc Preston: So is there anything you haven't done, you're like, we'll call a bucket list item, something that's, that's a character, a character type, a genre, something you haven't done, even directing or anything

49:44 Missi Pyle: like that, Gal?

49:45 Missi Pyle: I think, um, I should definitely start directing some television. I, I have, I sh- I have a short film that I wanna make this year and just kind of see. Like, I feel like I, I should have already done it, but I may not. I mean, I also might become an EMT. Like I, you know. We'll-

50:10 The Seven Questions

50:10 Marc Preston: as we kind of wrap up, I always like to do, uh, something called my seven questions, which it's kind of a little extra get to know you, uh, with everybody, and I haven't talked food yet. I always got to do that. Well, we did talk about Whataburger, but, uh, I always want to find out, like, what is your favorite comfort food?

50:25 Marc Preston: That, that thing if you're having a crappy day it can elevate, or a great day, it just kind of adds to it. What would that be for you?

50:31 Missi Pyle: Um, I mean, ice cream is always... Like, ice cream, like, I, I would stop at, you know, In-N-Out and get a shake and a... But I little- I'll get like a, um, I'll get like a lettuce wrapped double double because sometimes too much bread is not my friend.

50:48 Missi Pyle: But then with a shake and a little bit of french fries, or french fries and a-

50:52 Marc Preston: Yeah. That's, that... I do, I do like the french fries. Yeah. That's... God, I haven't had In-N-Out in a while. The next question, again, if you're gonna sit down, you're gonna... I don't know, you're gonna spend a whole afternoon talking story, you and, uh, you and three people having coffee, uh, just chatting.

51:07 Marc Preston: Living or not, who would those three people be you would love to sit down with?

51:10 Missi Pyle: I mean, j- uh, are you asking, like, for famous celebrity people? 'Cause it would be like a bunch.

51:14 Marc Preston: Literally anyone in your life or in history or, uh, just anybody you feel like you would want to spend an afternoon with them just talking.

51:22 Missi Pyle: Probably my roommates, Christy and Audra from, from New- North Carolina School of the Arts, and then maybe, um, maybe David Bowie, the three of us. That'd be cool.

51:34 Marc Preston: That would be very cool. Now, we gotta go now back to when you were in Tennessee or even back in Texas. Who was your first celebrity crush when you were a

51:43 Missi Pyle: kid?

51:43 Missi Pyle: Kirk Cameron from, um, Growing Pains. Ugh, he was this young teenager. I came to California when I was, like, six- 15 or 16. I thought for sure he was gonna meet me- Somewhere, but I never made it to Los Angeles. I was in, in San Die- or like-

52:01 Marc Preston: He was the guy back in the day. I remember talking to him back when I had my show on ABC, and he, uh, he said that he lamented, uh, you know, I said, "What's one '80s fashion trend that, you know, you did that you kinda wish you didn't do?"

52:13 Marc Preston: He said he had sweaters, but he'd tuck them into his pants. But he was an era where he would make it look cool. Yeah. So it seemed absurd, but, oh, Kirk Cameron's doing it, we gotta do it now. Nothing but You know? He

52:21 Missi Pyle: was perfect. Uh, he just was perfect.

52:24 Marc Preston: Now, the next question I got for you is, uh, let's say you're gonna be on an exotic island, somewhere you really wanna be.

52:30 Marc Preston: Somewhere that is, uh, it's comfortable. You got a nice, like, little cabana or whatever, but there's no streaming. So if y- you're gonna be there a whole year, so if you wanna listen to music, you gotta bring one CD or a box set, and to watch a movie, something you can watch over and over again, a DVD. What would that CD be, and what would that DVD be for you- Oh

52:48 Marc Preston: on the island for the whole year?

52:49 Missi Pyle: That's a great... I mean, I love The Princess Bride. I could ... But a year seems like a long time. And I really love the Patty Griffin, her first album, Living with Ghosts. Those are two, my two favorites. I can listen to those over and over. But I don't know at this point. I would think I would want it to be something like maybe some Saturday Night Live box set of, you know, the greatest Well,

53:10 Marc Preston: there you go.

53:10 Marc Preston: See, that, that's, I think that's perfect. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I gotta ask you, as a kid, uh, went to school at the same time, what, what were a couple of your high school jams?

53:18 Missi Pyle: I really like, and still like, um, Just Like Heaven by The Cure is one of my absolute favorite- Mm-hmm ... songs of all time. Um, I also liked The Promise.

53:29 Missi Pyle: What promise you

53:29 Marc Preston: my woo- Oh, Win and

53:30 Missi Pyle: Rom If I had to walk the world and make you fall for me

53:36 Marc Preston: Isn't it wild? We're in an era now where not only are those songs showing up in advertisements, but you're seeing young performers- Yeah ... uh, do a cover. I heard an acoustic version with a young lady doing Just Like Heaven.

53:47 Marc Preston: I was like, that's kind of cool. We're hearing our, we're hearing some of our music show up in movies- Right ... but reimagined, so it's, I don't know, it's kind of cool. Not, not a big fan of hearing Guns N' Roses in the grocery store, though. That's, that's a, that's a bridge too far. Heard that Sweet Child o' Mine when I was at the grocery.

54:02 Marc Preston: I was like, "That is just wrong on so many levels," you know? Oh. Um, oh, Ra- um

54:06 Missi Pyle: She's ready. She's like, "

54:07 Marc Preston: I'm

54:08 Missi Pyle: ready."

54:08 Marc Preston: Oh. He's very talkative. You know, so he, like, he- that's- he, ever since he was a little fuzzball. Um, now the next... Ranger, we're, we're talking, pup. Come on. Uh, now next question is, if you were to say, from the time you get up to the time you go to bed, if you were to say, "God, today was a perfect day," what were the ingredients and what were the...

54:27 Marc Preston: Why are you licking me? Oh, God. Uh, what were, what would be the ingredients or the component parts of a day you could say, "That was a perfect day for

54:36 Missi Pyle: me"? I would go to the beach with my daughter and we would play. Maybe the rain, maybe it'd be raining, and we would just be running around in the rain in the beach.

54:44 Marc Preston: Beaches are fun when it's... He likes to go for a walk on the beach. Oh, and I bring the puppies too.

54:47 Missi Pyle: Or the golden- The two doggies.

54:49 Marc Preston: Oh, of course, of course. It, now, I don't know about you, but he's like Velcro when it comes to sand, and I have to, like, hose him off or else he just walks in and just sands everywhere.

54:57 Missi Pyle: Well, mine are pretty short-haired, so, you know, that's

55:00 Marc Preston: fine. Oh, okay.

55:02 Missi Pyle: Hey, Chicken. I don't know if they'll come or not. Sunny, Chicken, come.

55:06 Marc Preston: What, what kind of pooches are they?

55:07 Missi Pyle: They're pu- like, mutts, like, um, chihuahua mutts. Come here. Chicken. We all just went on a big, big hike. I took Sunny, who's a puppy, on her first Her for a hike and she's, was like, "Emily, come here.

55:21 Missi Pyle: Come over here. Say hi. Come here, you're being shy. Come here." Oh, look, there she's on the couch. There's Jake.

55:28 Marc Preston: Well, I don't know if shy or just like, uh, they know exactly what makes them comfy. That's, uh-

55:33 Missi Pyle: She'll sit with Zooms a l- sometimes just sit up there. Where's Sunny? Oh, here's Sunny. Hi, Sunny. Come here.

55:39 Missi Pyle: Oh, there's baby. This is Sunny.

55:41 Marc Preston: That one's not as shy. She's only three months old. Oh, okay. Well, she's only three months? My child. She's a baby. Oh,

55:46 Missi Pyle: she's a baby. Okay. You're just a baby.

55:47 Marc Preston: The next question real quick I got for you is, uh, if you weren't doing this, if somebody said, "Missi, acting, uh, your theatrical pursuits, it's just not in the cards for you anymore.

55:57 Marc Preston: It's not available," what else do you think you could do that you would find joy doing?

56:01 Missi Pyle: I think, um, at this point I'd like to be, um, like a n- a nurse or an ER nurse particularly. I'd like to work medicine, like I'd like to be in a ... I, I am too old to go to medical school. Um, but I would maybe become like a, a nurse or a E- MT- EMT.

56:20 Missi Pyle: Like I am thinking of becoming an EMT, and I also kind of wanna work in hospice. That's something I think I'd like to do is-

56:26 Marc Preston: Now, the last question I got, if, if you do have, uh, by some chance a, a DeLorean you can jump in and use that DeLorean to take you back in time to where you're 16 years old and you get a piece of advice you're gonna offer yourself that, um, to make that moment of your life somehow better or put you on a little bit different trajectory, what would that piece of advice be that you'd be offering to yourself?

56:45 Missi Pyle: I think it would just be like, say no more and no is a full sentence. Like, you don't have to please people. It's not pleasing, like doing what you think other people want you to do or say is, isn't really benefiting either one of you. And just tell the truth. You know, be who you are and tell the tr- don't be afraid to tell the truth.

57:06 Marc Preston: But isn't that the great irony that those who act a lot of times are kind of have a people pleaser muscle? You know, isn't that kind of- Yeah ... like it's, it's sort of part of-

57:15 Missi Pyle: You know how to

57:16 Marc Preston: be- ... I think the DNA

57:16 Missi Pyle: of it Well, you can also be other people too, other people. I've always a, I was always a different person to different people.

57:21 Missi Pyle: Like, so I could be, I fit into any friend group, but I could be, you know, with these people I could be, with these people I could be, with you-

57:28 Marc Preston: Where do you find your joy when you're not working, when you're not, you know, when you just wanna decompress or somewh- something you do that f- you find joy doing, be it a hobby or

57:37 Missi Pyle: something like that?

57:37 Missi Pyle: I've always, you know, I just got a hip replacement. I was a runner and a hiker and I love playing music and I like, I like writing. I like, um, I hang out with my daughter a lot. I mean, that's what I've been doing for the last decade is just hanging out with her, like going to the beach, I like adventuring.

57:54 Missi Pyle: She's not as much of an adventurer though, like she's a more of a homebody. So that's harder for me because I, I could just, you know, get a flight pass on front... What my cousin was saying, there's like a flight pass and just be like, "Let's go here this weekend. Let's go here this weekend. Let's do this." But that's just not the person she is.

58:12 Missi Pyle: She's more It's just the worst

58:15 Marc Preston: S- so the hip replacement, you're the second person I've talked to recently that's had that, and, uh, everybody I know is like they feel great. So is it... Are you feeling good?

58:23 Missi Pyle: It's way better, yeah. The other, the other side hurts now, but it's gonna be good. But now it's, it's...

58:28 Missi Pyle: That side is great.

58:29 Where to watch Missi Pyle now in “Sterling Point” and “Stick”

58:29 Marc Preston: Well, Missi, thank you so much for spending some time with me. Yeah, thanks. And, uh, hopefully, uh, fingers crossed, we'll have an opportunity to catch up down the line.

58:35 Missi Pyle: Yeah. Okay, nice to talk to you too.

58:39 Marc Preston: Well, there you go, Missi Pyle. What a fun conversation. Man, I really enjoyed sitting down with her.

58:45 Marc Preston: As I mentioned before, every time I see her show up in a show or a movie, I know it's gonna be something cool, and, uh, you know, she delivers every time. Uh, the new show on Prime Video is called Sterling Point. Uh, just a little bit something different from Missi we don't always get, so it's kind of fun. Uh, also, Stick, one of my faves.

59:04 Marc Preston: Uh, really enjoy the show on Apple TV with Owen Wilson and Mark Maron. Of course, Mariana Treviño, who was on this show, uh, a little while back. So check it out. If you haven't seen Stick yet, it's a fun show. Uh, hey, do me a favor if you would. Just pop over to your podcast app, grab your phone, whatever have you.

59:19 Marc Preston: Make sure to please follow Story and Craft. I mean, it means a lot. You get a notification every time a new episode comes out. Plus also, if you leave a review, leave a like, stars, whatever have you, uh, it helps people to find the show, and I appreciate that greatly. Okay, so I'm gonna get on out of here, grab a bite to eat.

59:36 Marc Preston: I want you to please have a great rest of your day or evening or week or weekend, whatever. As I always say, thank you very much for making what I got going on here part of whatever you've got going on. It does mean a lot to me. So I look forward to seeing you in a couple days right here for another episode of Story and Craft.

59:55 Marc Preston: We'll talk to you then.

59:56 Announcer: That's it for this episode of Story and Craft. Join Marc next week for more conversation right here on Story and Craft. Story and Craft is a presentation of Marc Preston Productions, LLC. Executive producer is Marc Preston. Associate producer is Zachary Holden. Please rate and review Story and Craft on Apple Podcasts.

1:00:18 Announcer: Don't forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. You can subscribe to show updates and stay in the know. Just head to storyandcraftpod.com and sign up for the newsletter. I'm Emma Dylan. See you next time, and remember, keep telling your story.