- Welcome back to another segment
of "Behind the Scenes of the Waltons".
I continue today with more of your questions
in another segment of "Ask Judy".
I have a couple questions here from Dave.
Actors have to deal with privacy.
I can imagine, as you get noticed,
it becomes harder and harder to have a private life.
How do actors generally cope with privacy and boundaries?
I'm sure fans at times can be a bit ill mattered
but of course, many more are great.
That's true.
We, there's a lot of,
in general, I would say the majority of fans are great
and they really just want to let you know
that they love your work, they love your show,
they love what you've done, which is, you know,
wonderful to hear.
That never gets old because the reason we do it is the work.
So yeah, in terms of setting boundaries,
it can be challenging, you know,
challenging sometimes to have,
to want to just have some personal time
with maybe your family, your friends,
and as much for you as for the other people in your life,
you know, they don't necessarily sign up for that.
So, you know, I get that someone can be excited
that this might be their only opportunity to make contact
with someone that they admire and watch on the screen,
but have to say that following people into bathrooms
is inappropriate.
Or sometimes, you know,
in the middle of a meal you're about to take a bite
and someone's like, can you sign this, you know?
So I would just ask that people maybe think
and be a little respectful also that, you know,
recognize that if someone's in the middle of having a meal,
that maybe that might not be the time to
go up and interrupt them and with their family
that maybe take a look at asking if they might do it later.
You know, if someone comes up might be like,
yeah, perfectly happy to,
let me just finish what I'm doing here.
So maybe try and think of it from the other side,
you know, if somebody is overexcited about it.
We do our best.
Most performers try to be as interactive
and as generous with their fans as possible.
Let's see.
You also said you appreciate Richard being on, and as did I,
it was great to have him take time out of his schedule
to spend with me and to share with all of you.
Then you said that Richard talked about a mix of ego
and work ethic, and that I also mentioned, it got to me.
Does fame really change the person?
Is it individual situations or are there common patterns
with that?
I don't know.
I think it could be, it can be pretty common if you go from
obscurity to suddenly being in a hit show
and people are suddenly,
especially for a young person, I think,
to understand all of a sudden there being
all this extra attention and these perks
and people treating you well and getting invited to
special occasions like, you know, awards shows
or premieres or, you know, it's a little heady,
and so to start thinking that you're,
you know, sort of special and
important and all of that is very seductive.
And yeah, there were points where I started buying
you know, sort of believing my own press
and believing all of that, and then wanting to sort of
assert that people should treat me differently.
And I, fortunately, for however long it lasted,
I apologize to anybody that I worked with
that I may have been difficult at times
in that sort of young arrogance,
but I came around to recognizing really what's important,
which is the work
and that I want my work to speak for itself,
and that if people are going to respect me,
I have to earn that.
We can't insist that people respect us.
So, you know, I have tried to go forward
and treat other people the way I want to be treated
to not feel that I am somehow being insulted if I,
you know, have some tiny dressing room
instead of some big dressing room.
You know, it's that ultimately,
that's not the important thing.
The important thing is to, that I enjoy the work
and that I wanna do the best work I can.
So I think that is common
and I think it can be very common with young people
because we haven't had as much life experience
to put things into perspective, so.
And that is also I think where in your next question you say
how do you cope with it, more importantly?
What happens when that fame goes away
as obviously all actors endure the ups and downs of fame.
Yeah, I think coming to recognize that
who you are as a person, we're all special.
You know, we're special for different reasons.
Some are more public reasons and some are just personal.
Some people, you know, it's like everybody's a hero
in some way in their own life, even if it's, you know,
not even if, but it, you know,
it can be raising a wonderful family,
people we will never know or meet.
And by comparison, I feel, yeah, there's a value
to what we do, you know, in the entertainment industry,
trying to keep morale up and things like that.
Set good examples.
I mean, I think those are the types of things that we can do
that are valuable, but I think first and foremost,
you have to, as an individual,
have your own sense of self-worth
and that it can't just come from the outside,
and that's what I see with the fame thing,
is that if you don't,
if you're not really grounded in your own sense of self,
then you can start feeling that your characters,
or this unrealistic world of Hollywood or whatever,
somehow your fame equates to your value
and that is just nonsense.
That, you know,
and that's what I see happen with younger people sometimes
is that they don't recognize that all of the attention
and everything is not necessarily about them.
That, you know, there's a lot of fair weather friends
that yes, when it goes away, a lot of people disappear
because they were just sort of
jumping on your success train.
And when your success train isn't going at full speed,
you know, you're not valuable to them in the same way.
So I think our value has to come from within
and recognize that whether you have a hit show
or you don't have a hit show,
or you're famous, more famous this week and next week,
nobody wants to hire you,
that that doesn't make your own self worth any less.
So I think that's the most important lesson for us to learn.
Next question is from Larry who said,
when you feel sad, what cheers you up the most?
Music, like music or ice cream?
I would say music more than ice cream.
What cheers me up?
You know, it depends on the circumstances,
but sometimes getting out and doing something
I feel like getting into action,
whether it's that I go out and ride my horse or you know,
I go take a walk and enjoy the outside scenery,
or I talk to, you know, call a friend that I'm close to,
things like that will cheer me up.
I try not to let food be the thing that cheers me up
'cause I think that's not, that's not a good habit for me.
That's what I have for this segment of "Ask Judy".
I'll be back with more
"Behind the Scenes of the Waltons" and more "Ask Judy"
If you're enjoying these, please do hit like and subscribe.
If you wanna know when I'm posting another one,
hit that notification bell.
If you want to share a question
that you'd like me to consider answering
in an "Ask Judy" segment, put it in the comments below.
I'll see you next time.
Thanks for watching.