#130 Pandemic Pillow Talk with Summer Moore

CTS Announcer 0:01

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Jeff Dwoskin 0:30

All right, Starr, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. And you get this show go in each and every week and this week was no exception. Welcome, everybody to classic conversations, Episode 130. As always, I am your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back for more classic madness. And we've got tons of classic knus lined up for you today. Yes, we do. Actress writer, producer creator Summer Moore is with us to talk about her fabulous web series pandemic pillow talks, dying herself Eric Roberts and many others. Can't wait to share that conversation with you can't wait for you to check out the web series. Exciting times awaits you. And that is coming up in just a few minutes.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:26

Last week was our huge kickoff of the new name classic conversations. Thanks for all the kind emails and notes I love it to Episode 128 129 Were the official first episodes with the new name episode 128. Don't miss that one. Stu Shostack and his documentary and internet show Stu's Show. You gotta check that out. It's awesome. If you love Lucille Ball, you'll love our deep dive into Lucille Ball, learning about Stu and all the cool stuff he's done.

Jeff Dwoskin 1:58

And then episode 129 with Jim Piddock and his new book caught with his pants down such a fun conversation with Jim Piddock. A classic comedic actor you loved him and Best in Show, you know the scene along with Fred Willard, as they announced the dog show. It's a classic He's everywhere though he's everywhere. So check those out. All available at Jeff it's funny.com or on the socials at Jeff Dwoskin show I didn't change the socials didn't want change everything at once. Didn't want to didn't want to create complete anxiety with my fans. So check that out. Also follow us on YouTube for the crossing the streams episodes we do live every Wednesday at 9:30pm. Eastern so much Jeff Dwoskin not enough time I get it. That's why we're coming at you right into your ears through this wonderful podcast. You don't have to go anywhere.

Jeff Dwoskin 2:49

Huge shout out to my brother Jon Dwoskin check out his podcast if you're looking for sound business advice and business coaching think business with Jon Dwoskin. Huge Happy Birthday. Check out his podcast. He's super cool. I'm on his live show very frequently. I'd say we were just on I was just on not too long ago actually talking about my startup stampede social, you can check that out. If you're into social media engagement and good stuff like that.

Jeff Dwoskin 3:15

I do want to thank everyone for their support of the sponsors. When you support the sponsors, you're supporting us here at Classic conversations. And that's how we keep the lights on

Jeff Dwoskin 3:26

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Jeff Dwoskin 4:21

All right. Well check that out. I know a lot of people that wish they had had that at one point in their lives. I think that's a great pivot to my conversation with some are more some are more is a writer, producer, actress and creator. She created this amazing web series that we're going to talk all about called pandemic pillow talk. It's a nine episode comedy web series starring Eric and Elisa Roberts. That's right that Eric and Elisa Roberts they filmed it 100% remotely during lockdown she is going to tell us all about it is a great web series about the follies of online dating tons of hilarious stuff. All of you have gone through the dating Grace As I that I know everyone will be able to relate to in one way or another. I'll put links in the show notes you gotta check it out support Summer, I'm going to put her links in there to follow her on all the socials. It's always fun having an interview with someone and then becoming bonds with them after so I'm really really asking you to get to know summer and then get to know her web series. Time for me to share my interview with some are more with you. Enjoy.

Jeff Dwoskin 5:25

Alright, everyone, I'm excited to introduce you to my next guest, actress, producer, writer, star of pandemic pillow talk and writer and director everything for that actually, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show Summer Moore. Hey, Summer.

Summer Moore 5:42

Hi, thank you. I'm not a director. That's the only thing I'm not

Jeff Dwoskin 5:45

I'm sure you did your drag anything ever I want our it's like you should be feature director summer. It's okay, every throws that in there. You've literally done everything else that you have to have. If you haven't, you will by the time someone hears this, I'm sure you'll have directed many things.

Summer Moore 6:02

Well, thanks.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:05

So oh, so summer. Thanks for hanging out with me. I have a question for you. So let's let's I love to like to kind of always understand kind of the origin story like how you got into acting. I did born in Utah, raised in Colorado, and then in college, you found your way to LA at what point did you know theater was in your blood and you wanted to kind of go that route.

Summer Moore 6:27

I started doing plays like for performances for my family, like my little sister and I would dress up and do little plays or we were really little. So I always I think had it in me. And my grandmother at one point told me that when I was really little I told her I'm going to be a star. And so I guess I already had it in me. And then middle school I did plays and drama and then high school and then the whole plan was to come out to LA go to USC get a degree in a real degree, but then pursue acting. So that was the plan.

Jeff Dwoskin 6:59

Gotcha. So you minored in theater, like what is that? How does that whole process did? Did having a literal degree in theater help or help in certain areas of where you ended up with screenwriting and all that kind of stuff? Or what's the curriculum for something like that in terms of prepping someone who wants to become an actress, writer, future director?

Summer Moore 7:24

Oh, one indirect, but okay, I'm just laid out well, the minor I mean, how I have my degrees in environmental studies, and I thought that would be my fallback. If I didn't, wasn't successful in the entertainment industry, I can just go get a real job and with the environment, and that would be a big thing. So I did the minor which allowed me to take classes but USC is very geared towards theater for some reason, even though they have a really good film program for directors and cinematographers and things like that the Acting Program is still theater based. So it was kind of disappointing at then that there were very little classes about getting into Hollywood's like, I took a class that was auditioning for the camera and that was like one of the only ones that wasn't theater based so the theater stuff was more doing plays course learning how to act learning some techniques, things like that which carry over into Hollywood in film or TV but it's definitely not you I don't think you really got full on prepared for as an actor you also are a business you're a product like most actors out there, I think don't what it seems to me is don't really know you guys got a build up your social media, you have to promote yourself, you have to promote, promote, it's your your product, it's not just like, oh, let me just get hired. I mean, unless you're born into a really successful family, and they just wave the magic wand and you got parts so but for the actor that's working hard, they have to really put a lot of time and and I don't really feel like at that time and that they really taught that kind of stuff about being a business and all that idiosyncrasies of Hollywood. It's a whole different thing than if I wanted to do theater, I would be going to New York personally. So

Jeff Dwoskin 9:10

I was I was looking at your IMDB and we'll work our way up to a pandemic Pillow Talk. It'll be at the big finish. You're in some great movies, but they all said uncredited, so what does that mean in Hollywood terms? Like you're in Catch Me If You Can, which is one of my favorite movies ever. I hear that a lot from people. Yeah, and but uncredited that what does that even mean? I mean, you got paid you were there? Right? I mean, I I just don't get put you in literal credits. I mean, it's

Summer Moore 9:38

correct. I mean, you think what's I can't remember the one where Matt Damon it's the one that's in the it's a sci fi one and Matt Damon appears and he turns out to be like a cameo performance. And he's actually I can't remember which one that was but it was like all this big surprise that Matt Damon was in it because they weren't him in the credits.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:56

What or he was in for I don't know he played now. Okay, yeah, no,

Summer Moore 10:00

no, no, no, it was I can't remember which one, but it was a big secret and Okay. And so they don't put them in credits when like for that he never got a credit. So he's actually uncredited because it was supposed to be like hush hush. Sometimes you'll get uncredited when you've been cut out. And then sometimes when you've been cut out, you don't even get a credit. And just because you get cut out does not mean you were bad. It just means that I mean, it could mean that too. But hopefully that's not what it means that they just it didn't work when they were doing the Edit, then they decided we're going to cut the scene or whatever kind of thing. I mean, I did a horror film that I got uncredited for, and I was in the opening cameo of it. But they turned out in the edit that the distributors felt like it just needed to get to the monster right away instead of like I was getting killed, but then I was you weren't seeing the monster. So they cut me out. And so I got uncredited for that from that standpoint, which was disappointing. And a lot of people I think that don't know, think, Oh, you must have been bad. And that's why you cut, they cut you out. But it's so many factors. When I was interning in college, I was working for an agency, and there was an actress that they represented that had a huge role in Titanic. And she was like a whole hour of Titanic. So the movie was even longer. And she got completely cut out. You see her like barely in the background. So it they just had to cut, you know, and that would have made her career and all that. So it wasn't that she was bad. So I mean, there's various reasons that you get uncredited for

Jeff Dwoskin 11:32

Yeah, yeah. And people. I've talked to a lot of people where they're like, I'll bring up something like, oh, actually, I didn't make it into the fine. It happens all the time. But you're right. Titanic James Cameron probably shot 50 hours of a movie, which ended up being 40 hours long and get you by it was you know, you gotta you gotta make choices. Yeah, because yeah, they think something's gonna work and they cut stories out Kevin Costner got cut out of The Big Chill. Oh, really? He was the dead guy in the beginning. I think like yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, so yeah, so

Summer Moore 12:03

there's a lot of reasons you'll use uncredited? It's not just like one

Jeff Dwoskin 12:07

so it was it was a cool being Catch Me If You Can if it says swimmers it was at the scene where he's at the hotel and they're kind of closing in on Leo. Is that is that? Was that a completely different scene? Was there others?

Summer Moore 12:19

Yeah, it's it's Leo has a party at his house. It's a 70s party. He's in the 70s I think he's

Jeff Dwoskin 12:26

we know you're right. It was his house. I was thinking about something else here.

Summer Moore 12:30

I mean, they are closing in on him because Tom Hanks comes in like But somebody's already gone by them. So

Jeff Dwoskin 12:35

it was time there as Leo there to get the hang with him on the set.

Summer Moore 12:38

I guess they were there. I wasn't hanging but yeah,

Jeff Dwoskin 12:41

you could say you were there. You're closer to on that. I was it was awesome. I

Summer Moore 12:45

mean, I was just like, oh my gosh, like they were talking on the sidewalk and I was like, excuse me and I like walk in between and I'm like, Oh my gosh, these are like big dudes like Spielberg

Jeff Dwoskin 12:54

to write with Spielberg. Yeah, yep. So you were right

Summer Moore 13:00

there but it's you know, just texted them earlier. It was a very cool set. It was it was hard because it was those kinds of clothes it's very it's a period piece and different wardrobes you go through wardrobe fittings, and I'm 5859 When I'm doing yoga so I can be very tall and I don't have small feet the wardrobe people were having the hardest time like trying to find shoes and to do various things because I have a size 10 which is like they didn't have back then so it's interesting from that standpoint, and then it makes you if you feel insecure like I've always felt insecure about my feet and when they're like oh my gosh what are we going to deal with her like and then you just feel like oh my gosh like make me feel worse that I'm not five 100 pounds so awesome

Jeff Dwoskin 13:45

well I'm sorry that they body shamed your feet that's wrong. Oh that was that was it's a horrible thing and I probably wouldn't be ashamed my wife has a size five she's got tiny feet and she she would be jealous because she can't buy shoes at all they don't make size five so she would she she always wishes she had bigger feet so really I guess it depends what side of the you know

Summer Moore 14:07

Yeah. Shoes are there apparently a bigger thing but they get all taken so like it's very hard to find two shoes that are bigger because they're I guess they don't make enough there's a lot more women out there that need them then than they make so I know we didn't we didn't know and want to talk about Size of shoes on your side

Jeff Dwoskin 14:24

you never know where it's gonna go Yeah, welcome welcome to feed talk with Jeff Drew and then you were in Fight Club but we can't talk about that

Summer Moore 14:36

now when I got cut out of your day.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:38

Oh, what yeah, that's That's why all right. Well, that's all right, though. But it was still I did yeah, it's still cool. And I love the idea just you know, being a fan but like just idea that must have been cool. Just kind of being there and like because even just seeing it that's these are some iconic movies that you're

Summer Moore 14:54

Yeah, it was awesome. Working with Brad Pitt. I had a huge crush on him at the time. So it was like oh my gosh. Meeting Brad Pitt and starstruck. Yeah, I was so young. So, you know, it was all exciting. Everything was so brand new and exciting. And I'm getting these working with these huge, huge elitist people. They're still huge. So it's like crazy, you know?

Jeff Dwoskin 15:13

That's awesome. Must be so fun. What was it Andy Dick like?

Summer Moore 15:19

He was a fun, that was a lot of fun. He's great at improv. He's wild. You know, you never know where it's gonna go. It's a lively set. Everybody's like, I've recently reconnected with some of the crew on the Andy Dick show. And actually, one of my friends is good friends with Andy Dick. And I have a film festival as well. And at one point, I think we were talking about Andy Dick for something with that I can't remember exactly. But it's sad. Like what happened to his career? Because I you know, I mean, he's, he was very creative. So it was fun. I mean, I love doing comedies. And so when you get what, what are we doing at this point? We're in a supermarket, and we're dancing, and we're like, doing crazy stuff in a supermarket like Hoopoe, when do you get to do that?

Jeff Dwoskin 16:02

And he's, so I was looking at your website. And there was a clip from the doctors and you just you just they pull you from the audience to do yoga. But the part that kind of blew my mind was like, wait a minute, you're an actress. It's this is this. They don't randomly pull people to do yoga, is they had to go get an expert yoga play, like, made me question everything I've ever seen.

Summer Moore 16:26

Yeah, you should question it. Yeah, it was all planned. And I had a mic on i but it was like, well, it's like you don't want to talk over the hook. Like I'm very cognizant of other people talking and I don't want to be like, oh, man, I'm stepping on your feet. So I was really hesitant about even speaking even though I was miked up so didn't really say much. I mean, we knew what I was going to be doing. Although when she did, she was supposed to guide these poses and then I was supposed to be like the model showing how to do it, but she was supposed to do it with me and then she did like poses that aren't really poses and I think the writers had written okay, you're gonna do such and such an she's fit and she was all but she didn't really, I don't know if she claimed she did yoga, she really didn't know but she would start doing a position and I'd go into what it's really supposed to be and then she then she'd do something else. So then I was like, Okay, I'll just follow your lead and do what you're doing but that's not really what you're supposed to be doing. And so it was it was fun though. It was I mean, there was a they made me hold the bow position for quite a while I don't know if you saw that and it was funny because she was like oh my knee hurt I can't do this you know made me look like a rock star and they were like making fun of her like oh, okay, your knees hurting. i Okay, I'm here. I'm having to hold this thing. Well, she can't do any of it. So yeah, so it was all planned. I was booked in sorry

Jeff Dwoskin 17:47

blew my mind ruins I can't even watch TV anymore now. Going all these random places didn't expect this. Did you? Okay. I did not just want to how's that it's funny when you like when you're researching someone else's like you just Yeah, I saw that your birthday is February 25. So I was like oh my god you're almost born on Leap Day. It was so close. I wonder if your parents were like oh my god alright.

Summer Moore 18:13

Well, I don't know if we have I don't know if that was leap year.

Jeff Dwoskin 18:16

No. I guess you're right. But well, nobody wins. But if you were born I every fourth year wouldn't exist so just a random thought that went through my head while I was doing this so So you make a lot of your own movies and projects right? Yeah, so that's your thing. And I there was one that I thought that was pretty cool that we could work on that called the warning. Satanic activity kind of head of a Blair Witch vibe kind of found footage type thing. That was pretty cool because I saw you had some some real news interviews I did with an magnetar springs, is that right? mana to mana to Manitou Springs.

Summer Moore 18:54

Yeah. Which is actually um, so the reason I did the warning was because that was my first feature that I produced. And I was trying to come up with something that would be different, a different kind of story that that's other people in LA wouldn't have. And so I pulled from my roots of growing up in Colorado, and I grew up in Colorado Springs, and within Colorado Springs, there's a little suburb called Manitou Springs, which was always like the eclectic, fun, weird place to go. But it was the devil worshipping capital of the Western world. And when I was in high school, there was like, the Satanic Panic and things like that going on. And there was satanic activity that went on down in Manitou. And it was like I, I never went to go witness it, but I would talk to friends and whatnot. And so I thought that would be really cool, because that's a real story. It really was. Apparently, Anton LaVey, who was the founder of Church of Satan lived in Manitou, but in my research I did I found that wasn't true. But anyway, so I took real experiences. I interviewed some people from high school and Various things and got like their experiences of what they did when they would go down and try to find the state miss, and then just kind of interwove a lot of the true stories within fictional thing.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:11

Very cool. Yeah. Is doing your own productions and your own projects. Is that Is that something that you do to create to get other people's attention? Or do you want to get acting jobs with other you know, in other productions or just to? Or is it something that that's your path? This is what you want to do is just always create your own stuff, start your own people coming to you with scripts, you're producing, not directing, producing, we're gonna get someone else to direct it. But you know, that kind of thing. Like, is that is that your niche?

Summer Moore 20:42

That's a good question. It's not the reason I got into writing and producing is not it was out of necessity. I mean, an end all perfect world, I would have just been acting I'm wouldn't have said that I would maybe my career wouldn't have transitioned anyway into writing and producing as well, naturally, but because acting, it's such a, who, you know, industry, and if you just right place, right time, a lot of it, it's really not, it's just a game of chance. And I was going through agents like this is the normal thing, you get an agent, you think they're going to do wonderful for you. They tell you which headshots, you should get work on your resume, get everything all set, and then they start trying to get you auditions, and you're not getting auditions, and they don't know why you have a great headshot, you have a great resume, you have all reels good, I don't know what the problem is. And then eventually your contract with them wears out, you jumped ship, you go to the next one. And then you do this process over and over and over. And I did it so many times. And it was very frustrating, because agents would say, Well, I don't know what the problem is, why aren't you getting auditions and it's not like I'm crappy at the auditions. And that's why no one's I'm just not even getting in the door, you know. So I eventually started writing for other reasons. And then the producing fell in line because I was tired of waiting around for other people to get my make my career happen. And at the time, it is very important for actors to create their own stuff, because just because you're not getting rolls on The Walking Dead or rolls costarring, next to Jennifer Lawrence or things like that. And you shouldn't just wait around for that. So if you can create your own stuff, make your way with that, that gives material for your representation to be able to pitch you better. And if one of those takes off, then that's great, but it's better for them. So I did it to help me be seen. But also I am creative. And I love writing and I love coming up with things. So no, I love acting and other people stuff. It's I kind of gave up on the representation route after so many times of this thing and really felt in my intuition that I the way that I was going, my career was going to go was all through people I know and getting parts and things like that, like so it's not it's been more out of necessity not to say that I wouldn't still do these kinds of stories because they're fun, and I have a lot. I love doing creating stuff. But I mean, I'd love to be working on a lot bigger projects and not having to only do my own stuff. I mean, I do work on other people's stuff, but not like I'd like to be doing so

Jeff Dwoskin 23:22

but it'd be cool. But it'd be cool to be able to chart your own path to it's an empowering story today of what if something were to explode. And then just you know, yeah, either take that path and create an entire show around pandemic Pillow Talk are a spin off of it, right?

Summer Moore 23:38

That's the goal with this. I mean, this is a pandemic Pillow Talk is a spin off of another short I did called as in Kevin. So then this was a spin off. And now I'd like to do a spin off of this and have a different title and whatnot. And it would be online dating in the real world but do it with a streamer or studio. So we have a good size budget and can like rocket a limited series like 30 half hour, very similar to like what fleabag did on Amazon.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:06

Got it. So I watched as in Kevin hilarious. Okay, great. Thanks. Of course, I so how did that come about? Because that's sort of like kind of the origin of pandemic Kotak in that you built it's a it's a prequel if you will, I guess. Right. Yeah. Like how did that that short come about in terms of just putting it all together coming up with the idea writing it like how does one put together an entire self production like that without the backing of a huge studio and just just at some point mentioned who did direct it and who did

Summer Moore 24:44

the that one we shot in a day. I mean, a lot of these things when you're doing any productions and you don't have a ton of money. You it's kind of amazing how many you'll do. Most people would not do all of that in a day. So it was a lot of work and it was exhausting that monologue that I'm going going in the parking lot was like at three or four o'clock in the morning. So we got like one take of it. So good thing I

Jeff Dwoskin 25:05

will say day, like, how many literal hours were you shooting? Because I mean, two to two minutes can take five hours, right? I mean like, yeah, yeah,

Summer Moore 25:12

um, let's see, it turned out to be a 10 minutes with up the credits 11 minutes with the credits, and I don't remember how long how many pages it was I'll say 10 or 11. Usually an estimated is one page equals one minute, but it tends to be with comedy, it's shorter, because you're doing quicker cuts. So a normal film production is a 12 hour day, and we were definitely into overtime. So I don't remember if we went 14 hours or whatnot. But most people probably would have divided that into a couple of days, if not three or four. I mean, so that you have plenty of time, but we had multiple cameras, and we just had to knock it out. I mean, we had that location for free. And we were limited on money. So So where did it come? Well, it came about through me a lot of those stories are about my online dates. And then I just expanded on them or other people's stories like the ice cream bit, or the girls shoving ice cream in our mouth. That was somebody's online date that I so it just came about that I wanted to I guess I wrote it. And when I wanted to do it and pitched it to people and got them on board and the director that came from another source that I did prior to that called the karma of happiness. And actually I had another director slated for as in Kevin, but he was tied up with a big Sony TV show and was going to have to push the shoot and like a week before the shoot. He told me this and I I had already everything else set up, we would lose the location, all the work I had already done for producing and I said I I just have to go ahead. So then I talked to the guy had done the karma of happiness. And he said, Well, I'll do it. And so that's how that came about.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:53

Excellent. Well, I thought it was hilarious. I really did. It was really really funny. The one girl cracked me up. The one that just had broken up the ice cream girl. Yeah, yeah. 10 or 15.

Summer Moore 27:04

Yeah, hers was that was a fun character to write and to get her to be obnoxious. Like you could hear her yelling in the building. And it was like, Oh my gosh, like it was that was, I mean, often, when you're writing characters for years or playing the lead, you have to be the one that's not crazy, like I do in pandemic pillow talk. It's still the same character, but I have to be the one that you relate to. If I'm just totally nuts, like all the dates, then you're just watching nuts people like if on Seinfeld, everybody was Kramer we it's not relatable, you know, you've got to have somebody that's at least have okay, maybe they have some off things, but they're not. Usually they're not as fun to play, because you can't be crazy. But overall, it's just kind of the way or else you can do like a supporting character or whatever kind of stuff, right?

Jeff Dwoskin 27:53

You need to balance the stress levels, otherwise it becomes so anxiety ridden to watch the show. You can't deal with it. Right? You need that balance of characters. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. All right. So let's talk about pandemic Pillow Talk. This is your new episodic feature that's sequel or spin off of as in Kevin, you play the same character. I will say Eliza Roberts is hilarious. Like, I mean, everyone's great, but I just want to talk about her.

Summer Moore 28:26

I know she everyone's talking about Eliza is so

Jeff Dwoskin 28:28

funny. Like I, it was just, it was one of those things where it kind of, I think everyone's got a piece of her role as your mom and their mom in some way. And so it's just like, it's one of those things where it hits a little bit of that nerve. And so it's like, you could see this happening to you like I could see it, you know, as like, anyway. So, how did you end up working with the Roberts?

CTS Announcer 28:53

Well, first

Summer Moore 28:54

I want to say the mother character is based on incidences with my real mom. So there are a lot of the things that are interwoven the tech challenges setting me up with Chris Evans, like wanting that that's all real. And my mom's Southern, I realized I had to play Southern and so did Eric. And so there's a lot of that my mom's not intrusive, like Eliza's character Bertha is doing but just totally clueless. My mom's not that but it was a very fun character to write and she nailed it and I think we did really well together because I have to just be like, Mom, what the hell are you doing instead of like, oh, this is all fine or whatever, you know, kind of thing but she's She steals the show. I mean, I get told oh my god, you're good, but Eliza mad. I'm like, I told Eliza that the other day. I was like, You're just taking like all my thunder. And she was like, oh, no, honey, you You did great, you know, gave me all this kind of praise about how I played it, but she stands out. She's awesome on it. And that's what that's what I want with each of the characters in there that I wrote are supposed to be outlandish and inert. caning because a lot of these shots are locked off, you're just sitting in front of a webcam or a computer or whatever kind of thing. And so you have to be stimulated enough to sit there for the five, eight minutes, 15 minutes for the finale. And if we were both just like, you know, nobody's gonna want to watch talking heads. So they had to be very quirky and fun. As far as the Roberts, they actually submitted for the roles. And this, we filmed this during lockdown when everybody was in pods I hadn't like left my apartment for ever. I mean, it was, and we were only casting based on who lived together. So any other roles that had more than one person that I'd written, they had to actually live together or be in a pod together. And that made it very much a challenge, because often you'll just finding the one actor is hard enough. And now you had to have two that both act and can nail the roles. But I really felt because my character Mackenzie dates is heterosexual. So she's dating all men, and I'm very much behind trying to empower women and helping women. I wanted woman roles in there. So I had to like try to maneuver How can I get women in there? And the mom was one of them. And when they submitted, we just thought there's no way there's no way they're going to do this, you know, this is just this is so such a small production in our eyes. You know, they're I mean, Eric Roberts has been nominated for an Oscar. He's been on huge, huge stuff. So it was like me, and then it just kept being these like, alright, well, we'll see if they'll audition and I'm like, there's no way they're gonna audition there. I mean, Eric's beyond and I had some other people that actually submitted their agents submitted them that were like celebrities in the 90s. And I was like, I remember so and so. And I would say, okay, can so and so audition, and they'd be like, Oh, they're direct offer only they don't audition. So I thought, okay, you know, Eric's definitely going to be on that level of like, you can just give me an offer. I'm not auditioning, and they auditioned. And we were like, what? And we just put actually, Eric's audition one he submitted to on Instagram, like yesterday or so. And we're gonna put Elisa's up Eliza was hysterical. She did like four and there didn't she didn't need to do for auditions. It was like, she was like, Oh, when I could sit here, and I could do this and did it and like, and then they're reading for each other. So she gets she plays. If you saw episode four, the French guy. She's reading for Eric as the French guy. And her accent is so like, over the top French. It's hysterical. Like she's off camera and you just hear her talking French and you're like, and then when he's off camera, you're like, you're Roberts is rooting for Allah. Like, that's crazy. So anyway, it was just like, and then we thought they weren't, there's no way they'll do this. And then they did it. And they were so they've been so supportive. They've said this is one of their all time favorite projects, and they really are behind independent film and Eric said several times during the shoot, this is just so neat. What you girls are doing here this is because we were really figuring it out. How can we still film with everybody in their houses like it was 100% remote the kit with the gear and everything got dropped off at the actor's house and then they had to do everything that is set up lights do the camera did the sound pair makeup set design everything so it's not like Netflix was doing 100% remote but then the crew was like sitting outside in the van if something went wrong in ours, we're like, you know, we got star who's the other producers in Hungary doing producing from there. And then we're all over. We got actors in New York and North Carolina. And it was it was crazy. And initially I thought that we were just going to do it via zoom and we could just record and I wrote it for webcams and all that and then we quickly found out we could not do a production where it looks really good quality on Zoom.

Jeff Dwoskin 33:52

It looks amazing. I went it doesn't look like a pandemic production. I mean, what you know, I mean, like it's, it looks, which you just described so you went out of your way to have it be like that professional shoot. I will say let's let's talk about Episode Four for a second. So the Nikko the French guy this is like I think this is the one where Eric Roberts is in it says like Is this his first first episode

Summer Moore 34:16

or his first one? Yes, he comes again though. So

Jeff Dwoskin 34:19

I started watching it I watched the whole thing but like the first time I watched it at something called me away and I came back and I went back too far which I was glad because it was only for a split second that I noticed his his username on the on the whatever uses zoom on the thing was fly guy. Yeah. Like I didn't catch it the first time I presume reason I thought that was really fun. I know because he's a pilot but the but I thought that was just a funny little detail. Thank you. And when he asked why don't give up what his interaction with Nick I don't give away the joke but like his interaction. So funny. I like how that just rabbit holes into a different direction like there relationship really funny. Really? Thank you. So you're great writer.

Summer Moore 35:04

Well, thank you. I mean, I didn't I hadn't really seen Eric. I know he's done a bazillion movies and whatever. But I hadn't ever seen him do comedy. And so when he did the audition, I was we were all like, Whoa, he's amazing. And later on, I said to Elijah, like, I don't really I've never seen him do comedy. And she said, yeah, he doesn't really get that. But I think he started out first in comedy, but then he gets cast is like in The Dark Knight is the mob boss and like, he's just the bad dude. Except for I think righteous gemstones. gemstones. I haven't watched that. But that's a comedy. I don't know if he's, I think he's still the bad guy. So it was really awesome to see him. I mean, he embraces us. And he's hysterical. Like,

Jeff Dwoskin 35:45

yeah, he's funny and righteous gemstones. Yeah. And you're right. He always he's, he's a heavy, because he's got that face that can go either way. Yeah, you know, I mean, it's like, my only Eric Roberts story is at a comic con. He was at the Detroit Motor City Comic Con one year, many, many years ago. We were at the urinals at the same time. Because I always tell people to go I was at the urinal. And Eric, did you talk to him? No, I didn't talk to him. But he was right there. We were separated. We went to the bathroom at the exact same time.

Summer Moore 36:20

I'll tell him that I'm I'm going to see him next week. And I'll share that there that you remember, that's a moment in your

Jeff Dwoskin 36:29

Well, I mean, you know, you normally you don't remember. Yeah, bathroom outings, and it wasn't you know, he wasn't aware of it. Because to me, just some guy who I hope doesn't bother me while I'm going to the bathroom, right? Any night. Yeah. And I was like, Oh, my God, I'm being next to Eric Roberts.

Summer Moore 36:44

You know, he's so talented. I mean, he I've heard that he can do like three movies in a day. And he just nails it. Like you look at just how great he is. It was so awesome to get them to act together. Because I don't know that they get to be in stuff together. So it was a beautiful thing that the wife and husband and he adores her. I mean, he would say stuff on Zoom. And he's like, my wife is so beautiful. Look at her. And it's just like you're we're all melting all of us women. You know, so it's always awesome to get them.

Jeff Dwoskin 37:16

Yeah, they're adorable couple and it's a good. So the bonus for you is that they already naturally have that chemistry between each other. Right? So oh, it's funny. It's funny. You mentioned him doing 10 movies in a day because I just I looked at his IMDB. And as under filming, I think he's got 20 and then like another 10 under pre production. And there was 15 under post production. Yep. Like his IMDb of stuff that hasn't even come out yet is longer than most people's entire IMDb for an entire.

Summer Moore 37:46

He just loves working. And you know, I read like the Vanity Fair article about him. And he ended up saying that he was and people were like saying, well, he's a B movie actor. And we're putting him down for that. And then it turned into well, I'm not the guy that does everything. I'm the guy that can do anything kind of and he I mean, he I he nails stuff. I'll tell you when we got this into one of our post production guys found out. Eric Roberts was in it. He lost his mind. And he was so excited because he was a big fan of Eric back in the days of martial arts, which I didn't even know where did all that. But he was like, Eric Roberts oh my gosh, and it was like, Oh my God. I mean, I knew him first was Batman. So that's where he was recognizable to me. Right? Right. Right.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:30

His daughter is great, too. Yeah. And his sister is Julius sister or were they? Okay, I didn't know that. For some reason. I thought maybe they were okay.

Summer Moore 38:38

No, he got he got Julia her start. She he like he was already becoming like a big actor. And he walked into the talent agency in New York and said, who's gonna sign my sister? And so she took off. And then obviously, Emma took off so

Jeff Dwoskin 38:54

Oh, yeah, you're right. I don't know why I thought they were. I knew they were related. Right. And for some reason, okay. Thanks for putting me in play.

Summer Moore 39:00

You're welcome. anymore. Roberts family history, let me know.

Jeff Dwoskin 39:05

And I will say I wanted to go back and say because you mentioned when we were talking about lies earlier, her are kind of popping in but that is that is and much to you. I mean, to write the character, and to allow her to come off the page like that, you know, that's, that's a credit to you.

Summer Moore 39:21

Oh, thank you. I appreciate I mean, it, it's fun. It's one thing to write it but the actor has to give life to it. And, and I really wanted people to improv, that's very important. And so it was like some of the times we were riffing off each other. And same with Eric like his whole thing about the shirt and the first class guy putting a shirt on, you know, we had a good man get me out of this shirt and put the seatbelt over his head was all like improv. So

Jeff Dwoskin 39:47

that's, yeah, that's fun. That's really cool. And then how many episodes total Are there going to be?

Summer Moore 39:52

There are nine, one through eight are roughly between five to eight minutes and then episode nine is about the 15 minutes finale. And we all like keep going through like, I think this is my favorite. No, this one's my favorite. And it's really hard to be like, because I think they're very different. There's all these are very different. So I feel like nine is definitely one of my favorite episodes, but I have others too. So it's I can't pick one. But nine is awesome. I mean, hands down. Everybody in the team really loves nine,

Jeff Dwoskin 40:23

they all become your babies. And so you know, no, you know, it's like, but collectively, so what kind of, once you have this, this body of work these nine episodes, do you shop it to festivals, or like, what's the what's the next step to try and get awareness? I mean, besides blowing up after this podcast,

Summer Moore 40:42

right, that's it. This was it. This was the goal. And I'm here. So thank you, Jeff.

Jeff Dwoskin 40:48

Gave me a list. It just said, Jeff Dwoskin is podcast and that was it. Like, now, we're good.

Summer Moore 40:56

All you need, you're golden. That's what happened. So thank you. Well, yes, there is one, there's a couple of festivals that we may enter. But the the interesting thing is, I've done a lot of short films, I'd never done a full on web series, but it is short content. And the real estate for I guess the distribution, real estate for short content is a lot smaller than it was like when I did as in Kevin. So before I could get as in Kevin on Amazon Prime, I can get it on Funny or Die, I can get it on other now they've stopped all that. So really, the options for short content are getting fewer and instead of more, which is frustrating. And so you have YouTube of course you have Vimeo and Roku is the only one right now that takes I mean of knowing I know there's littler stuff and whatnot, but a big things that takes short content. So like, you know, Apple, Netflix, Hulu, none of them right now take it and maybe that'll shift at some point. So it makes it really hard from the standpoint of, you just don't have a lot of places, you've got to do your own promotion. It's not like Apple buys it and then they're putting all the marketing into it. So our goal would be after the doing all this press and getting people a buzz going on about it that I hope that somebody from Amazon or HBO or a streamer or studio sees it as a proof of concept for us to do the spin off. And then we can go make that so I mean really all in all, you don't make money from short stuff. And it's really kind of like a proof of concept to go this is what I could make or whatnot. So it's really just to get exposure. So any of your viewers go watch like subscribe, share, please, because that's what we really need.

Jeff Dwoskin 42:46

Yeah, absolutely. I'll put all the links in the in the show notes and all that and I'll tweet it out as well. When when this goes live. I appreciate it. I'll put a link to as in Kevin also because I think that was really fine. And but yeah, definitely everyone check out pandemic pillow talk. It's it's really really funny. It's really well done. Some are more deserves all your eyeballs and ears.

Summer Moore 43:11

Thank you. I do appreciate that. I you know what you might find interesting is the alien guy, alien man. And as in Kevin, I go on the date with Do you remember him? He's the guy who's like, wants to talk about alien aliens the whole time and as the alien. Yeah, sure. Sure, sure. Okay, I had put him in. I made him like a reoccurring character. So he's in the warning. He's in the karma of happiness. And he's an ASIC Kevin and he's always alien man. And he always wears that shirt. And he plays different dudes like in as in Kevin, where he's like, just wanting to talk all about aliens and whatever. And so I would just kept putting him on all of my stuff. He's a good friend of mine now. But first, I had just cast him for the warning. And so that's a fun little tidbit of the alien man character, but

Jeff Dwoskin 43:51

that's fine. Yeah. The firefighter crack me up with the the apartment tour because I was like thinking myself, do not Yes, I do not do an apartment tour. Like, I didn't know exactly where you're gonna go with it. But I knew there was a million bad ways that a single person like, Oh, God, so like a nightmare. I

Summer Moore 44:12

do it. It was a lot of work to like, get him to move around. Because you got to think there's no crew to do lighting and him having to work the camera and act. And I mean, everybody who worked on this as the actors had to like, do a lot. So I mean, it's big props to every single actor. I mean, of course, everybody that worked on it, but the actors like this was literally the hardest production I've ever had to be on because of all the different things I had to do alone in my apartment. You know, while the

Jeff Dwoskin 44:41

outputs amazing, it's hilarious, well written, well produced. Thank you. I guess it was directed well as well. Kudos to whoever directed it now.

Summer Moore 44:55

We had five women we had five different directors. It was really important for us to try to get women and to spread the love so it wasn't just one director

Jeff Dwoskin 45:03

or they were all amazing, and it was great. I know we joke we somehow we created this director theme joke thing so here we are, but now everyone definitely check it out. It's awesome summer Mark, thank you so much for hanging with me. Yeah, thank you. Besides YouTube to watch pandemic Pillow Talk, where can people follow you on the socials?

Summer Moore 45:22

Well, our handle is a pin at pandemic pillow talk and our websites pandemic pillow talk.com where you can watch all the episodes a trailer, see bios and junk like that. And then my Instagram got hacked recently. So I'm starting all over again, which is like really depressing because I had a nice following that I worked really hard to get and now I'm back at like 100 followers so it's awesome but if you really want to follow on my 100 followers don't don't get like scared like oh, why does she only have 100 but my handle is the summer of happiness but you can find me on pandemic pillow talk and then go from there.

Jeff Dwoskin 46:01

Alright, so the lesson for everyone is two factor authentication everyone go turn that on right now including some are more I'm guessing did not her new one but keep fighting the fight because I had a friend who lost his head like a huge one and I think he's close to getting it back. Yeah.

Summer Moore 46:17

Because I they won't respond. I want to talk to you when we hang up here because I don't know what to do at this point. I'm like,

Jeff Dwoskin 46:23

alright, we'll talk we'll talk I'm depressed. It's just it's a heart Yeah. I brought this up your flashback about your feet No. Something else something positive. We

Summer Moore 46:33

got to get to know my feet sighs

Jeff Dwoskin 46:36

man I am the worst. Thank you so much. Thank you all right, how amazing is Summer Moore so great. You got to check out pandemic pillow talk and most important well we all need to do is rally around and help summer with her new Instagram there's a link in the show notes but it's the summer of happiness instagram.com/the Summer of happiness. We all know someone who's been there that got hacked and lost an amazing account whether it be Instagram or any of the socials those give her a hand give her a follow you'll know you're at the right place thus summer of happiness you'll see a picture of her smiling face happy to see you there and check out pandemic Pillow Talk pandemic pillow talk.com There's a link to the YouTube from there but also in the show notes. You could tell a big fan of summer more love creators love help supporting other creators and their good work everyone hug a creator today All right well with the interview completes that means we are ready for the trending hashtag when the family of hashtags at hashtag are around. Download the free hashtag roundup app I the Google Play Store Apple iTunes App Store. The hashtag roundup app is free totally free doesn't cost you a penny play along with us never miss a game. And one day one of your tweets may show up on a future episode of Classic conversations fame and fortune awaits you

Jeff Dwoskin 48:09

today's hashtag is #ThereWontBeASecondDateIf what a dating tech could this be somehow inspired by some or Moore's pandemic pillow talk online dating web mini series of course it is hashtag there won't be a second date. If I acidic blonde tags a regular on hashtag around up this hashtag is sort of a complete the sentence. So hashtag there won't be a second date. If that's sort of the beginning of the sentence. And then part of the game is you just finish the sentence. Alright, so let's read a bunch of these off inspire you and you head over to Twitter and tweet your own #ThereWontBeASecondDateIf tweet. I'll show you some Twitter live. All right, here we go. There won't be a second date. If you like feet, feet are not for everyone. There won't be a second date. If you smother yourself and Axe body spray. Wait a minute, there won't be a second date. If you move too fast. Some people got moves, you just got to slow him down. There won't be a second date. If you're wearing a wedding ring. Why was there even a first date, there won't be a second date. If you had don't read books, everyone's got their own line, there won't be a second date if I have to be the designated driver. Again, there won't be a second date if you only talk about yourself, but I'm fascinating. There won't be a second date. If you lack critical thinking skills. There won't be a second date. If you eat too much cheese. How much cheese is too much cheese the world may never know there won't be a second date. If you show up late to the first time is important. There won't be a second date if you left me with the bill. Gotta talk about the finances upfront there won't be a second date if at the restaurant you blow your nose into Have a cloth napkin. Oh boy, that's gross. And our final there won't be a second day at F tweet. There won't be a second day if you have more baggage and airport Lost and Found Oh, right. A lot of reasons out there. A lot of people do not get past a first date. Online dating. I just like to thank my wife, who I've been married to for many, many, many decades are keeping me out of the dating pool. A good luck to everyone else. I'm waving to you from the sidelines. As always, all those tweets are retweeted at Jeff Dwoskin show. Go find him show him some love tweets around. I'll show you some Twitter love but with the hashtag game now over and the interview over that can only mean one thing.

Jeff Dwoskin 50:43

That's right episode 130 of classic conversations has come to an end. Can you believe it? time just flew? What is it they say about having fun? Oh, yes, I remember now like to thank my special guest Summer Moore. And of course, I'd like to thank all of you for coming back week after week. It means the world to me, and I'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 51:05

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Transcribed by https://otter.ai