If you grew up with Disney Channel in the early 2000s, then Christy Carlson Romano and Anneliese van der Pol need no introduction. As the stars of Even Stevens and That’s So Raven, these gal-pals seldomly worked together but certainly ran in the same circles. They even shared the role of Belle in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway towards the end of the show’s run. Following a guest appearance on the PodCo podcast Vulnerable with Christy Carlson Romano, Anneliese and Christy decided to join forces on an upcoming recurring show called the BNB Podcast. Shortly after making the announcement, I had the honor of speaking with both of them at ATX TV Fest, which concluded with a panel discussion with three of PodCo’s shows.
(PodCo)
Alex: In the episode of Vulnerable with Christy Carlson Romano that Anneliese was a guest on, you mentioned getting to work together when you were both on Disney Channel on projects like the Disney Channel Circle of Stars “Circle of Life” music video. Now you’re launching your own PodCo show together, the BNB Podcast. Can you tell me about getting together for this new show?
Christy Carlson Romano: We reconnected, but were looking for a reason to get back together or connect in a way that we haven't been able to. And I am just so excited about Big Name B****es (BNB) because with Vulnerable, it's such a wonderful, safe space for folks to come on, and us to reconnect or connect. And it's kind of sad sometimes. I don't want to be sad. I want to have fun, go to brunch with my girlfriend, and laugh. And so, that's what we are going to do too.
Anneliese van der Pol: We do. We're going to have guests. We can talk about what's current, and then also what's not, the juxtaposition of our similarities in Disney Channel and Broadway and Beauty and the Beast.
Christy Carlson Romano: But as people, I'm a mom, and she's…
Anneliese van der Pol: Not. Stop it. How dare you do this to me.
Christy Carlson Romano: And she's childless.
Anneliese van der Pol: And she's childless. And she's still struggling to get married.
Christy Carlson Romano: Actually, no. She still has her core muscles. And I pee myself when I sneeze.
Alex: Speaking of Broadway, on that episode of Vulnerable, you both swapped stories of playing Belle in Beauty and the Beast. Will that be a big part of the BNB Podcast?
Christy Carlson Romano: Oh, we're going to have fun. Something that's so wonderful is that I'm terrified of singing. And if there's anybody that I know that's probably not terrified, it's her. She loves to sing. I love her voice more than anyone. I'm a huge, huge fan of her talent, and I always have been. And I've told her that too, like on Vulnerable. But I mean it, and it's like a dream for me to work with her.
Anneliese van der Pol: Thank you, Christy. Yeah, I think we'll break out into songs.
Christy Carlson Romano: We're going to sing a lot, yeah. She's going to bring me out of my shell.
Alex: You both sang a little bit in that episode and it lit a fire within my gay self.
Christy Carlson Romano: Well, we're going to be there for our gays.
Anneliese van der Pol: Yeah, I really think that's why I was saying, "We got to sing." I mean, I love that you said that, and we want to cater to our audience.
Christy Carlson Romano: You better sing all the Judy Garland.
Anneliese van der Pol: All the Judy Garland. But at the same time, it is hard because you want to reach the masses, and it's not the masses who love musical theater, so we have to be careful to not just make it a musical theater show.
Christy Carlson Romano: It is. Yeah.
Anneliese van der Pol: We're going to figure it out. And we will as we go.
Alex: Speaking of music, Anneliese, your cover of “Candle on the Water” is one of my favorites. And Christy, my sister had your greatest hits album and we would bop to it all the time.
Christy Carlson Romano: Oh, yeah. Because, I needed a greatest hits album. It was because Disney didn't want to give me a record deal.
Alex: I say own it. Who else has a greatest hits album without having another album? Only you.
Anneliese van der Pol: What is that? Like greatest hits of Disney?
Christy Carlson Romano: So basically, they kept using me for different songs in different albums. And then, I came to them because we really loved Phil Guerini. Loved him, thought he was a great guy. Phil Guerini, he used to work at the parks, and then he became the president of Radio Disney. But before that, he was at Disney Records. And so, he was like the company man. And he was a sweetheart, and I loved him very much. And then, now, he's the president of Jonas Brothers Music, so he's really found his career. But he was a good guy. Phil Guerini was one of the only people that I felt like was a true Disney magic believer and advocate. So something that I think that is a misconception is that if we start talking about our Disney experience in any other way than a very narrow set of sentence structure, it's negative. It's not. We absolutely love Disney. I mean, [Anneliese] literally just came off tour with Disney Princesses.
Alex: I saw you in Las Vegas. It was awesome.
Anneliese van der Pol: You did? Oh my God. You were in Vegas. That was a fun time, where they put us up and everything. We had fun in Vegas.
Christy Carlson Romano: I feel like Disney magic is so real. Disney magic is out there for everyone to fully enjoy when they make it for themselves, and they go to the parks, and they have fun. And I still very much believe in it with my kids. And I know you believe in it if you're performing all the Disney Princess songs
Anneliese van der Pol: Yeah, and it's believing, as cheesy as it sounds. Their theme, and what we say to the kids, and everything from Disney Princesses is that dreams really do come true. That cheesy sentiment. But they do. They really do. And so many of our dreams have come through. I don't know. It's just crazy that your dreams really can come true on the smallest scale to a really big, huge scale.
Christy Carlson Romano: Yeah. And that's what's happening, is that Disney has raised a generation of talent that has grown up, and went off to college, went out to school, whatever they did. They went off and lived their lives, and now they're coming back to each other, and finding that Disney magic with each other again.
Anneliese van der Pol: Yes. It's crazy how universal Disney is.
Christy Carlson Romano: Yeah. We love Disney. We love it. I think we love Disney magic is what I would say. When you say we love Disney.
Alex:
One of the things I love about hearing your stories is that when I was watching Even Stevens and That's So Raven, I had this perception that as an actor on a Disney show, you must be set for life. Like they must’ve provided you with housing and clothes and transportation. It’s so demystifying to learn that this wasn’t the case.
Christy Carlson Romano: I wonder how we got to that as a society.
Anneliese van der Pol: Well, did we think that when we were watching TGIF?
Christy Carlson Romano: No, I didn't. When I was watching them on TV, I wasn't thinking that.
Anneliese van der Pol: But maybe because we were already in musical theater and already acting and already working.
Christy Carlson Romano: And we knew it wasn't much.
Alex: You were industry babies.
Anneliese van der Pol: There's so many people who tell me that. So many people who think that, who say that. Anybody who's just maybe not in the industry or wasn't in the industry yet. That's so funny to me. It wasn't horrible, but we weren't rich by any means.
Christy Carlson Romano: Well, it's branding. And Disney was extremely good at branding and making it feel aspirational. And all that kids were wanting to be was us.
Anneliese van der Pol: It's so interesting. I was saying it is so universal too. Because when I do the Disney Princess concert, I do it all over the world. And sometimes, we'll go to Dubai, the Middle East. We're supposed to go to Poland and Australia.
Christy Carlson Romano: Your people.
Anneliese van der Pol: Yeah, my people. I don't know if I'm going to go, though, because it's a lot. It's really hard. I'm Dutch, which is near it. But it's crazy how universal is it. It's Disney. The kids there, it doesn't even matter if it's a sexist country or what. Even if politics are different, everybody freaking loves Disney.
Christy Carlson Romano: See, it's Disney magic. It's Disney magic. I really do feel like, even with what I saw with Haley Bailey at that red carpet, with all the girls and her hugging. And I had to post it. I'm like, "Disney magic is real," and I believe in that. And I believe in it for my girls when we go, and I start to cry at the little salon. We went to the little salon.
Alex: Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique?
Christy Carlson Romano: Yes. And I was a mess.
Anneliese van der Pol: The messages are great. It's great to believe in those dreams. But it's also great to tell the truth. Sometimes, it lacks that little … Wasn't it, who said it, Elizabeth Olsen recently about Marvel? Did you hear what she said about doing Marvel? Which is Disney, of course. She said, "If you ever do a Marvel movie, make sure you only sign up for one."
Christy Carlson Romano: That's actually really smart. So AKA, don't do a Marvel movie?
Anneliese van der Pol: That's exactly what she said. She said it took over her life, and it's awful. She can't do anything else for seven years. She was basically saying she regretted it.
Christy Carlson Romano: And she's an amazing actress. So that's why she's doing TV then, it's non-competitive. Wasn't she just here?
Alex: I know she came to Austin for SXSW.
Anneliese van der Pol: Yes. Do you live here now?
Alex: No, I'm in the California near San Francisco, but not in the city. What’s funny is anytime I’m on a street corner and a trolly goes by, I go “doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-bow-bow” (the That’’s So Raven bumper music).
Anneliese van der Pol: Oh yeah, of course. I always forget, because we were in San Francisco when we were doing That's So Raven. And then we're in Chicago for Raven's Home. And I found out Disney does that with us because they go with the times. They go with politics.
Alex: That was really interesting to learn on your episode of Vulnerable. When you said that, I was thinking, "Oh, Cory in the House went to Washington when Obama became president." The timing of that all lined up.
Anneliese van der Pol: I didn't think that. That's so interesting. Yes. Yes, they did. Yeah, I'm sure it had to do with that. Again, because Disney's about happiness and dreams, and we want to feel unified as much as you can.
Alex: One of your Disney Princess: The Concert cast mates, Aisha Jackson, is playing Snow White in the Britney Spears jukebox musical Once Upon a One More Time on Broadway. I saw the show, which is about fairytale princesses who receive a copy of The Feminine Mystique at their scroll club and they start to become more modern. And I have to say, when it's time for that show to cycle out its cast, nobody would be more perfect than Disney stars like yourselves. And the narrator could be Fairy Godfather Benji.
Christy Carlson Romano: That would be kind of fun.
Anneliese van der Pol: Would you ever do Broadway again?
Christy Carlson Romano: Yeah. But I can't right now. Honestly, I've always said this about theater. I would do Parade. And I would do Parade with [Anneliese] and I'd be Mary Phagan's mom, and she would be Lucille. But other than that, I think I would like to create a character. I would like to originate a character on Broadway just so I could be a part of that process like I did with Parade, originally. But I was so young. As an adult, I don't want to be stunt-casting as much anymore. Stunt casting is kind of very degrading.
Anneliese van der Pol: It's hard to do that because you got to get in out of the ground floor when it's just a reading, when no one knows about it, and the script isn't perfect. It takes years.
Christy Carlson Romano: I know, you're right.
Anneliese van der Pol: I mean, there's other ways too, where it takes years with the person, and then you’re with that person for six months, and then they need somebody. That's not necessarily stunt. It's just a different choice.
Christy Carlson Romano: Yeah, it is. It's a whole thing. It's a whole commitment. And it's kind of ignorant for me to be like, "You know what? I'm going to go back to theater." It's like, "Will theater have me?" I mean, that's the thing is the community is very loving, but also they have such great new talent there. And the funny thing is that back in the day, musical theater, was it the two worlds of LA and New York?
Anneliese van der Pol: Oh, I know.
Christy Carlson Romano: Musical theater was persona non grata. But because of Glee and High School Musical, and because of all the musical elements now that are so one-for-one, I mean, Pamela Anderson was in Chicago. You know what I mean? Was she good? Was she good? I hope she was good.
Alex: I actually got to see it with her. She was good. I was not expecting much because it was her first time even doing musical theater, to my knowledge. Her performance wasn’t as fluid and polished as your typical theater actor, but she wasn’t terrible.
Christy Carlson Romano: She [must’ve been] terrified, that's what it was.
Alex: I'm sure she was. And it was interesting to hear you both talk about beta blockers on Vulnerable.
Christy Carlson Romano: Oh, I love that we talked about that.
Anneliese van der Pol: I know. It's so true. After I took out my girlfriend, Anna Aimee White, who's done a bunch of these with theater, when I was talking, she's like, "Gosh, Liese, you made it sound like we all do beta blockers." I was like, "Did I?" And she's like, "Yeah." She's like, "I love the excitement. I love the nerves."
Christy Carlson Romano: I don't think you made anything sound any way.
Anneliese van der Pol: No, I said, "I was talking to Christy, who is a very good singer and talented artist, but has a block, and this would really help her." I was glad I said something.
Alex: I mean, if your heart's pounding like that, you can't perform.
Anneliese van der Pol: Yes. And you don't have to take them forever. They're non-addictive. You just get through the first couple of shows, and then you're like, "Oh wait, I can do this." But that first night of when I did Beauty and the Beast, my opening night, was [so] terrifying.
Christy Carlson Romano: You have to dissociate.
Anneliese van der Pol: Yes. It was horrible. I don't remember any of it. I just wanted off-stage. The second night was better, and then the third night, I was fine. But that first night was horrible.
Christy Carlson Romano: The thing that I would do is I would dissociate, and I have to focus so hard on my performance, the moves, and hitting all my marks. I would want to be the best. I don't know. You fail nightly at least 1 to 10 times when you're performing. And then, I've heard that winners have amnesia, but I was not winning every night. I was like, "Oh, I [messed] so much up." I will say that the Beauty and the Beast people were rooting for me to succeed. And I think it was because they were at 50% capacity when I came in. And then, it was like, I'm sure you did the same thing, was boost up their sales.
Alex: It’s all so revelatory. I could talk to you both all day, but I understand we’re out of time. I can’t wait to hear what you have cooking up for fans with the BNB Podcast.
Anneliese van der Pol: You're so welcome. You're so welcome.
Christy Carlson Romano: Drive home sare.
New episodes of Vulnerable with Christy Carlson Romano drop on Tuesdays, and Christy Carlson Romano can also be heard on Thursdays with the Even Stevens rewatch podcast, Even More Stevens. Stay tuned to PodCo for more news about the upcoming BNB Podcast with Christy Carlson Romano and Anneliese van der Pol.