Suzanne Savoy - How to Defy the Odds in Health and Career

Suzanne Savoy is a working actor and has appeared in shows like House of Cards, Better Call Saul, and The Blacklist. As she ages, she defies the odds and books more work than ever. Suzy beat her fatal stage four rectal cancer diagnosis 12 years ago by advocating for herself and demanding aggressive treatment. Advocating for herself is a huge theme in her life and she tells us how to do it. She loves a good project; from creating her solo show, Je Christine, to her YouTube channel, Chemo Bean. That’s a channel that provides resources and advice for cancer patients dealing with hair loss and how to properly style wigs and scarfs. Get ready to laugh and learn how to Age Like a Badass Mother from this amazing woman.

 https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0767929/

 https://www.jechristine.com/

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNxw2y_KeXqa5BlnnneXOxA

 https://wellelephant.com/ ACE40 discount code for ACE Plant-based Eating Class

Transcript

Lauren Bernick (04:53.143)
Today's guest is doing something that very few people can say they have done, fully support themselves as a working actor. You have likely seen Suzanne Savoy in one of your favorite shows or movies, including The Upside, House of Cards, Law and Order, The Blacklist, NCIS, Better Call Saul, 30 Rock, The Nick, or most recently in Steven Soderbergh's Full Circle, starring alongside Dennis Quaid, Timothy Oliphant, and Claire Danes.

Suzy, as I call her, moved to Houston in her late 20s and was inspired by a chance encounter with Helen Hayes to embark on a career in acting. She co-founded Mercury Studio in Houston, which provided on-camera training to actors from 1986 to 2005. That's where I first met her.

Susie moved to New York in 2005 with her daughter Bonnie and has resided there ever since. Her solo show, Je Christine, presents the works of medieval French author, Christine de Pizan, and has toured universities and other venues since 2017. Susie translated all of the medieval French text to English. 11 years ago, Susie was diagnosed with late stage rectal cancer.

The doctors decided without telling her, which she learned from another doctor, that there was no point in trying to save her. So she fired all of them and got a new team and beat the cancer. She has had more health issues, but manages them like a true badass. People occasionally ask Suzy if she's sad about not being a star. She says, quote, I am a big star, damn it. I put my kid through college on an actor's income. That's huge. And I paid off her effing tuition. In my own head, I'm a huge star, end quote.

She is a bright and shining star and one of my very best friends for over 35 years. Please welcome actor, writer, costume designer, cancer beater, fabulous mom and friend, Suzanne Savoy. Welcome.

Suzanne Savoy (06:55.408)
Hey, hey, how are you? It's so good to see you. Nice to meet you too, Lisa. I've known you Lauren for, gosh, since you were a teenager. Lauren was my student, she was my acting student.

Lisa (06:57.326)
It's so nice to meet you.

Lauren Bernick (06:58.231)
Good. It's good to see you. Oh man.

I know, since I was a teenager, I...

Lisa (07:11.15)
I was going to say you were taking acting classes. Is that what set you on your path to stand up comedy?

Lauren Bernick (07:17.815)
Well, I guess. I never had the nerve. At that time I was doing a lot of, I was doing some improv and things like that, but I don't know why I took acting classes because I'm clearly not an actor. I'm a comic. Suzy was very generous though with me.

Suzanne Savoy (07:33.424)
She is an amazing actor. She really is. And of course, she did comedy best. And I always knew she was going to be doing something out there in the public eye. Because she's quick on her feet and she's congenial and she's pretty. And you know, just yeah, yeah, yeah. So it just always seemed clear that she was going to be doing something. And she's just a dynamo.

Lisa (07:33.966)
Was she a good student?

Lisa (07:41.326)
I'm not surprised to hear that.

Lisa (07:52.654)
It has a great sense of humor.

Suzanne Savoy (08:01.776)
I always knew she was gonna be doing something really cool. So here she is, she's interviewing me. That's so cool. Ha ha ha.

Lisa (08:01.902)
Hmm.

Lauren Bernick (08:04.279)
Oh, that's so sweet. Yeah, you know we worth.

Lisa (08:07.022)
That's a quite an impressive list of shows and several of which are some of my favorites, including House of Cards and Better Call Saul. And I went back and watched the clips with you in them. I was like, oh my gosh, I remember those scenes. I remember those episodes.

Lauren Bernick (08:26.935)
Yeah.

Suzanne Savoy (08:27.12)
Yeah, well, they were big shows. They actually, House of Cards was a troubled show for me because we were working with one of the future stars of the Me Too movement. And it really, there was like a little power thing going on. And it, I don't wanna get into that and all that negativity, but it became a very positive thing for me because...

I realized that I didn't want to be treated that way anymore. There were a lot of really great people. The directors were just wonderful. And Robin Wright, oh my God, she's a goddess. Oh, she was great.

Lisa (09:07.246)
I think that's why I love the show so much, because there are so many women in that, in our demographic, your demographic, in powerful roles.

Suzanne Savoy (09:13.904)
Yeah. Oh, Jane Atkinson, she was in it. Yeah. Yeah. And Michael Kelly was just, he's just a wonderful human being and a fabulous actor. So there was a lot going on that was great. But, but here I was in a hit show in a, in a good role. I was playing the democratic national chairwoman and it was, you know, it was a fun role to play, but there were just certain things about it that I felt like I didn't want to be treated that way. And

Lisa (09:22.574)
He's great.

Suzanne Savoy (09:42.384)
by certain people. And I just felt like I wanted more control over the roles that I did and how things were on the set. So that was why I went off and, I decided for a while that I wasn't gonna be an actor anymore. I just couldn't stand it. But instead of giving away my ball to the boys on the recess, in the recess yard, I decided instead to create my own content.

and I landed on something that turned out to be just a fabulous project for me in so many ways and I'm still doing it. That was back in 2016, I think I started doing that, Jean-Christine, and I'm still doing it and it's led to all kinds of wonderful possibilities. And now when I'm on set, nobody treats me bad anymore. Now they treat me with a lot of respect. I get, you know, the Queen Bee treatment and I think it's because I sort of stood up and

took things into my own hands and created my own content, my own projects. And I think people really respect that.

Lisa (10:51.246)
right on.

Lauren Bernick (10:51.255)
Tell us about Je Christine or Christine de Pizan because she's a fascinating character. Well, just give us the short version and then also that you translated this text is crazy. So just talk about that. And I just wanna say I've seen the show and it is phenomenal. And I saw it in Austin when you performed it. I don't think that place is there anymore, but it was a replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. And that was...

Suzanne Savoy (10:54.96)
Oh, have you got two hours? You got two hours?

Lisa (10:57.294)
Ha ha ha.

Suzanne Savoy (11:05.008)
It is crazy. It's even-

Suzanne Savoy (11:19.728)
That's right. And there had been a joust outside the theater that day. So as I was doing the show, this show that supposedly takes place in the 15th century, and there's horses outside, like just a few yards away from where we were sitting, champing at the bit and stomping, cause there was a storm coming and you could see the storm coming. Oh, it was fabulous. Yeah, yeah.

Lauren Bernick (11:20.823)
Unbelievable, it was on somebody's property.

Yes!

Lisa (11:44.27)
Man, I wish I'd been to see that. What inspired you to translate that literature?

Lauren Bernick (11:46.071)
It was so phenomenal.

Suzanne Savoy (11:53.168)
Well, you know, I really was trying to put together something that I could sell, that, you know, if you just say, well, I'll just do my own story. Well, everybody's got their own story and it doesn't necessarily sell tickets, unless you're a big star or unless there's something about your story that's different or whatever. And I wasn't sure that that would really have legs, you know, would really have a long life to it. But I thought, well, if I choose a historical or literary character, then

people will know there will be a built-in audience and I'll be able to take it to universities and libraries, museums, things like that. So I had years ago, when I was 30 years old, somebody gave me a little address book, a little appointment book that was, you know how they'll have themes like little kitties or doggies or flowers. Well, this had medieval women in it. And there were miniatures, illuminations from manuscripts, actual.

Lisa (12:41.614)
Hehehe

Suzanne Savoy (12:50.032)
illuminations from manuscripts from centuries ago, showing women slopping the hogs and cleaning up the wood chips after their husband did the carpentry and washing the dishes and all that stuff. And then there's this picture of a woman with this fabulous headdress and a beautiful gown and her little dog at her feet with bells around his neck. She's sitting up at a desk writing, and it says Christine de Pizan, author. And I went, what? What? A woman author in the year 1400 or whatever?

Lauren Bernick (12:58.103)
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.

Lisa (12:59.246)
Hehehehe

Suzanne Savoy (13:19.888)
you know, whenever this was a little bit later than that. But anyway, I think it was 1405. And I thought, wow, you know, too bad. There's probably not much left about her because it was so long ago. Well, I started scratching the surface and boom! Here's 40, you know, almost 40 of her works still existing, some of them in her own hand, illuminated with gorgeous pictures.

that show her. Their manuscripts, manuscripts, their books, beautifully leather-bound books that exist in the British National Library and in Paris, in the libraries there and all over the world, there are many copies of her works. And the wonderful thing is that these illuminations, these little paintings, tiny paintings that are painted with like one rabbit fur, you know, hair.

Lisa (13:49.774)
So they're archives? Are they archived?

Suzanne Savoy (14:19.408)
They're pictures of her doing all kinds of things. So we knew I know exactly what she wore, so I was able to make the gown and the headdress. I knew what her study looked like so I could get someone to make the furniture for me. And he made it so that it would come apart and I could put it into, I could put the whole show into two big rolling duffel bags that I could take on Southwest because you can take two big bags on Southwest if you weigh them carefully. And...

Lisa (14:42.286)
Hahaha

Lauren Bernick (14:44.087)
Thanks for watching!

Suzanne Savoy (14:48.112)
I didn't know anything about paleography, which is the translation and study of ancient manuscripts. Had I thought about Googling how to do paleography, it would have been a lot easier. But no, I thought of that movie, A Beautiful Mind, where they're sitting there looking up at the stars and he says, well, if you look long enough, something will emerge.

Lisa (14:59.918)
Ha ha

Suzanne Savoy (15:16.112)
Seth, you're looking at one of these manuscripts for like five hours one night. He's thinking, all right, you know, they're all these little what they call minims. It's just a little thing that looks like the letter I. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, all across the page with very faint little markings that connect them into M's or N's or O's or whatever.

Lisa (15:16.494)
Hahaha

Lisa (15:35.374)
Well, clearly you're a brilliant mind. How did you figure out to do that? Like how, what were your resources? Like that's so incredible to me. I love to read and, but if that's to me is like, I don't even know where to start.

Lauren Bernick (15:37.879)
She's brilliant.

Suzanne Savoy (15:39.632)
Clearly I have ADD.

Lauren Bernick (15:42.295)
Or she should have Googled.

Suzanne Savoy (15:52.4)
It's all ADD. It's, you know, there's the two extremes of ADD, the one where you're, you know, every shiny object, you change your focus. And then the other extreme is hyper-focus, where you sit down and 12 hours later, you get up and you finish the job without thinking about it. You know, you just do it, you know, barely go to the bathroom. It was, I love projects. I'm a project person. And so just the thought of...

Lisa (15:54.734)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha

Lauren Bernick (15:55.031)
Hehehe

Lisa (16:06.126)
focus.

Suzanne Savoy (16:21.648)
wearing that headdress and building the gown because I had been a costumer in a former life. So, oh, it's really heavy, but it's really fun to wear.

Lauren Bernick (16:26.807)
Oh, and that costume was incredible. And the set.

Lauren Bernick (16:33.335)
You made some of it at my house.

Lisa (16:33.582)
I hope you'll come and, I hope you'll do it here in San Francisco.

Suzanne Savoy (16:35.824)
That's right, I did. Oh, I would love to do it in San Francisco. I actually, my ex-husband lives in or near San Francisco and we've been talking about finding some place possibly to do the show out there. I like to find a few different universities or colleges, whatever, in an area. Like I did that in Texas a couple of times where I went to UT Austin and I went to this theater down in Austin and went to.

Lisa (16:55.534)
Mm-hmm.

Lisa (17:03.886)
Well, San Francisco is perfect. We've got UCSF and San Francisco State and Berkeley. But have you ever wanted, like, did you ever, or did anyone ever recommend turning that into, like, a screenplay and making a movie?

Suzanne Savoy (17:05.68)
Absolutely, yes. Yes.

Suzanne Savoy (17:17.104)
Many times. Problem is, if I turn it into a screenplay, I've seen this process happen so many times. Some unknown person comes up with a great screenplay, and then the producers come in, they fire the screenwriter, they hire a new screenwriter, they change it, it becomes, you know, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or something else instead of whatever it was. And then they hire Meryl Streep to play my role. I'm like, F Meryl Streep, I did the work, she gets all the roles.

Lisa (17:38.446)
Yes.

Lauren Bernick (17:45.783)
That's right.

Suzanne Savoy (17:46.32)
Because even the scholars that I spoke to were all like, you have to make this into a movie. You have to get Meryl Streep to play Christina Pizzo. I'm like, no.

Lisa (17:52.238)
Hmm. Oh geez. You'd have to produce it yourself, in other words, if in order to play the role you've brought to life. Very frustrating.

Suzanne Savoy (17:58.896)
Yeah. Yeah, but I, you know, I think, yeah, I think probably I'm having so much fun doing it live because the best part of it is the discussions afterwards. The discussions are phenomenal. One of the best discussions I had was at a retirement community for military officers down near Cape Canaveral. And these folks were

amazing. They had amazing comments. One guy trained teams to do underwater, you know, teams of underwater divers to do missions underwater. And he said his best team was all women. And but they couldn't get ahead because I don't know if it was the Navy or what it was, but they were so, they just weren't promoting them and they were pushing the men ahead of them. But he said

so much better and so much faster. And, you know, so he was really a champion for women, which Christine was a real champion for women back in the year 1400.

Lisa (19:08.942)
No kidding.

Lauren Bernick (19:09.047)
She was like the first, she made a living as an author, like one of the first women to do that, right?

Suzanne Savoy (19:12.592)
She was France's first professional female author starting in the late 1300s and into the 1400s. She started out, I mean, yes, was she privileged? Yes, her father was an advisor to the King of France. He brought him over from Italy. And so she had access as a very small girl to the Royal Library probably and to her father's library. And her father.

encouraged her to read and to study. Her mother did not. Her mother thought she should just, I don't know, become a nun or something. But her father encouraged her and her father actually, she was given a, she was put into an arranged marriage. Her father found a husband for her when she was 15 and the husband was about 10 years older than she was.

He chose this husband so well. She loved him with all her heart, all her body. She wrote amazing poems about him. And then when she was quite young, in her 20s, early 20s, he died. And all of his estate was taken by the crown because women did not inherit their husband's property back then. So she was left despawned, and her father was dead by then.

Lisa (20:14.894)
Hmm.

Suzanne Savoy (20:40.4)
So she was left destitute having to care for her children and her mother with no income. And she didn't want to just marry some dude for money because she knew what real love was. And she just thought, no, I'm never going to get married again. I've had the best. Why would I do that again? And so, and she didn't want to do any of the other things that women were left to do to make money. So she started writing little short poems, little cute poems to sell to courtiers.

to give to their sweeties or whatever, as kind of hallmark cards. And they loved them, they were great. So they asked her to write longer and longer poems, and she did longer. And then she got into this debate, a literary debate with the big hoity-toity clergymen who ran the University of Paris and who ran a lot of the government. And she went up.

against them about a book that she felt was very popular. It was a novel called The Romance of the Rose and she felt that it was a rape manual and it should not be used as a literature book for young men to read and learn morals from because their teachers would say, oh this is good moral work, haha, but it wasn't. It was a satirical work in many ways and it ends in basically a rape.

Suzanne Savoy (22:04.048)
So she got into this literary, epistolary debate with all these powerful men. And you would think that would be a very dangerous thing to do. She could get imprisoned. She could get killed. She could get banished, whatever. But what does she do? She...

Lisa (22:18.286)
She was like the original feminist and the original badass.

Suzanne Savoy (22:21.328)
She is what you would call a proto-feminist because in our current term of feminist, she did believe in the patriarchy, she did believe in the monarchy, but she did believe that women should have rights and that they should be represented well. But anyway, so what does she do with these letters that she's gotten from all these clergymen? She saved copies of her letters that she sent to them and she saved their letters. She bound them in a beautiful book.

Lauren Bernick (22:21.591)
I was just thinking that.

Suzanne Savoy (22:49.296)
with leather bindings and gold fittings and clasps. And she dedicated it to the Queen of France and presented it to her. So now she had a royal mentor, so nobody was gonna mess with her. She was a total badass, total. Yeah.

Lauren Bernick (23:07.031)
She was a badass. I'm so glad that you've brought that to life. Well, okay, so we jumped right into that. We didn't really talk about, I wanted to talk about, you know, your younger years and I just admired you so much as a mother. We really became friends as moms because we had kids around the same time and I really look to you a lot because I just.

Lisa (23:08.558)
and very resourceful.

Suzanne Savoy (23:25.104)
We did, we bonded as moms.

Lauren Bernick (23:34.615)
I look to other people as examples. We all do that, right? But I just remember your daughter Bonnie is about a year older than my daughter Jane, and then Allie came right after that. So we raised those girls together. I had my youngest later, but we raised the girls together a lot, and I learned a lot of important things. I remember that Bonnie was kind of...

really upset about something. We were walking through the Galleria in Houston. I don't know if you remember this, but Bonnie was like, you know, she was crying and she was, and there were several of us adults and, you know, she, she sat down and she was really holding up the show. And I was thinking, oh, she's going to get in trouble now. But instead you sat down next to her and you go, you seem really upset. What's the matter? And I was like, whoa, holy cow, that's how you do it. That is how you do it. And I just remember like you showed her so much respect and

Lisa (24:18.126)
Hehehehe

Lauren Bernick (24:26.167)
really raised her and she's a badass too. Mm-hmm. Right?

Lisa (24:26.542)
That's very NVC.

Suzanne Savoy (24:29.36)
Well, I learned really early on, a lot of people thought I was raising her wrong. And I mean, did I spank her? I spanked her like three times. And I, they weren't big spankings. I always did a light one, a light one, and then like a twist, I'd twist my hand and go, the third one was the one that smarted and left a little red mark. But still, I, after that last one, I thought I'm not teaching her anything with corporal punishment. She's just learning that.

Mommy's mean and you know, Mommy can get mad, which I'm so what, you know, that doesn't teach her anything. And I, so my mother, a lot of folks thought, they're like, you need to punish her, you need to put her in a closet, whatever. And they put me in a closet, so you just put her in a closet. Yeah, okay, that was the 30s mom. So I learned that when I listened to them and stopped listening to her,

Lisa (25:00.046)
Yeah.

Suzanne Savoy (25:28.496)
That's when I made my biggest mistakes. If I listened to her and really figured out what was going on, because she had a lot of, she had a lot of physical ailments that nobody could ever really figure out what was going on. And it was probably an autoimmune disorder that she's still trying to get sorted out now as an adult. But you know, why punish a kid? Because she doesn't feel good. That's just wrong. So, yeah.

Lisa (25:30.478)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren Bernick (25:31.319)
Yeah.

Lauren Bernick (25:53.719)
Yeah, and she's a great adult. Oh, and...

Lisa (25:54.542)
You were ahead of your time because parenting, awareness around that style of parenting has sort of evolved over the last, at least since I had our son 20 years ago. So you were definitely ahead of your time because we were all.

Suzanne Savoy (26:06.832)
Yeah.

Lauren Bernick (26:07.031)
Yeah.

Suzanne Savoy (26:09.488)
Well, I had people who influenced me, who I looked up to. Yeah.

Lauren Bernick (26:09.495)
she was.

Lisa (26:14.446)
Hmm.

Lauren Bernick (26:15.479)
Yeah, we all do that for each other, but I've told you before, but I want you to know you really did do that for me. So Jane, Ali and Farah, thank you. But, and then I, can I tell this, our famous story of when we had to go to the hospital with you?

Suzanne Savoy (26:22.768)
Oh.

Lisa (26:25.902)
Hehehehehehe

Suzanne Savoy (26:30.16)
You tell whatever story you want.

Lauren Bernick (26:32.183)
This, okay, before we started this podcast, Suzy was drinking out of a wine glass, it looked like wine and Lisa's like, oh, are you drinking wine? I was like, I was thinking to myself, there's no way this woman is drinking wine. She doesn't drink, she doesn't do, she's the straight as an arrow, popping pills. She was like, and... And...

Lisa (26:39.726)
Uh huh.

Lisa (26:45.134)
Well, popping pills and drinking wine. I thought that was so funny. I was like, this is how we're starting the podcast. Yay.

Suzanne Savoy (26:48.432)
I was. I was taking my insulin and drinking wine.

Lauren Bernick (26:55.607)
But that's right, exactly. I knew that was something like tea and, you know, whatever, a mint or her medicine. But one night, our girls were little and she came... She, is it okay? You said, she came over for dinner. We got the famous Kim Son Vietnamese food from Houston, the best Vietnamese at the time. And Andy and I had like a little...

Suzanne Savoy (27:05.968)
Oh my God, you were to tell that story? Oh my God.

Sorry, I'm going to...

I'm going to go ahead and close the video.

Lauren Bernick (27:24.919)
joint out in the garage. And Andy said, You guys go out to the garage and smoke and I'll take care of the kids and you won't have to worry about them tonight. And I was like, Oh my god, he's my hero, my husband. So you and I go out to the garage, we take a puff, we come back in, I don't know.

Suzanne Savoy (27:37.744)
Now you have to you have to you have to preface this with I'm not a smoker

Lauren Bernick (27:44.535)
That's what I said, you don't drink, you don't smoke, you don't do anything, nothing. And well, what do you do? Well, obviously. That's good, you're not a virgin. Okay, good, good, okay. And so anyway, we're high, we come in, and all of a sudden, a few minutes later you go.

Suzanne Savoy (27:49.296)
Well, I do some things, but not that. Like I've had sex.

Lisa (27:54.862)
Ha ha!

Suzanne Savoy (27:57.136)
That was a pretty good sex.

Lauren Bernick (28:09.111)
You know what? I don't feel good. Like I feel like I'm gonna have a heart attack and I feel like we need to go to the emergency room. And also I'm scared.

Suzanne Savoy (28:16.56)
No, I didn't even, no, I called a doctor first, a friend of mine who was a doctor. And I told him all my symptoms. I didn't tell him I was high. And he said, well, I think you should go to the emergency room. It sounds like either, you know, just to be safe, go to the emergency room.

Lisa (28:29.55)
Pot, pot, pot high panic attack.

Lauren Bernick (28:29.559)
Yeah.

Oh my God, and you know, she had a little kid, so she's like, I can't go home with Bonnie. What if I have a heart attack while I'm home with Bonnie? So I take her to the emergency room, and even I'm high and I'm not thinking, this is cause she's high, cause I'm high. So we're sitting in the emergency room in Houston, long time, like hours, probably cause they were looking at us going, these chicks are just stoned. And they, no, it was a long time. It was a long time. And finally you like burp.

Suzanne Savoy (28:33.008)
Yep.

Suzanne Savoy (28:45.872)
For a long time, long time.

Suzanne Savoy (28:52.592)
was probably only five minutes, but we thought it was just six hours.

Lisa (28:55.694)
Hahaha!

Lauren Bernick (28:59.639)
You fart and then you look at me and you go, Oh, I feel better now. Let's go home. I was like, I'm gonna kill you.

Suzanne Savoy (29:05.648)
And it was just at that moment that the nurse came out to call my name. She goes, Ms. Sabo. And we're like, running out.

Lisa (29:10.798)
Ha ha ha!

That's a great story.

Suzanne Savoy (29:15.312)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren Bernick (29:16.695)
So, you know, she looks like she's all distinguished, but you know, I had a bad effect on her, of course. So, well, you play distinguished. I think that most of your roles, every time I see you on TV, you play some really like hoity-toity women at like, oh man.

Suzanne Savoy (29:21.36)
I am distinguished. Very distinguished.

Suzanne Savoy (29:32.144)
Oh yeah. Well, I grew up with women like that. So.

Lisa (29:36.078)
Do you find that your, that their roles are limited or plentiful? Because I guess, you know, seeing you on House of Cards and in Better Call Saul, you're playing an age appropriate role. And I'm, you know, we're always reading about, hearing about how difficult it is for women in show business as we age. And I lost my train of thought. But so those were, yeah.

Lauren Bernick (30:00.055)
What age range do you play? And I guess do you feel like the roles are plentiful?

Suzanne Savoy (30:00.208)
I know where you're going.

Suzanne Savoy (30:07.92)
I generally these days I'm playing roles in my late 50s to 60s, but you know into you know 60s But here's the thing. I just lost my manager I still have my agents, but I just lost my manager because she keeps sending me or she kept sending me auditions for women in their 80s 90s in retirement homes wrinkly And and I mean if I work really hard I can play that

But, you know, I have to put on the wig and I have to wrinkle up my face and I have to, you know, do a fake voice and hunch over and whatever. I have to do all those things because they want, they don't want a well presenting woman in her 70s or 80s. They want some little old wizened woman. And so...

I wasn't, I don't get those roles, I audition for them, but I wouldn't, it just seemed like a big waste of time. And I have just been diagnosed with type 1.5 diabetes, not 1 or 2, but 1.5, it's the designer diabetes. And I felt like I needed to keep the stress level down. So I called my, or I emailed my manager and I said, you know, I'm trying to cut back on certain kinds of auditions. Do you think we could?

Lisa (31:08.59)
Hmm.

Suzanne Savoy (31:32.496)
cut back on these little old ladies, here's a picture of what I look like right now. And I just, you know, in case you'd forgotten, well, I got an email back almost immediately saying, it's clear that your agents understand you better than we do, so bye, goodbye. And she said, she also said,

Casting directors want us to allow a 20-year range for our auditions. Well, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, they do. And I mean, for the most part, you want that because it gives you an opportunity to audition for more things. But in my case, I feel like I need to, it's gotten to where I'm doing, you know, three, four auditions a day.

Lisa (32:10.894)
Do men have to do that?

Suzanne Savoy (32:30.32)
and I put a lot of effort into them. So that takes up your whole life. You don't have time for other things and it's very wearing. So I thought, I know which kinds of roles I get and they are the kind that Lauren was saying. They tend to be type A personality, strong woman, badass, upper west side, upper east side woman with a lot of jewelry and dogs and stuff. And...

Lisa (32:51.694)
attorneys, right?

Suzanne Savoy (32:57.424)
So, and sometimes I get normal people too, but I just know how I'm generally cast. And so I lost my manager. And I realized she was right. She was actually right. Because she wants to cast the way she likes to cast. And it works for her and for her people. And I'm wanting something a little different. I'm thinking outside the box a little bit. And that...

is a waste of her time. So it was a good thing. And then a week later, I get, well, I was a little bit late, longer ago than that, longer after that, but I got like the best audition of my life. The love interest in a remake of a movie that I'm not allowed to tell you what it is, but at some point you'll find out, of a very funny movie. And I was up for the-

I am up for the role of the love interest. Well, this casting director who is casting it knows my work really well. She's cast me in several projects that were really good. And she tends to give a very short list of actors to this director. And she sent me out to the director, had me audition. And so fingers crossed, watch this space, see what happens.

Lauren Bernick (34:23.351)
Yeah. But.

Suzanne Savoy (34:24.944)
Yeah, so I'm excited.

Lisa (34:25.358)
Can you tell us a little bit about the last series you did with Dennis Quaid?

Suzanne Savoy (34:30.608)
Oh, that was so fun. Steven Soderbergh is my god. Everybody who works with him just, it's unlike working with any other director. He is, yeah, about three times. And he's, you know, he doesn't, he doesn't pull a rank on anybody. He loves, he loves to have you bring ideas to him. A lot of directors are like, no, just sit there and.

Lauren Bernick (34:41.046)
and you've worked with him a few times now.

Lisa (34:59.182)
Hmm, do what I say.

Suzanne Savoy (34:59.44)
Like in House of Cards, they'd be like, just sit there and sit up straight and don't do anything. But he was, although I will say Robin Wright was a wonderful director when she directed, she was great, I loved working with her. But no, Soderbergh, he usually works with the same crew people, or as many of the same crew people as he can, because they are like a unit. He barely has to say anything and he doesn't say much. They just know what to do.

Lisa (35:10.414)
Mm.

Suzanne Savoy (35:29.52)
he'll use a dolly for a lot of his shots. He's definitely, he's not shooting sort of the big blockbuster style. He's usually shooting that indie style that he loves so much. So you're getting a lot of those, what they call European cinema shots where they're 11 minutes long and it's on a dolly that's, or handheld and following the actors around. And to do that without laying down tracks so that you know exactly where you're gonna go and the actors hit their marks.

doesn't do any of that. One of the biggest compliments I ever got was when we were working on Full Circle. I heard him saying something to, I think it was the assistant director was saying, well, do we need to put down some tape marks so she'll know where to hit her marks? And he goes, and I heard him say, no, she's really good at knowing where she's supposed to be. Which I think is what he looks for in his actors, one of the things he looks for. He just wants everybody to be able to feel it.

Lisa (36:16.91)
Wow.

Lisa (36:24.11)
What a compliment.

Suzanne Savoy (36:25.136)
Oh, and working with those actors with Dennis Quaid and Claire Danes and Timothy Oliphant, we were a family unit in this show. So, you know, they were in almost every shot that I did. One or more of them were, you know, most of the shots I did. And my grandson was played Ethan, oh no, now I can't remember Ethan's last name. Sorry, Ethan. Great.

Lisa (36:48.942)
I'm going to go to bed.

Lauren Bernick (36:49.495)
I'm sure he's not listening to Age Like a Badass Mother.

Lisa (36:51.438)
Ha ha ha ha!

Suzanne Savoy (36:53.2)
Never know! Maybe his grandmother...

Lisa (36:54.574)
I do want to hear how you prepared for your character.

Suzanne Savoy (37:00.4)
Well, first off, you know, you try and get as many clues from the script as you can. And the script was written by Ed Solomon, who wrote Men in Black, and he wrote all the Men in Blacks, and he wrote all the Bill and Ted Exel and everythings. So he's, I think he's the highest paid screenwriter in America, something like that. He's really up there. But a sweet, lovely man, again, very much like Stephen.

Lauren Bernick (37:00.951)
you channeled my mother.

Lisa (37:03.31)
I do want to hear about that.

Suzanne Savoy (37:30.192)
Soderbergh. And so I'm thinking Ed Solomon. Solomon. Hmm. I'm playing a mother and she's really difficult. She's like a real handful. I went, oh, he's writing about a Jewish mother. Okay. He writes about what he knows. I know some Jewish mothers who are a handful. Not all are. But Lauren's mother is a...

Lisa (37:50.766)
Hehehehe

Lauren Bernick (37:54.423)
Hmm.

Suzanne Savoy (37:58.928)
big personality and she...

Lauren Bernick (38:01.047)
God is so sweet. Ha ha ha.

Lisa (38:03.438)
I've you know, I've only met Lauren's aunt Joan. I haven't met her mom. I Know I that's what I've heard from you So tell us tell us about how you what you took from Lauren's mom and brought to your character the Jewish mother

Lauren Bernick (38:08.247)
She is nothing like you've met. Have you met Joan Suzy? No, she's nothing like

Suzanne Savoy (38:08.272)
Uh-huh.

Suzanne Savoy (38:19.696)
Well, the main thing was it's all about me. Everything is about me. And with a lot of emotion. Like that scene running into the bathroom, screaming and crying when something terrible is happening and she just makes the whole thing about her. It was, I didn't even have to think about it. I'm just like, what would Lauren's mom do?

Lisa (38:24.91)
hahahaha

Lauren Bernick (38:31.127)
Yes, that is correct.

Lisa (38:46.446)
I'm sorry.

Lauren Bernick (38:47.255)
The grandson got kidnapped and Claire Danes and Timothy Oliphant are the parents. What? I can't say that?

Suzanne Savoy (38:49.808)
Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. Well, what if, that's a spoiler alert. Spoiler alert. What if people haven't seen it yet?

Lisa (38:55.374)
I'm sorry.

Lauren Bernick (38:55.543)
That said like right at the beginning of the show it happens. And so yeah, and then she runs in the bathroom and she's like, I'm fine. You know, just makes it.

Suzanne Savoy (38:58.608)
Oh, okay. All right. Okay.

Suzanne Savoy (39:06.224)
Yes, well, and then the other, there was a second Jewish mom that I patterned it after as well, my friend Ellen Baer. Her mom is past, so I think it's okay for me to talk about her. Her mom, Sylvia, was a real handful and never said anything nice to her daughter. And in this script, the mother said some really awful things to her daughter. And I thought, at first I thought,

where is this coming from and where can I get this from? And then I thought about Ellen's mom and I thought, oh well, okay, I'll just do that. So you just, you take it from life and you make a sort of a mishmash from a lot of different people. And then you work with an excellent coach. I have an excellent coach. Her name is Jessica Cummings and she comes from the Bob Crackhour School.

Lisa (39:53.07)
It's so interesting to me. Maybe that's.

Lauren Bernick (40:03.671)
Well, you know, you never answered Lisa's question, but I know the answer to this. Are you getting more roles as you're aging?

Suzanne Savoy (40:07.408)
Which question?

Oh, that's a really important question. I mean, and it's important to me because so many of my friends who are my age, who are actors are discouraged and they're not getting the work that they want. But

I'm getting more than I ever got. And I think the reason is partly because I, number one, I don't give up. Number two, I continue to study. I continue to work with coaches. I continue to learn new things. I just started taking ballroom dancing, you know, to learn because I had to do a waltz or a dance in a movie and I did it badly. And I thought I'm never going to put myself or anybody else in this position again. I want to be able to dance.

So I did that. My next project is I want to take stand up with my friend Jessica. You know, you just keep pushing and getting better. You have to keep reinventing yourself and just get, and I'm not afraid to play age. I'm not afraid, you know, right now I have on a gray wig, even though my hair is blonde, bleached, you know, colored.

Lisa (41:24.622)
Well, everything you just said is what we're really hoping to get across in this podcast. It's like you're staying true to yourself. You're open to learning new skills and new things. You're allowing yourself to evolve. And I imagine that's not true for a lot of women in your demographic in this business. I imagine that there's a lot of fear and fighting and trying to please to get the role. And so, you know, I think that I would hope that that helps you in some way.

Suzanne Savoy (41:53.968)
Yeah, and you can't really blame the women all that much because it's a perception of casting people. And I've always done my best to change their perceptions. When I lived in Houston, I remember right after I had my baby, when Bonnie was still nursing, little baby, I took my agent out, Jenny Bosby, who I love, took her out to lunch. And I said, Jenny.

Lisa (41:54.414)
And it sounds like it does.

Suzanne Savoy (42:23.888)
I'm a mom now. I need to be home with the baby, but I still have to work. So I need to work less and earn more. What can we do?" And she said, well, Susie, I don't know, because, you know, in Texas, especially in Houston, the men can get over scale, but women don't. And I went, bang! I said, well, what would happen if the next time somebody casts me, you say, well, Susie is more than scale, more than union scale?

And then if it, you know, will happen, are they going to take out a gun and shoot you? You know, if they say no, you can just go, oh, well, oh, oh, I was just kidding. You know, she'll work for less than scale, whatever. But I said, just what happens if you just try it? The very next job I got, she asked for double scale. The producer didn't bat an eyelash. I did the job. And Jenny, from that day on.

Lisa (43:02.99)
Good for you.

Suzanne Savoy (43:21.168)
All her women started working at double, triple scale because somebody just had to stand up and say, just try it. But that's what it takes. You got to think in those terms. I did. I did, darn it.

Lauren Bernick (43:24.759)
Wow. You are.

Lisa (43:29.486)
Yeah, yeah. That was you, but you stood up and you said it. I mean, you, you did that, you know, but, and I imagine, and, and that's a, uh, I imagine that can be a scary thing to do when you said, you know, you can't blame other women for having to wanting to change, to fit into whatever they're looking for, because it's gotta be very scary. I mean, that's scary enough.

Suzanne Savoy (43:51.792)
It is.

Lisa (43:53.07)
culturally for us as we age, and again, which is why we have this podcast, and we're trying to sort of help change that general perception. But when you've got, you're being judged all the time and critiqued and everything. It's got to be just a gazillion times harder.

Suzanne Savoy (44:00.752)
Yeah.

Suzanne Savoy (44:06.384)
Yeah.

Suzanne Savoy (44:09.968)
It is hard, but here's something that I learned from an acting class at HB Studios about, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago. Did you? Well, Austin Pendleton, Austin Pendleton, who I think has been there since then, is a wonderful teacher there. He's just a real New York fixture. And I was taking a class with him and I decided to do a scene from The Graduate with this really gifted young actor.

Lisa (44:16.302)
I took classes at HB Studios. I did, back in the 80s.

Lisa (44:24.974)
I'm sorry.

Suzanne Savoy (44:39.44)
And I did the scene, a scene where I think she gets, yeah, she's seducing him. And she, you know, takes her clothes off. In this particular one, I just got, went down to my bra and panties or something like that. And I, I just was so nervous about, I thought, oh, I have to look really, I have to look really pretty so that this young, you know, thinking in terms of the character, oh.

she needs to look really young and pretty so that this young man will find her attractive and she can seduce him. And the scene fell flat. It was terrible. Then Austin said, he said, you know, try being more true to yourself. Do this, do that. So I went home and I got my mother's pillbox hat and I got a girdle and I got a suit with shoulder pads in it and a pocketbook,

I mean, who even needs a pocket book anymore? And...

Lauren Bernick (45:39.671)
Oh, I have my mother's pocketbooks.

Suzanne Savoy (45:42.48)
Yeah, and I did the scene like that like and I had a slip on you know and So it suddenly became very kinky. It's like oh Screw some screw lanes mom. He's not gonna screw some young-looking woman. He's gonna screw mom so sometimes embracing who you are and what you really look like

Lisa (45:42.958)
Ha ha ha ha!

Lisa (45:51.95)
That's fantastic.

Lisa (46:02.798)
Ah ha

Suzanne Savoy (46:08.88)
is makes the whole thing so much juicier and so much better. But it's very hard to give into that. Because as you say, we feel that we're being judged. We have people telling us, oh, you should lose weight. You should get a tummy tuck. You should get a boob lift. You should get Botox. The whole reason Stephen Soderbergh casts me is because I have had no face work done. He doesn't want actors that look Botoxed up. But it's.

Lisa (46:16.43)
Hmm. Hmm.

Lisa (46:35.822)
Yeah, well, you're beautiful. And I think what horrifies me when I see so many of these actresses on TV now who were once beautiful, but they look strange because they've had to succumb to the pressure. I noticed, I haven't seen it yet, but there's that series about Truman Capote and the Swans or something.

Suzanne Savoy (46:38.224)
Oh well, thank you.

Lauren Bernick (46:38.935)
gorgeous.

Lisa (47:01.806)
And I think the actresses that I saw, at least in the trailer, I didn't recognize them. So good for you for not succumbing to that.

Suzanne Savoy (47:11.664)
Well, I haven't yet. We'll see what happens. I might yet weaken.

Lisa (47:13.614)
Hahaha

Lauren Bernick (47:13.623)
Well, speaking... I know it's so hard. I fight against it all the time. I'm like, damn it. I need to get some Botox. But okay. So speaking...

Suzanne Savoy (47:21.2)
Yeah.

Lisa (47:25.806)
there's a way though to do it where it doesn't do that to you though because there are certainly plenty of women in Hollywood who we see and they are aging beautifully. Right.

Suzanne Savoy (47:34.16)
Well, Jane Fonda, years ago, somebody asked Jane Fonda, when they said, when you look in the mirror, what do you see? And she says, really good work. Ha ha ha.

Lisa (47:45.166)
But now she says she regrets having had a facelift. So right? Doesn't she? Yeah. No, never say never. But yeah.

Lauren Bernick (47:45.367)
Hahaha!

Lauren Bernick (47:51.159)
Yeah.

Suzanne Savoy (47:51.376)
A facelift? Excuse me? Come on. A facelift. She's had a few.

Lauren Bernick (47:59.287)
Well, okay. So getting back to like that, you just stand up for yourself so much and I think that's such an important part of aging well and it saved your life. Can you talk about when you were diagnosed with late stage cancer and how you saved your own life?

Lisa (48:10.798)
Yes.

Suzanne Savoy (48:13.072)
It did. Yeah.

Suzanne Savoy (48:18.512)
Yeah, it was about 13 years ago, 12, 13 years ago, I was having a lot of rectal bleeding. I was having trouble going to the bathroom. I was talking to my friends about it. I'm like, are you having trouble going to the bathroom? And some of them go, yeah, yeah, we have trouble, whatever. And I went, excuse me, I had a colonoscopy. I had an endoscopy. I went to a surgeon who did a biopsy, all these things, and nobody found anything, but I knew I had cancer.

because after a year of this hopping around to these doctors, and this one in particular who everybody said, oh, well, he's very highly regarded. So we have to take his word for it. Totally missed it. There's a big old size of big fat snail, you know, escargot wrapped around, you know, my bumhole and blocking everything. And it took, you know, it had gone on for a year

I finally, finally went into this one doctor said, okay, I think it's these hemorrhoids, you know, you're just an older lady. These things happen. Just take a laxative, you'll be fine. And they all said the same thing. Well, he, oh, so dismissive. And he's, so I said, well, if it's hemorrhoids, then whatever they are, they're causing a lot of trouble. Let's get rid of them. So hemorrhoid surgery is pretty extreme and it's very painful. It's a...

Lauren Bernick (49:33.783)
So dismissive.

Suzanne Savoy (49:47.184)
hard healing process from what I hear. But we scheduled it. Fortunately, he went on a golfing trip down to Florida or someplace, and he had a woman doctor filling in for him. So I called up and said, I gotta come in, it's getting worse, I can feel it pressing against my spine. There's something there, I have cancer, something, please. And meanwhile, nobody's taking any images. So I go in and she's like, well.

Lisa (49:52.046)
I've heard the same thing.

Lisa (50:15.694)
After a whole year? This is a year? Wow.

Suzanne Savoy (50:17.104)
after a whole year, a year. All they did was colonoscopies and, you know, like sticking things up there. So I, so finally I'm sitting there and she's still shaking her head. So going, no, but we have to believe this doctor is so well, well regarded. So I thought, all right, I'm an actress. I hate to do this, but I have to do it. So I just started screaming and crying. I did, I pulled, you know, Lauren's mom. And I said, I can't go on like this. Why are you not taking images? So she went, all right, all right, all right. We'll take images. Well, of course.

As soon as they did, all the doctors come running, like cockroaches running out of the walls to check me out. And then, and then all the male doctors couldn't wait to stick their fingers up my butt because it was just up far enough that only the men with really long fingers could touch it. And I'm hearing that this is like the big locker room talk is who could touch the tumor in Susie's butt is what they're, you know, at the cancer board meetings. So I get this feeling when I...

Lisa (50:53.966)
It's not funny, but it is.

Suzanne Savoy (51:15.6)
go and talk to the oncologist that they're not gonna really treat me because they were gonna just give me some chemo and no radiation and not much and then that was it. And I thought that doesn't sound right. This is stage four rectal cancer. The survival rate is, and it was a very rare, it was a skin cancer in the rectum, which is really weird. So I went back to this radiation oncologist that I had seen who I really respected.

young guy, Leonard Farber. And I said, Len, I just get this feeling that, oh, I shouldn't have said his name. Anyway, he gave me some intel that he had heard, that he'd heard that what I thought was true, that this is what the scuttlebutt was and that they weren't going to really. So I went about finding a doctor who would

was sort of outside the system. I mean, he still had privileges at a hospital. So I found an oncologist who would treat me aggressively and I got radiation, which unfortunately caused other problems later on, but it saved my life. And quite quickly, you know, as soon as they started treating me, the darn things started going down. But, and I mean, there's story after story within this story of just...

people not paying attention, reading charts wrong. At one point they were gonna close me up, give me a Barbie butt and a colostomy bag for the rest of my life, because they were reading last year's colonoscopy. And they were like, oh, your cancer's back.

Lisa (53:04.206)
Well, it just sounds like a lot of potential malpractice going on there.

Suzanne Savoy (53:07.76)
Oh, oh you can't, but no, because they all, they all, I asked about that and they were all like, oh, we can't speak out against our fellow doctors. I'm like, well, what about your fellow patient? What about the person who's paying you to get her well? But no, they're all like, you know, they're in this little club together. So, I mean, I'm not saying all doctors are like that. I have found some amazing doctors. My, the surgeon who, Faith Menken, who took care of my.

lump in my breast. She was just amazing. So

Lisa (53:38.894)
Well, I think what you said, I mean, you really listened. You knew. Like, there's something about knowing that something's not right no matter what. All these people who are supposed to know everything about this are telling you, you just, you knew it.

Suzanne Savoy (53:45.264)
Right, right. When...

Suzanne Savoy (53:53.744)
Yeah, when you look in a doctor's eyes and they glaze over like they don't even see you and they see a number and like a toe tag on your toe, you know that they don't see you as a living person. You're just... And of course, surgeons are not known to be the warmest, fuzziest people in the world. But yeah, no, I really, really got a bad feeling from that. So I did. I did.

Lisa (53:57.294)
Mm-hmm.

Lisa (54:06.222)
No, they're not paying attention.

Hehehe

Lauren Bernick (54:15.575)
but you advocated for yourself. And that's a huge lesson.

Lisa (54:15.758)
When you first... Yes.

Suzanne Savoy (54:19.856)
And I got lucky. I mean, the fact that I talked to the right doctor who knew the right intelligence. What if I hadn't talked to him? You know, I don't like the fact that so much is left up to luck. I don't like that.

Lisa (54:26.478)
Mm-hmm.

Lisa (54:30.958)
Yeah. And I think, well, Lauren's story is a great example of that and something that we really preach on the podcast, too, is like you do have to advocate for yourself. Do not give your power away, especially in the medical field. But earlier, when you mentioned your wig, I said, oh, yeah, I wondered. And the reason I said that isn't because it looks like you're wearing a wig, but because I had watched your YouTube channel that you created when you were going through the cancer treatment, which I thought was

Suzanne Savoy (54:39.408)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Suzanne Savoy (54:57.264)
Oh, right, right, right, yeah.

Lisa (54:59.982)
Incredible! Can you talk about that a little bit?

Suzanne Savoy (55:03.152)
When I, well I've lost my hair twice, 12 years ago when I had rectal cancer, and then three years ago I had ovarian cancer, but it was encased in my uterus. So, and it was, it had gotten to a very bad point because the radiation from my rectal cancer had blocked off my uterus and my cervix, so you couldn't go in to do pap smears and so forth.

couldn't really see what was going on and this cancer grew very quickly and so I had to have the hysterectomy and treatments and it was very harsh, harsh treatments. Lost my hair again. Well, you know, a different people, a friend of mine down in Houston, Winston Durden, who's a writer said, well, you know, you know, you, you love wigs. I'm like, yeah, I love wigs. I don't mind losing my hair because...

I have two big bins full of wigs that I've collected from acting and from cancer and whatever. I just, I love them. So he said, you know, there's a lot of women out there who are afraid of buying wigs and who don't think that they're worth spending the money on a wig for, and they're afraid it's going to look bad and look wiggy. So he said, you should make little videos so that other women can, it can help them have the courage to buy wigs or style them or whatever.

And I thought, well, that sounds like something to do while I'm, you know, sitting around the house, getting better from cancer. Another project. And my daughter was home taking care of me from California. She came home for three months. Can I give you a side story? Another empowering story. She works for a company out in LA that is mostly men. It's a video company. They do, they do kind of socially conscious videos that they post.

Lauren Bernick (56:34.263)
You love a project!

Lisa (56:36.174)
Hahaha.

Suzanne Savoy (56:57.328)
And she does very well there, but they wouldn't promote her, wouldn't promote her, wouldn't promote her. All these men who were coming in after her, you know, buddies of the owners, were passing her by, and she was having to fix their mistakes. They were getting raises, you know, the usual story. Well, she came and took care of me for, I think, three months, and I was so worried that she was going to lose her job. Well, what happened was she was gone. Who was doing all the work? Nobody.

Lisa (57:24.878)
Hmm

Suzanne Savoy (57:26.416)
So they suddenly realized, and one of the guys, his wife had a baby with birth problems, birth defect problems. And so he suddenly discovered what it was like to have a child that needed a lot of care. And he suddenly went, Oh, Bonnie, Bonnie's taking care of her mother. Oh, we should give that girl a raise. While she was gone, she got two raises and a promotion.

Lisa (57:48.206)
Incredible.

Suzanne Savoy (57:49.232)
Right, all she had to do was go away. Ladies, remember that. Just walk away for a little while and see what happens.

Lauren Bernick (57:49.783)
Yeah.

Lauren Bernick (57:53.879)
Hmm.

Lauren Bernick (57:57.783)
Interesting.

Lisa (57:57.806)
Then you see it's a shame that's what it takes to see what to have them see your value. But hey, that's what it takes.

Suzanne Savoy (58:03.504)
Yeah.

Lauren Bernick (58:03.799)
And then, yeah, finish your chemo being story. You're...

Suzanne Savoy (58:07.696)
So chemo bean, it is on YouTube. If you go to YouTube and put in Suzanne Savoy chemo bean, I think there's about eight videos now. And I talk about the different kinds of wigs because there's all different kinds of construction. I show a lot of my own wigs and how I wear them. I show head scarves and hats and different ways of tying things on your head.

I show a catalog that's out there, the TLC catalog that the American Cancer Society does, which is a great catalog. There's one video where I just sit on the couch and like leaf through the catalog. People love it, you know? So I've gotten a lot of really wonderful feedback from folks who have seen the videos or who have passed them on to other friends who they feel need to look at them. And...

And there's a lot of videos out there to help people who are dealing with hair loss from cancer. There's really a lot of people out there doing this. So I'm just another person doing it, but I'm just doing it my way.

Lisa (59:17.422)
I don't know, I really love your channel and I really, it was very inspiring and I am not on a cancer journey and it made me wanna go out and try some wigs. So I'm like, wow, cause the way you describe how to wear them and the things to look for and everything makes them look completely natural, which I think is what the fear is that you're gonna look like you're wearing a wig, right? So, and I wouldn't have known you were if you hadn't mentioned it. So.

Suzanne Savoy (59:40.208)
Yeah. Yeah.

Lauren Bernick (59:46.231)
Yeah, it looks great. Unbelievable. It looks really good. It does look really good.

Suzanne Savoy (59:46.416)
It's a $12 wig. It's starting to clump up. They do have sort of a shelf life on your head.

Lisa (59:47.694)
That is pretty unbelievable. Yeah.

Lauren Bernick (59:56.375)
I still play. Well, I sk-

Lisa (59:58.35)
But you obviously couldn't work during the period that you were getting treatment. Wow.

Suzanne Savoy (01:00:02.48)
I did. Oh, when I got treatment, I was, I was too, yeah, I was too sick and too exhausted. And I mean, there were days when I cried when I really just thought I couldn't get through it. But I will say that the minute, but the minute that my treatment stopped, I started feeling better. I guess it was this particular chemo and the first time as well. Any time I've gotten really sick or had a really bad like

Lisa (01:00:07.566)
Yeah.

Suzanne Savoy (01:00:31.728)
when my husband left me and I was left like crying on the floor. Something really great always happens afterwards. I think because you're so raw and you're so out there and people recognize that and they want to help or they want or they want to capitalize on this really person who's channeling their their inner stuff. You know, that stuff can be really great on camera, I guess. So.

Lisa (01:00:59.246)
Well, I mean, you came back and worked again. I mean, I think that's the point I was getting to. Yeah.

Suzanne Savoy (01:01:02.48)
I've had my best two years since, my cancer was in 2021, I think, and I've had my best two years since then, ever.

Lisa (01:01:12.334)
Incredible.

Lauren Bernick (01:01:13.623)
Yeah, you and you take really good care of yourself. You have had, you've battled a lot of health issues and now you're doing type 1.5 diabetes. And so how are you taking care of yourself? I mean, you really, you really, I know, put a lot of thought and work into it.

Suzanne Savoy (01:01:30.48)
Yeah, well, again, listening. You know, I really listened. I was at Memorial Sloan Kettering for some reason I went there from when my blood sugar went to 1,257, which it's supposed to be under 100. And it was like, and I didn't know. I just knew my mouth was really dry and you know, just a lot of real weird things were happening. My eyesight was going. And so I had an appointment with my doctor and they...

Lisa (01:01:45.838)
Yikes.

Suzanne Savoy (01:01:59.568)
And I said, would you take my blood sugar? I think something's wrong. She took it and she's like, get to the hospital right now. And she was at Sloan Kettering. So she sent me there. Well, the folks at Sloan Kettering, even though it's a cancer hospital primarily, they, is that your doorbell, Lauren? It's yours. Well, if you want to hop off, it's okay. I'll tell Lauren my story, even though she knows it. They had a really good training program for how to count your carbs.

Lisa (01:02:16.142)
That's mine. It's probably a delivery.

Lauren Bernick (01:02:16.151)
No. It's okay. No, no, keep going.

Suzanne Savoy (01:02:29.808)
and how to do all the insulin and all of that. Cause there really, there are a lot of fine points to it. You know, you're supposed to eat the vegetables first and then the carbs. Cause that helps the insulin work better. Just don't freak out if you start to get a spike, don't suddenly freak out and go in the other direction too far. If you suddenly plummets, don't start eating a bunch of candy. You have to eat a little bit, but you don't want to eat the whole candy drawer.

Lisa (01:02:37.102)
Hmm.

Suzanne Savoy (01:02:59.056)
which I started doing it in the beginning. So, well, I am, but I'm having a lot of trouble with the company that distributes these monitors. Again, you call and you try to get help and they just brush you off. So I've called out as many of the big guns as I can to, you know, I've called my doctor's office, they've called trying to get it sorted out.

Lisa (01:03:01.518)
So you're wearing a monitor all the time now then, probably.

Suzanne Savoy (01:03:26.256)
they're just not delivering to me. They're saying, oh, well, she's got the wrong date on her, wrong birth date at CVS. I'm like, no, I don't. Well, she's got the wrong address on her. I'm like, no, I don't. So it's just somebody doesn't want to do their job.

Lisa (01:03:40.174)
Have you made any lifestyle changes? Like dietary or lifestyle changes with having been through the cancer and now the 1.5 diabetes?

Suzanne Savoy (01:03:44.112)
Well...

Suzanne Savoy (01:03:50.0)
That's an interesting question because...

Lisa (01:03:55.31)
Uh oh.

Lisa (01:04:00.718)
Did we lose her?

Lisa (01:04:07.15)
Hey David? Yeah.

Lisa (01:04:12.974)
I need to put something on our front door to not ring the doorbell when we're doing this.

Lauren Bernick (01:04:17.815)
You can barely hear it.

Lisa (01:04:19.95)
Okay.

Lisa (01:04:26.51)
I think he's looking into it right now. Oh, we lost her.

Lauren Bernick (01:04:32.951)
She'll call back, right?

Lisa (01:04:36.142)
She's such an inspiration.

Lauren Bernick (01:04:39.735)
I love her. That's when I just went to that wedding in Palm Springs in October. That's, I was at her daughter's wedding.

Lisa (01:04:42.35)
I think that's...

Lisa (01:04:48.078)
I'm a little ashamed I didn't watch that series. Is it available? The one with, yeah.

Lauren Bernick (01:04:51.831)
What, full circle? Yeah, it's not. She's great.

Lisa (01:04:56.622)
We're still recording. Yes, okay. I'm usually good about doing my homework, but I was like, it was enough for me that she was in House of Cards and Better Call Saul and the one she's in because I'm like, oh my God, I love those shows. Huh?

Lauren Bernick (01:05:00.599)
She knows. She's great, she's great.

Lauren Bernick (01:05:11.735)
we're not going to put that in right? No, it's um she is great in it and she gets to wear like the coolest clothes. I kept saying ask him if he can keep the clothes. Well it's like in the first or second one, first or second.

Lisa (01:05:20.526)
I only want to watch it now because you're mom. I want to.

Lauren Bernick (01:05:29.783)
Okay.

David (01:06:46.683)
Okay.

We're just waiting on them.

Lisa (01:06:53.495)
I should have told Shori I couldn't change his appointment.

Lisa (01:07:01.687)
We just need to wrap when they come back on.

Lisa (01:07:14.935)
Where are they?

David (01:07:16.091)
Oh.

That's so funny. So, Suzie texted back and said her iPhone overheated.

Lisa (01:07:25.303)
Oh.

David (01:07:27.227)
Um, so she's gonna... Ha! Wow, that's funny.

Lisa (01:07:35.479)
So can we do it? Because I have to go get Shori in like 15, 10 minutes.

David (01:07:41.211)
Yeah.

Well, let's see. Let me see what Lauren's deal is.

Lisa (01:07:49.047)
We just have to have a wrap up.

Lisa (01:07:57.623)
I'm gonna go pee while you guys are, oh wait. What did she say, Lauren? Hang tight. Did you see what Lauren texted? I'm gonna go to the bathroom.

David (01:08:40.379)
Um, so, uh...

Lauren Bernick (01:08:41.884)
is called my browser.

David (01:08:45.467)
Say that again.

Lauren Bernick (01:08:46.844)
It's on my screen, it says issue, close the other Riverside browser tab, but that's not finished uploading. It's only at 54%.

David (01:08:57.403)
Is it still ticking up? Is it showing? There's 55 I see on my side. So this is bizarre. So Suzy said that her, hang on here she is again, her iPhone overheated.

Lauren Bernick (01:09:00.7)
It's ticking up. Yeah, 56.

Lauren Bernick (01:09:09.532)
Yeah, she's trying on her laptop. I know.

Lisa (01:09:13.911)
Um, so can we, so we'll just have to do like an audio wrap up or something.

David (01:09:15.387)
Okay, so let me call

David (01:09:19.995)
Let me just call that I need to call her. She's asked me to.

Lisa (01:09:22.199)
What was she talking about when she froze? What was she talking about, Lauren?

Lauren Bernick (01:09:27.484)
her lifestyle changes. Because she does, she has adopted a little more plant-based. So I did want, I'm glad you asked that. I was gonna, now I'm at 65%.

Lisa (01:09:29.911)
Oh right, that's important.

Lisa (01:09:35.735)
Yeah.

David (01:09:38.651)
Hey, Susie. This is interesting.

David (01:09:56.059)
Did it say that an update was required or did it just suggest it?

Was it saying that an update was required or was it just suggesting that you update it? It said that I could not, hang on, well hang on. It says your browser, I've just logged into Riverside and it said your browser is out of date. Update Chrome or join on mobile. So I tried updating on Chrome and I never got the little icon that showed the download for me to click.

because it says, download Chrome. OK, so I click Download Chrome. It says, get Chrome for Mac, accept and install. OK, open. Step one, open. And it says, open Google Chrome.dmg file from Chrome downloads at the top right corner of this window. And I don't see the little icon. It's got a down facing, they show a down facing arrow.

How about, are you on a Mac? I am. So do you have a, on the dock on the bottom of the screen, do you show a downloads folder maybe like next to your trash or something?

David (01:11:17.275)
downloads.

Um, not next to the trash, but I, I'm sure I could find my downloads. Yeah. That's okay. Hang on. Yeah. If I, uh, if I just hit finder, it'll tell me. Yeah. You can, you can, uh, just see this is.

Lauren Bernick (01:11:20.861)
I don't have that.

David (01:11:42.075)
This downloads TV.

Lauren Bernick (01:11:46.205)
Okay, I can, mine's, I'm closing that, that's good.

David (01:11:46.427)
Hang on, downloads, mail, well it just says downloads, but it's from 2022, let me see what it has. You unconfirmed download. Oh, that sounds.

It looks like I've got a bunch of unconfirmed downloads. How about this? Click just on the desktop, just so that you're somewhere in the Finder, and then hit the command bar and space bar together. And that'll bring up a little search window, and just search Chrome and see if you see the installer. Wait, so I should be in my Finder? Yes. Is that it? Okay, hang on. So I'm in my Finder.

You should hit command and space bar. Uh-huh. And that should.

So just, yeah, just type in Chrome. I'm not sure I understand. Oh, oh no. Okay, you have yours, okay. It's set to open Siri instead of a search. You know, okay, so let's just- What should I ask it? Well, I don't think it can really help you. Just trying to think of the fastest path to success here. So your iPhone, you got a message that it overheated? Yeah. Wow. It overheated and I couldn't use it anymore.

And how about now? How is it doing? Is there something else I can help with? Let me get rid of this person.

David (01:13:14.171)
Well, I mean, it feels like it's warm. But it's working. So here, because I think that one of the things that's making it like, I don't know, rev so hard is because you're using the video while it's also uploading the file. So just, why don't you do this? Try joining the same way you did and then just once we will see you and then we'll, I think you just need to do a quick wrap up Lauren and Lisa said. And then.

Yeah, well, just not right now, but I'll just see you in Riverside and then we'll take it from there.

Lisa (01:13:47.383)
So she should finish telling about her diet and lifestyle changes and then we got a wrap. I should have told Shory, no he called me last night and asked him if I could take him to this appointment.

David (01:13:55.483)
on your phone you mean yeah just however you got here before okay perfect let's see in a second

Lauren Bernick (01:13:59.229)
Did you tell him, no, it's Friday?

Lisa (01:14:02.647)
No, this, he needs to go. It's another appointment. And I told him, yeah, but he...

Lauren Bernick (01:14:06.557)
and you're sick.

David (01:14:07.867)
Hello.

Lauren Bernick (01:14:09.309)
Hello.

David (01:14:12.827)
Alright.

Lisa (01:14:13.015)
He's just gonna have to deal.

Lauren Bernick (01:14:15.293)
Okay, let her say that. And then I told her I was gonna ask her her best advice for aging well and the best advice she ever got, and then we'll wrap it. Yeah.

Lisa (01:14:22.679)
Can we do this all in 10 minutes? Okay. He's just gonna have to- I should have told him now. Uh-huh.

Lauren Bernick (01:14:28.925)
So you quickly ask Lisa, you re-ask the, have you made any diet and lifestyle changes?

Lisa (01:14:34.199)
Okay. Yeah. Okay.

David (01:14:45.883)
Okay, one moment. That was the Orcan Man at the door, strangely.

Lisa (01:14:52.055)
What's the Orkin Man?

Lauren Bernick (01:14:53.661)
pesticides.

David (01:14:53.819)
That the oh here's Susie. Well, I'll tell you about that later

Lisa (01:14:56.599)
Okay.

David (01:14:59.515)
Okay.

Lauren Bernick (01:14:59.613)
Hello, gorgeous.

Lisa (01:15:00.023)
You're back yay! Alright so please share with us the diet and lifestyle changes that you've made since your health journey with cancer and type 1 and 1.5 diabetes.

David (01:15:03.387)
ARIN

suzanne savoy (01:15:11.509)
Well, you know...

suzanne savoy (01:15:15.493)
actually with, you know, Lauren's been a great inspiration over the years because, you know, she's does so much with nutrition and lifestyle. And so I was already, even though I don't follow her, her regimen to the T, I've been eating very much in that way for a long time. I'm vegetarian, I'm vegan. Yeah, very completely plant based. And

Lauren Bernick (01:15:36.253)
Whole Food Plant-Based.

Lisa (01:15:36.343)
some more plant-based.

suzanne savoy (01:15:41.573)
very little oil. I mean, that's where I don't follow it to the T is that sometimes I do use a little oil, but very little. And I don't eat gluten because I find that it gives me inflammation. So I was already there. So when they were teaching me at the hospital how to count carbs and do this, it was really not much of an adjustment at all. So when I went back...

you know, they give you the sensor and they give you all your stuff and they send you on your way and come back for a check several months later and they they check your your blood sugars over the long haul. And they were shocked. They were just shocked because I was a lot of the time, I was 99 percent of the time within the range that they wanted me, which is apparently, you know, quite a quite a feat. And but it wasn't really that hard to do, especially with the sensors and just with watching.

what I eat. So yeah, so I was already kind of there.

Lisa (01:16:39.255)
Wonderful.

Lauren Bernick (01:16:41.501)
Yeah, and you know, we learned from somebody else, Loreana Hernandez, who had cancer, and because she was so healthy to begin with, they were able to treat her aggressively. And I imagine it's the same thing with you with your cancer and that you can recover quickly from your diabetes, you know, be on the road to health just because you were in such good health before you got there.

suzanne savoy (01:17:04.549)
That's very much the case because when I landed in the hospital with my blood sugar at 1,257 and they said, lady why are you not in a coma or dead? We don't know. We've never seen anybody walk in like that. And I really, my vital signs were all perfect. My pulse, my oxygen, my heart rate, all those things were fine. It was just that my blood sugar was off the charts.

and I was horribly, horribly dehydrated. So my body was taking care of itself. I think I'm gonna lose you in a second again.

Lauren Bernick (01:17:35.421)
Mm.

Lauren Bernick (01:17:39.837)
Okay, well, let's just, couple quick questions. What is your one piece of advice for aging well? You've given us so many already.

suzanne savoy (01:17:43.077)
Sure.

suzanne savoy (01:17:48.165)
My piece of advice for aging well is don't take advice. Because so much...

Lisa (01:17:52.951)
We're going right back to where we were. Listen to yourself.

suzanne savoy (01:17:57.925)
So much of the advice that I've gotten is great for other people, but it didn't, you know, they told me, you can't start an acting career at the age of 30. You know, you've passed by all the roles that you, you know, the really good, you'll never play Juliet. I was like, well, I never did play Juliet, but that's okay. So, but, but it's never, and you know, that's right. I remember hearing on NPR an

Lauren Bernick (01:17:58.781)
What is?

Lisa (01:18:16.631)
It's never too late to do what your heart calls you to do.

suzanne savoy (01:18:27.717)
at the time was around 80 years old. And the interviewer said, do you think about slowing down or retiring? And he said, well, I just bought a whole load of stone that would take me, I'd have to live longer than a hundred to carve all that stone. But I'm just gonna keep doing it and not consider the end. Well, he died about four years later and somebody had to do something with all that stone. But.

I like that idea of thinking of the arc of your life as that it's, you know, it's not going to end. It will, but if you focus on it, maybe it's good to focus on it so you don't get surprised at the end. But I don't, I can't imagine ever retiring. I love my work so much. And as long as I can talk or move a finger or whatever, I think I'll still be out there looking for roles.

Looking for scraps along the road.

Lisa (01:19:26.007)
Well, you're an example of someone who you're aging well because you live well. So it's about living well. Yeah.

suzanne savoy (01:19:31.493)
Well, and I'm lucky, I guess, too. Like, a lot of people live well, but maybe they had, genetically, they were not given some of the genes that would keep them alive longer. So some of it's luck, some of it's, but it sure doesn't hurt to take care of yourself and to have a, I have friends of every age, and I've had people,

Lauren Bernick (01:19:33.117)
Exactly.

suzanne savoy (01:20:01.669)
say, you know, it's a little weird that you have so many young friends, you know, don't you, are you trying to prove something? Are you? And I'm like, no, they're interesting. And they like me and I like them and we sit and talk for hours. You know, it's not, I'm not trying to act young. I'm just, I'm interested in those people. And as well as I have older friends too, I have friends who are much older than me. So, yeah, I, I take it. Helen

She said, train your voice and learn your lines. And that was it.

Lisa (01:20:35.415)
Hahaha

Lauren Bernick (01:20:37.277)
That's good advice. Oh, Suzy, it's been so good talking to you. I love you so much. Thank you.

suzanne savoy (01:20:39.173)
Yep. Oh, Lauren, I'm so glad you guys called me to do this. It's a real privilege. And I love the work that you're doing.

Lauren Bernick (01:20:46.525)
You really are a badass.

Lisa (01:20:46.967)
Well, it's a real honor to meet you. You're really inspiring. Everything you've shared has been incredibly inspiring.

suzanne savoy (01:20:51.877)
Oh, thanks.

Thanks, well I love your community and I love the folks that I've seen speak and I'm going to keep on listening, it's great.

Lisa (01:21:03.159)
Yay.

Lauren Bernick (01:21:03.229)
Thank you.

David (01:21:05.403)
Okay, so don't just don't go yet. I'm gonna Bear with me So i've just hit the resume upload on your phone. I think what's going to happen is Um, I think it's going to let me just if you can keep your phone open to what wherever it is at the moment Just keep it open for maybe three or four minutes um And then I will be in touch but I may it may require you might get an email I may have to send you an email link that says like

suzanne savoy (01:21:10.053)
case with me. Did you work outside?

David (01:21:34.971)
Click here to resume uploading or something. But...

Lauren Bernick (01:21:37.405)
But she gets to click out of the meeting, right? Leave meeting, but then leave the phone open, is that right? Okay. Yeah, you leave the meeting, then you leave it open. Is that right?

David (01:21:41.851)
Yeah.

suzanne savoy (01:21:42.693)
Leave it. Oh, okay.

David (01:21:45.211)
Um

I, well, I think so. I mean, the phone is kind of a new, a new, I don't know, a new area for us. So I'm just trying to see here if it's, if the upload is continuing.

suzanne savoy (01:21:50.725)
just leave it.

suzanne savoy (01:21:59.045)
Evil, a new evil.

suzanne savoy (01:22:08.325)
Yeah, I apologize. I tried everything I could think of to get this computer to download Chrome or to upgrade it or whatever. Not being...

Lauren Bernick (01:22:11.357)
It's okay.

David (01:22:14.363)
No, not a problem. Um, let me go ahead and stop.

suzanne savoy (01:22:22.789)
We're going to go outside, sweetheart. We'll go outside. Okay? You gotta go poop? We'll go outside.

suzanne savoy (01:22:31.685)
Like a boy. A boy? No, I can leave my phone sitting right here. Yeah. Or no.

suzanne savoy (01:22:47.909)
It's your son, Lauren. It's your son. He came to visit me. They came to visit me.

suzanne savoy (01:22:57.989)
What? Are they?

Oh my god.

Well, I'm glad they went. I'm glad they went. David, thanks for your patience. And this was fun. It was really, really fun. It was a privilege. You too, Lisa. Feel better, honey.

suzanne savoy (01:23:26.277)
Bye guys. Mugwate? Here we go. Oof. Hold on. Bleh. Kick it up.