Welcome to A Comic Conversation! a podcast brought to you by The Team at Distance NERDing!
Have you ever thought, dang if only i had a way to listen to an interview at a comic con that i missed even tho i had no way of being there? well think no further!!! Jahmez 5000 and Yung Phil of the Distance NERDing podcast thought the same thing and started recording their interviews for you, The NERDs, to listen to at home!!! You may be revisiting an interview that you attended and wanted to hear again, or maybe hearing it for the first time!! were here for you!!!
In this episode we had anamazingconversation with Tami Stronach, the Childlike Emperess from Never Ending Story!!! We talk our love for movies, her career outside of Never Ending Story, and her latest film!! So sit back, Relax, and Enjoy a Comic Conversation!!!!
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Nerds, we have a strong belief here at distance nerding.
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If you didn't cry when our tax died, are you even really human?
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Distractions aside, we have a real treat for you.
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On this episode of A Comic Conversation, we get the honor
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of talking with the Child Emperor's herself, Tammy
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Stronach. So prepare for eternity, fight
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the nothing, and get yourself a new name.
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It's time for a comic conversation.
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All right, well, ladies and gentlemen, our next guest is
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literally movie royalty best known for playing the child
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Empress in the classic fantasy film The Never Ending Story.
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This is a very rare appearance celebrating the 40th anniversary
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of the classic film The Never Ending Story.
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Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Tammy
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Stronach. She just jumped up there.
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It's OK. It's all good.
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Hi. Everybody.
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All right, Well, how you doing? I'm really well.
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It's such a gorgeous day and it's lovely to be here.
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Awesome, awesome. So before we get into everything
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that we're going to talk about here, right, we like to ask this
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question. So on our show we have we have a
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segment called Growing Up Geeky. What did you geek out on when
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you were a kid? I loved movies, yeah, for sure.
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And I feel like it's a sort of common thing from our
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generation. We would just like quote movies
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to each other a lot. Absolutely.
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I think now everybody watches something different, you know
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this. And so I don't see my daughter's
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generation, not as much. But I was also just a dancer.
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So I was a total dance nerd, and nobody does what I did.
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I would like, you know, spend powers just in like apparatuses,
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like cranking and stretching and like very odd getting maximum
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range of motion. So that was my obsession.
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Yeah, just just completely just making sure you're stretched at
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all times. You're not breaking.
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Anything. Yeah, Yeah.
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I was like, I would dance like four or five hours a day.
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Wow. Yeah, okay, yeah, no, I can
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relate. High school, same thing you.
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Stretched. Not the same kind of dancing.
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Right, but I dancing hip hop. Oh.
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My. Gosh, that's so cool.
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I was a break dancer. And were you really?
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Yeah. And then we got into teaching
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like hip hop classes. Love that.
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Yeah. Yeah, so can't do that now I'm.
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No, I can't do it now. Either I'm so I have no range of
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motion anymore. It's it's not happening.
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So we know you started, well, at least you mentioned it right
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now, I know you started off as a dancer and kind of got into
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acting from there, but where did you get your start in acting?
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Did you ever go to an acting school or did you want to be an
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actor to begin with? I was always dancing and acting
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at the same time, and I did take some theater classes.
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We were traveling a lot. My parents were archaeologists,
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so I grew up in Iran. And then we left and we went to
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multiple other countries afterwards.
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So for me, the arts was home. Like no matter what country I
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went to, I would slip into a theater class or slip into a
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dance class and it suddenly felt familiar.
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We were doing like the same warm ups and the same exercises and
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just didn't matter what language it was in or what country we
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were in. I was back home.
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Right, right. What was it like having Laura
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Crofton, Indiana Jones as parents?
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It was actually such a funny story.
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My father is just the sweetest man.
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He passed away a couple years ago, but he was like Pooh Bear.
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That's like who he was. And, you know, every holiday I'd
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give him a jar of honey and he'd be like, oh, how delightful.
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I wonder what this one's like. You know, he's just like,
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literally Pooh Bear. And it's just so fun to give him
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honey to see. Or he was Scottish.
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Right, Scottish, but he has a British accent because he
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modeled his accent after David Attenborough.
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As a child. He was like, I love that voice.
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And so he literally sounded like it.
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And then my daughter, I showed her these nature videos.
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And it was only like several years later, because David is my
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father's name, where she realized that David Attenborough
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was not my she thought my dad narrated all those movies.
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She was devastated. I just put two and two together
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when you said that and I was like your daughter thought that.
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She hunt 100% was like and there's my grandpa narrating.
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They had a very similar voice but I don't know what we were
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talking about. I feel like I'm I missed the
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question. Where where did we start?
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Really the the question that comes out of the joke I made is
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what? What was it like having two
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parents that were right? Archaeologists.
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So it was very boring. I grew up on digs in Iran.
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And they would have, like, these toothbrushes.
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And there would be like a giant mountain.
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And they'd get up at 4:00 in the morning and with a toothbrush,
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they would sort of lightly scrape the dust.
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And they thought this was fascinating.
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And as a child, I did not. And then occasionally they'd
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find a small pottery Shard. And everyone in the camp would
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be like, oh, my God, it's a pottery Shard.
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And I look, Tammy, look. And I'd be like, it's a rock,
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you know, whatever. Hello.
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So I played with the sheep and I chased the goats.
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And I was couldn't have been a less good daughter.
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I was so uninterested. And then, of course, we'd have
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these long lecture series at my house where my father would play
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movies of the digs that I'd just been on for three months like,
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well, and we found a stone. Hell.
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And then after three more months, we found an additional
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stone. And they were like, then the
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picture of two identical stones, you know, And but you had to sit
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and listen and like, nod your head.
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So that's it Wasn't like Indiana Jones, you guys, no.
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Not. Not at all.
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Not. The real thing, it's really,
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really detailed, precise. He did find some cool things.
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I'll, I'll give him that. He was a very renowned
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archaeologist. He was sort of world renowned
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archaeologist. OK, so, so going back to the
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role itself, was this your first role?
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I mean, no, no, I played, I played many things prior to
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that. I was the Wizard in The Wizard
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of Oz at 4IN Theatre Company at the time.
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I was Piglet in Winnie the Pooh, but I was in Oliver.
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Like I'd done many, many tiny regional mom and pop cute little
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productions. So yes, it was my first role,
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like something considered bigger.
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But you know, as a kid, that's not really how you're
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approaching things. It's just you're just play.
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It's just a game. And and this game had nicer
00:06:44
cameras than the last game, you know.
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How did you land the part? Like what was the audition
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process like for for this? The audition process was
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intensive, so OK, I was in an acting class at Amata in Fort
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Mason Center in San Francisco, and the teacher there was
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friends with one of the producers and casting agents,
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Anna Gross, who came to visit her to have lunch.
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And she was early, so she came into the class for the last 10
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minutes of the theater class and saw me do something in the class
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and said, oh, do you want to come audition for this film?
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And I was a ham. And I'm like, absolutely, yes,
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I'd love to audition. And so I told my parents, and
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they really didn't know what it was for.
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And they're like, sure, we'll drive you over.
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And I had a play that morning. I was doing Piglet in Winnie the
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Pooh at an assembly. You know, when like, kids go to
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school assemblies and they do like plays and assemblies.
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So I was doing that at the time. So I showed up in full pig
00:07:44
makeup to the audition like that really hard to get off like
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grease paint, you know, with and the agent saw me.
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She Otto was like, what is on your face?
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You know, and like, well, I was in a show this morning and I
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hadn't didn't have time to take it off.
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So she's like really rooting for me.
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And she's in the bathroom, like using paper towels trying to
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screw up this horrible, like grease, pig makeup off my face.
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We get it off as much as we can. And I go and we do an audition.
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And the audition was really fun. The material is phenomenal,
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right? Like when text is good, you
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don't have to do anything. You just have to let the text
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speak for itself. So it's really fun.
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And then we got a call back and I was so excited.
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And she was like, yes. So Wolfgang would like to see
00:08:30
you in LA. And he was just curious if maybe
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you could not wear pig makeup this time.
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And so then she met me. And she was like, putting
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mascara on my eyes in the bathroom.
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Like, I just was not very good at all that stuff.
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And I really feel like she was rooting for me, Right?
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And then there was one more audition.
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We flew to Germany. And then I started getting
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nervous because you're like, OK, it's just down to me and one
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other girl. Super stressful.
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I really wanted it. And I got lucky luck.
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Luck Dragon came to my aid. Nice reference.
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So I mean, you Never Ending Story is, is is a classic now.
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It's part of like a lot of our childhoods, the people who are
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here right now. When did you realize that it was
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a thing that Never Ending Story was going to be something you
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were in the first film? In such a journey.
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So after the film came out, things got really crazy.
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My parents, as I said, were archaeologists.
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They were not Hollywood manager types.
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And we got offers to do other films.
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And they were really worried that at that time in Hollywood,
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commodifying children at such a young age could be sort of
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emotionally scarring. And they didn't feel like they
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were going to be able to navigate me properly.
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Like probably that's why so many celebrities, children become
00:09:54
actors is they actually have like a support system that can
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help them navigate it. There's a gajillion people who
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can act. There's a gajillion people who
00:10:02
can do a great job. But how to like navigate around
00:10:05
the business side of it? It's like a whole separate ball
00:10:09
game. And having experience in that is
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really, I think what separates, what allows some people to
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survive in it and others not so, So they were like, we're pulling
00:10:20
the plug on this. It's just getting too weird.
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And and I had like offers to be in like films with nudity as a
00:10:29
child. Like it was just things that
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were getting really crazy or kidnapped or tortured.
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And they were like looking at these scripts and they're like,
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yes, will, no, no, thank you. Shall we have some honey?
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You know, like, okay, so so then I just didn't think about the
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never ending story and it kind of went away and I became a
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dancer and I had a dance career in New York and I ended up doing
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a bunch of plays in New York. I still love theater.
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It wasn't on my resume. It just didn't exist on my
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resume. And then usually somewhere like
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in the middle of a run, people would like, do you know that
00:11:01
that Tammy was in the Never ending story when she was little
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and everybody like ha ha, ha, ha, ha.
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It was not cool. It was not cool.
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But then somehow I feel like over time it just became like
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like more like charming. And then people.
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It's then I started meeting people and I hearing like these
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stories that it like moved them to, you know, tackle a dream
00:11:25
that they were scared of, but then they they did it anyway.
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And and then Stranger things put it on and I don't know, it just
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sort of gained this life of its own.
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And I can't believe that it's the 40th anniversary this summer
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and that you guys are all here wanting to hear about it.
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I was just so amazing and incredible and bizarre that it's
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still around and still meaningful to people.
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Do you ever get stopped in the streets and people were just
00:11:48
like, wait, were you in Never Ending Story?
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No, I mean occasionally, like occasionally if someone, but I
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know it's because they've seen me on my Instagram or something,
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you know, like from now. But I've been really sort of,
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it's a very funny thing. Like even when I was little,
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there would be people outside of my house.
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And if if I was like running late to school or something,
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like, do you know where Tammy is?
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And I'm like, I don't, I really don't.
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I got to go, you know? So she was such a, that
00:12:20
character was so ethereal and so magical and so separate from
00:12:25
real life, right. Like, it's not the same thing as
00:12:28
playing, I don't know, like a doctor or a mom or something.
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Like, it's really. So I feel like for me, yeah,
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like I really only get noticed when I'm in this context.
00:12:40
Gotcha. Gotcha.
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So let's talk more about your dancing, OK?
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All right, tell us about the career path.
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It's kind of like because you said for for 20 years after
00:12:48
doing never ending story, you, you, you danced like it.
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Kind of what where am I trying to go with this is tell us about
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the dancing career and just kind of like, you know how that was
00:12:59
like the next. Years of your life.
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So I went to purchase college, which has a really great dance
00:13:05
department and I studied in London contemporary School of
00:13:07
Dance as well. And then when I got out of
00:13:10
college, I was in New York and I actually got into Bella Lewitzky
00:13:16
Dance Company based in LA, which was like a steady nine to five
00:13:20
job with a paycheck and health insurance.
00:13:23
It was the first job I got out of college and I was so naive.
00:13:26
I was like, it's an exact luckily what I want to do.
00:13:30
So I turned it down and then, you know, found myself in a sea
00:13:34
of New York dancers, thousands of thousands of dancers for a
00:13:37
single job. But so I ended up working with
00:13:41
slightly smaller companies and founding my own company, Tammy
00:13:45
Stronach Dance. And we were housed at some of
00:13:49
the best theaters in New York. Every year we had like an annual
00:13:52
performance and touring. And so I was a director, I was a
00:13:56
choreographer, I had my own group of dancers that I worked
00:13:58
with for over 10 years. And then I worked with some
00:14:02
other companies or like dance companies as well as a theater
00:14:06
company called the Flying Machine.
00:14:08
And we were the resident theatre company at Soho Repertory
00:14:11
Theatre, which is in Soho and in New York.
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It's a beautiful Little Theatre there.
00:14:16
And we also toured all over the world.
00:14:18
So I didn't do film, but I was in rehearsal 7 to 8 hours every
00:14:24
day and performing with three to four companies for 20 years.
00:14:29
So I just kind of like, perfect. Doesn't really get better than
00:14:33
that. Any any larger productions as
00:14:35
far as the dance goes like. No, I mean, you know, we were at
00:14:40
the Joyce Theatre, which is one of the biggest theatres in, in
00:14:43
New York. And, and then we had like yo-yo
00:14:47
Ma's manager for, for the Flying Machine Company.
00:14:52
So we were doing a lot of, of building work in New York as, as
00:14:56
the resident company at Soho Rep and then touring that to various
00:14:59
theatres. But it was not like the normal
00:15:02
life of an actor. I was really torn about going
00:15:05
back into film. I missed it.
00:15:07
I wanted it. I was scared.
00:15:08
Love it. I didn't really love the
00:15:11
lifestyle. I didn't have the money for the
00:15:13
lifestyle like you had to. I had it.
00:15:16
I went, I got an agent right out of college and they were like,
00:15:19
just clear your schedule so you're available for auditions.
00:15:23
And I was like, have you had any look at New York rents lately?
00:15:27
Like, I don't know how you're supposed to have nothing on your
00:15:32
calendar to be available for auditions.
00:15:34
Like, I genuinely just didn't understand how anyone could make
00:15:38
that possible. So I chose to go into companies
00:15:42
where you had a salary and a set season every year.
00:15:46
And I was really fortunate. They just kept me on.
00:15:49
Every year my contracts got renewed.
00:15:51
So I really had a very different path.
00:15:53
Like I didn't go and audition and get a job and go and
00:15:56
audition and get a job. I was always working with the
00:15:58
same group of people bringing a new dance or story to life.
00:16:04
And so, you know, it's not as glamorous, but it was genuinely
00:16:07
like really rewarding. And I didn't run around
00:16:11
auditioning. I was in the studio making art,
00:16:14
just what I wanted to do. Right, right.
00:16:17
So do you have any fun stories from set like that that you can
00:16:20
remember back? Oh yeah, never anything from
00:16:22
never. Any story.
00:16:22
Sure, sure. I have lots of stories.
00:16:25
So I, I told this one, I've told it many times, but I lost my
00:16:28
teeth, my 2 canines before filming started and Wolfgang was
00:16:33
really mad at me. I was like, it's not my fault.
00:16:36
I'm 10. I can't control when my teeth
00:16:38
come out. And so he was like, OK, what do
00:16:41
we do? What do we do?
00:16:42
And they set up this two weeks of torture at this German
00:16:46
dentist who just like just made this mold of my mouth.
00:16:50
And I had to lay back with my mouth like open for 12 hours a
00:16:53
day. Not that much.
00:16:55
I'm exaggerating. It felt like 12 hours.
00:16:57
How about that? And then?
00:16:58
Yeah, it was. Just so many hours and you just
00:17:00
come home and it was so red and it took two weeks to make.
00:17:04
The first cast mold he made looked so comical that Wolfgang
00:17:08
was really angry. It's like, Nope, It was like
00:17:11
these giant teeth. And he's like, that's not going
00:17:14
to work. So then we had to go back and do
00:17:16
it again and shave it down and shave it down and shave it down.
00:17:19
And then they finally ended up with an acceptable mold.
00:17:22
And then they gave it to me. And then I couldn't speak
00:17:25
without lisping, so I was trying to do my lines.
00:17:27
I'm like that, please. So what you're drinking like
00:17:31
this is not going to work. You know, I need to be poised
00:17:35
and elegant. I can't.
00:17:37
And I was like, lists are cool, but not for this part.
00:17:40
So so then I had to like learn to like talk around it.
00:17:44
And then we had like the crafty table and I couldn't eat with
00:17:49
it. So I put my teeth down and I got
00:17:51
my sandwiches and I ate it and then my teeth disappeared.
00:17:55
And these are expensive, expensive teeth that we've spent
00:17:58
weeks at the dentist making. And so they had to go through
00:18:02
all the garbage. Somebody thrown the teeth out in
00:18:06
the. Garbage.
00:18:07
My teeth, yeah. And so, yeah.
00:18:10
So they're like, oh, God, we're Tammy's teeth.
00:18:12
You know, we got a film that's a funny story.
00:18:16
That's just. But then also you find the
00:18:18
teeth. It's like, oh, they got to clean
00:18:19
the hell. Out.
00:18:20
OK, listen, listen, listen. There's going to be a remake of
00:18:22
The Neverending Story, right? Seesaw just got the productions,
00:18:25
I think. I really think I should go back
00:18:28
as Angie Wook, you know, the older lady and they should make
00:18:32
me new dentures, you know, just a different kind.
00:18:37
That's. That's like something that you
00:18:39
can use in a trivia, right? Right.
00:18:41
I mean, it's just beautifully bookended.
00:18:43
Who Who was the only actress that ever had to wear dentures
00:18:46
in both movies? Yeah.
00:18:49
Go. To fantasy and they're like,
00:18:50
who's the only actress that was in both movies?
00:18:53
Tammy. Yeah, anyway.
00:18:57
Unless Noah came back, but I mean.
00:18:59
But he was never wearing dentures.
00:19:01
Right, that's what I'm saying. Then you think, okay, who are
00:19:04
the actors that were from the original that are in the new
00:19:06
one? Yes.
00:19:06
And who had dentures? Okay, well, Noah didn't.
00:19:08
Have his teeth were perfect. Yeah, and this is on the
00:19:11
Internet, so we know this exists.
00:19:15
Was there a favorite scene that you remember making?
00:19:18
OK, let's be real, I was in two scenes, right?
00:19:20
OK, out of the two, I, I mean, I really, it's hard to choose.
00:19:28
That's like such a weird thing to choose.
00:19:30
Like it's they're so they're they're like yin and Yang.
00:19:33
You know, it's like light and dark or like it can't be
00:19:36
separated, right? If I had to separate it, like
00:19:39
I'm a big ham and I like big dramatic crying scenes.
00:19:43
That's kind of fun. You get to go like in life, if
00:19:47
you're really upset and crying, everyone's like pain, that
00:19:50
person is right. But on stage it's like
00:19:53
fantastic, you know. So that's a that's so I'm like,
00:19:57
oh, that's why I need, I need to be on stage because then I don't
00:20:03
have to do it in life, right? I can just be normal in life and
00:20:05
I can just put it all where it's appreciated.
00:20:09
Right. So let's let's change gears a
00:20:11
little bit, right? And exactly, let's change gears
00:20:15
a little bit and go into something a little bit more
00:20:18
current. Let's talk about a newer project
00:20:20
that you're working on. See, she's already on it, Man in
00:20:24
witch. Yes, the dance of the 1000
00:20:26
steps. Yes.
00:20:28
And the cast in this is ridiculous.
00:20:30
They've got Michael Emerson, Christopher Lloyd, Jennifer
00:20:34
Saunders, Eddie Izzard, right, Sean Astin, who I was just
00:20:38
talking about a little bit earlier.
00:20:40
You know, we, we, we, we have a joke on our show here, so I've
00:20:44
got to tee this up, but I do have a Man in Witch Opsis, the
00:20:49
Dance of 1000 step synopsis. Great.
00:20:51
And then basically the joke on the show is Man in Witch Opsis,
00:20:55
the Dance of the Thousands, step synopsis.
00:20:58
All right, there we go. A throwback to the film.
00:21:01
I know. It's just like off for
00:21:02
everybody. It's it's funny to me, OK?
00:21:07
A throwback to the films that capture the imagination of a
00:21:09
generation. The film Man and Witch, The
00:21:12
Dance of 1000 Steps follows a lonely goat herd, right?
00:21:16
Remember the goats in Iran? Yeah, I know.
00:21:18
Who have been cursed at birth to never take a wife makes a pact
00:21:23
with a reclusive witch to reverse the spell only if he can
00:21:27
complete three impossible tasks so that he may one day find his
00:21:32
true love. So tell us about the movie, how
00:21:34
it came about, the premise, all those things like just kind of
00:21:37
what what created the, you know, the the inception of this.
00:21:42
OK. So my husband, who's in the
00:21:47
film, this has him right here. He also wrote the script.
00:21:51
He was like, Tammy, I really think you should do one more
00:21:54
film like just for your bucket list before you go.
00:21:57
And I know that, you know, you wanted to walk away from from
00:22:02
Hollywood dish, whatever that is.
00:22:05
But like, just let's do it on our own terms.
00:22:07
We just come back and we come back on our own terms.
00:22:10
And I was like, sure, honey, let's do a 10 minute short.
00:22:14
Great, I'm in. I'll be your girl, you know?
00:22:17
And then that turned into a feature script and I loved it.
00:22:23
I was like, Oh my God, this is really good.
00:22:26
Like I really love it. That's so nice that you wrote
00:22:30
this script. And then it was crazy.
00:22:35
We got the funding for it within three months.
00:22:39
Wow. Which is something that never,
00:22:41
never, never, never happens to anybody.
00:22:44
That's insane. This movie should not have been
00:22:46
made. Let's just be clear about that.
00:22:48
It's it's a miracle that it happened.
00:22:50
So we got the funding and then we sent out the script and we're
00:22:55
we're genuinely like not connected to the scene.
00:22:59
And we couldn't believe it. Like Sean Astin signed on,
00:23:02
Christopher Lloyd signed on. And we were like, Oh, my gosh,
00:23:06
like, this is starting to roll, you know?
00:23:08
And then the pandemic hit and everything closed down in New
00:23:12
York. And we found out about a tax
00:23:14
break in the UK that you get 25% back on everything you spend if
00:23:17
you film in the UK. And of course, there's castles
00:23:21
in, in Scotland, There's beautiful landscapes.
00:23:23
It's a fantasy film. And we really wanted to get back
00:23:26
to sort of like real locations, not sets, like things that are
00:23:30
really like, and also puppets, like all the throwback stuff
00:23:34
from the 80s that loved, right. And we went in the pandemic, and
00:23:38
then they were like, Oh, well, everything's shut down South.
00:23:41
You know, nobody's using the castle.
00:23:43
And we're like, well, you know, we're an indie fantasy film.
00:23:46
So our budget's not like a Warner Brothers fantasy film.
00:23:50
And they're like, well, honestly, we haven't had anybody
00:23:52
walk through this castle in nine months.
00:23:54
Sure, we'll let you film here. So we filmed at Dune Castle,
00:23:58
where Monty Python the Holy Grail was filmed.
00:24:01
And I was like, and I am done. Like, doesn't matter what
00:24:05
happens with the film. Yay.
00:24:06
Like this moment was the best. And then we filmed at Sterling
00:24:10
Castle, which is this incredible castle in Scotland.
00:24:13
And then Jim Henson Creature Shop was also on break because
00:24:18
of the pandemic. And they're like, well, we can't
00:24:19
go into the studio to make your puppets, but would you be OK
00:24:22
with us just using doing it in our from our homes, in our
00:24:25
garages with whatever materials we had?
00:24:28
And we're like, would we be OK with a Jim Henson Creature Shop
00:24:32
making our puppets? So like, it was just crazy.
00:24:38
You guys like just things just kept happening that shouldn't
00:24:41
have happened. Like I genuinely just am still
00:24:44
pinching myself and, and, and I just got on this ball that's
00:24:49
been rolling really, really fast and all I've been trying to do
00:24:53
is not fall off the top of this ball and just keep up with it.
00:24:59
And I'm super proud of it. Jeff Cinelli reached out to us.
00:25:02
He loved the neverning story. He did the music for Maleficent
00:25:04
Pirates. He was Hans Zimmer's protege.
00:25:07
So he did the second Pirates of the Caribbean.
00:25:09
He's an incredible musician. The score for the film is one of
00:25:12
my absolute favorite things. God.
00:25:15
This is amazing. Yeah.
00:25:17
And and then and then, you know, we ended up releasing it
00:25:20
ourselves and everyone said, listen, you guys, it's an indie
00:25:23
fantasy film. It's not going to get released
00:25:25
in theaters. That's just not how the business
00:25:27
works anymore. That model's dead.
00:25:29
It's going to go to streaming. You're going to live with it.
00:25:31
And we're like, no, it has to be in theaters.
00:25:33
Has to be like an 80s movie that you take your family to and you
00:25:37
eat popcorn and there's people around you and they laugh.
00:25:39
It makes you laugh. It's a shared experience.
00:25:41
This is not something to watch on your phone.
00:25:44
And they were like, they the they.
00:25:46
It'll never happen. It'll never happen.
00:25:48
It'll never happen. And then Fathom Events put it is
00:25:50
putting it in theaters this summer, 800 theaters this
00:25:53
summer. So I am, you know, still like on
00:25:58
the top of the ball rolling. That is so awesome.
00:26:01
But so please, please, please go see it.
00:26:05
It's a comedy. It has a kind of Princess Bride
00:26:08
vibe to it and it's a labor of love.
00:26:11
My daughter is in it. She's 10, which was the same age
00:26:15
that I was in The Neverending Story, right?
00:26:18
And I wanted her to have a really positive experience in
00:26:21
the film. And but she she doesn't want to
00:26:24
be an actor. She wants to be a writer.
00:26:25
She's like, I really like that director's chair mom that looked
00:26:29
like the if there's anything I see myself in here, it's like
00:26:33
hilarious that. Is awesome.
00:26:36
So when is the movie scheduled to release and where?
00:26:38
Where? Where.
00:26:38
Yeah. Get it?
00:26:39
So Fathom Events, if you go to Fathom Events, they're still
00:26:42
figuring out which theaters. It's kind of the way it works.
00:26:44
Tickets will go on sale in June. OK, but it'll be all over the
00:26:48
country. They'll definitely be a theater
00:26:49
near you. It's on their Fathom Events
00:26:51
website. It's July 28th and 30th, and
00:26:55
Never Ending Story is being released in Fathom, in theaters
00:26:59
through Fathom Events the week before.
00:27:01
So they're doing it like back-to-back.
00:27:03
First they're doing Never Ending Story and then they're doing Man
00:27:05
and Witch. And they've been amazing to us
00:27:08
and really supportive and, and yeah, they were like, of course,
00:27:12
this needs to be in theaters. So that was amazing.
00:27:15
Yeah, no, I'm like, I was already excited because I've
00:27:17
heard you talk about it in in other settings, but like, this
00:27:20
is a little more context than the last time I heard you talk
00:27:22
about it. So I'm like, Oh my God, I'm even
00:27:23
more excited now. Yay.
00:27:25
Yeah, That's that's awesome. And again, I kind of mentioned
00:27:28
it like as you were saying it, but Jim Henson's style making of
00:27:32
the puppets, like in a garage, they were Jim Henson maybe.
00:27:34
Jim Henson's style, it's not Muppets, it's these are photo
00:27:39
realistic animals. So it's not Jim Henson's style,
00:27:42
but it's the Jim Henson Creature Shop, right?
00:27:44
But the artistry of their puppets is of course,
00:27:47
unparalleled. And we have the real dog and the
00:27:51
puppet dog in the film, right? And so when he's running, it's
00:27:54
the real dog. And when he stops and talks,
00:27:55
it's the puppet dog, right? And you really can't tell them
00:27:58
apart. Like it's crazy.
00:28:00
Yeah, when I say Jim Henson style, I mean like how he used
00:28:03
to make them in his garage. Yes, yes, I saw a beautiful
00:28:06
picture of like a little like puppet show that Jim Henson did
00:28:10
where it was just like a piece of like big cardboard and like a
00:28:13
cut out window and just his little head like in the window,
00:28:16
you know, like super old school. It was so beautiful.
00:28:20
One of my favorite things to watch is Jim Henson Bloopers.
00:28:23
Have you ever watched those? No, I want to.
00:28:25
Funny, they're be warned, they're not kid friendly.
00:28:31
It's, it's, it's usually all of like the regular players from
00:28:34
Jim Henson, but they're like, you know, Elmo's cussing kind of
00:28:37
stuff. I did watch that.
00:28:40
Yeah, and it's in like it's very 1970s, but like, very, very
00:28:44
adult. It's funny.
00:28:46
Guys, if there's anybody who has questions for Tammy, please
00:28:48
start making your way over to the mic.
00:28:50
We, we are happy to take some questions here.
00:28:53
Looks like we have at least one here.
00:28:56
Boss, Boss. I looked up now in my actual
00:29:01
voice. I I looked at, you know, I was
00:29:03
we were talking about Falcor at your booth.
00:29:05
Yeah. And I looked him up.
00:29:07
He was in the Transformers. He played my favorite character.
00:29:11
You mean Alan Oppenheimer, who voiced who voiced, not Falcor
00:29:15
Alan. Yes, of course.
00:29:16
Skeletor. Yes, Skeletor.
00:29:19
Man of dorms Cringer. Right.
00:29:21
So he was huge with, but he played one character which I
00:29:24
really loved from Transformers Warpath, the Transformer tank.
00:29:29
Wow. Oh blam.
00:29:32
Pow prime, I'm gonna blam. Yeah, Alan Oppenheimer is a
00:29:39
legend, and I really think the sticking power of The
00:29:42
Neverending Story in a large part is due to him.
00:29:45
I mean, he did the voice of Gomorque, he did the voice of
00:29:49
Falkor, and he did the narration at the top and the front and
00:29:53
back of the film. So Alan's rich voice is just the
00:29:58
glue that holds this whole thing together like his he really, I
00:30:02
really do think the sticking power of the film in a large
00:30:05
part is due to Allens voice. Yeah, Allens.
00:30:07
Awesome. Love the guy.
00:30:09
Any other questions in the crowd here?
00:30:10
There we go. Got another?
00:30:11
Hi, so you said you had a daughter, correct?
00:30:13
Yes. And has she watched the never
00:30:16
ending story and like with with the scenes with you and is she
00:30:19
like oh cool, my mom was in this awesome like eighties 90s movie.
00:30:24
Oh that's cool. You're in a movie or like I'm in
00:30:26
this new movie we made now and I was played this character better
00:30:30
than you now. Somewhere in the middle.
00:30:35
That's a great question. No, it's fun to to see how kids
00:30:38
you share this stuff with you. So it was very funny.
00:30:41
Like let's start with your first question, which was before her
00:30:45
reactions and everything. Has she seen it?
00:30:47
I waited to show it to her till she was like 9 because I didn't
00:30:51
want her to hate the film. It was important for me that she
00:30:53
like it. And I thought if she saw it too
00:30:56
young, she might be traumatized. And she's very sensitive, like
00:31:00
very, very sensitive. So I was like, I don't scare
00:31:03
everybody. She's like, oh God, please, like
00:31:05
it. Like please, just like it like
00:31:07
should be such a bummer. She's like, I hated that mom,
00:31:10
you know, So I was like, oh, please, like it.
00:31:12
And so she's watching it. She's watching it.
00:31:14
She's kind of being like a little too cool for school.
00:31:16
You know, she's like, I'm watching it, mom.
00:31:19
And then the part comes when the child like Empress says Call My
00:31:22
Name. And I can see her just like
00:31:23
getting really, really, you know, And then she's finally
00:31:26
like, why doesn't I need to do it, Call her name, just do it.
00:31:31
She got so worked up and I was like, yes.
00:31:36
You got her, you got her. So that was a fun moment.
00:31:39
I have it on video. I think for the 40th anniversary
00:31:42
I'll release it on my Instagram because it's so funny.
00:31:46
We will repost it on ours. It's.
00:31:48
So funny, but so OK, so that was actually, we did have like this
00:31:53
German film crew come and be like, you know, what's Tammy
00:31:56
doing now? And, and at the time, I was a
00:31:58
dance professor at Merrimack Manhattan College and they
00:32:01
interviewed her and they're like, you know, is it cool that
00:32:03
your mom is the child like Empress the Nevering Story?
00:32:06
And she was sort of like, I guess.
00:32:08
I mean, yeah. I mean, she she's also, you
00:32:11
know, in a play and she's got her dance company and she's a
00:32:13
dance professor. Like she didn't really, it
00:32:16
didn't really like hit for her at all.
00:32:18
Right now that she's been in a film, sees how much work it is.
00:32:23
Actually think she has much more appreciation for The Neverending
00:32:25
Story. Not necessarily for me in The
00:32:28
Neverending Story, but the sets, the costumes, the puppets,
00:32:31
because she she saw a storyboarding everything.
00:32:35
She saw me talking to the art department.
00:32:37
And so it's cool because when she sees a film now she
00:32:42
understands like how many renditions like for that suit
00:32:46
you're wearing, you know, And every time we see a horse, she's
00:32:48
like Cha Ching. Horses are really, really
00:32:52
expensive. We didn't have any horses.
00:32:56
So every time I see a movie with horses, I'm just like adding it
00:33:00
up in my head. Monty Python, this is an aside.
00:33:06
So that was my answer to you. So I feel like over time, she's
00:33:11
grown more appreciative of the whole process and understands
00:33:14
the the coolness of being a part of it.
00:33:17
And did you tell her you were in the movie where you're like,
00:33:19
hey, watch this movie and I want there's a character in there
00:33:22
that I want you to see to see if you'll recognize this.
00:33:25
No, no, no, it was too. It was, it was.
00:33:27
She definitely knew that I was in there.
00:33:29
She we have like little figurines that the director gave
00:33:33
me and we have like little paraphernalia from the film.
00:33:37
So she kind of grew up with it around the house.
00:33:39
That she's aware of it. Yeah.
00:33:41
What's your name? Abby.
00:33:43
Abby, thank you for your questions.
00:33:45
Abby, how old are you? 15 Awesome.
00:33:47
Awesome, yeah. Thank you.
00:33:49
Oh, so I have to tell you guys about the Monty Python thing
00:33:51
because we went to the Dune castle.
00:33:53
So just really, really quick. You know how they're like
00:33:55
running around with coconuts and they're doing that.
00:33:58
So it's because they ran out of money and courses are too
00:34:02
expensive. And so they came up with this
00:34:05
ridiculous premise, you know, so we couldn't steal that because
00:34:08
that's been done right. But we literally the night
00:34:12
before our scene with the the horse, we, we had one horse.
00:34:15
We had one of one horse. The producers, the people
00:34:20
guarding this, you know, purse strings were like, listen, you
00:34:22
guys, you have to cut the horse. And we're like, we can't cut the
00:34:25
horse. The whole scene is about the
00:34:26
horse. And so my husband, he wrote the
00:34:29
scene overnight. And Daniel Portman, who's from
00:34:33
Game of Thrones. And do you guys know who Daniel
00:34:35
Portman is? He's an incredible actor.
00:34:39
He plays the knight that was supposed to do the scene.
00:34:41
So he got all new lines the next day.
00:34:43
And the scene is so much better without the horse.
00:34:48
So anyway, it's just a fun fact that both Monty Python's Holy
00:34:52
Grail and Man in Witch filmed at Dune Castle and couldn't afford
00:34:55
horses. We're in good company.
00:34:58
I had to look him up. I was like, Oh yeah, no.
00:34:59
No. Do you know who Daniel Perman
00:35:00
is? Yeah.
00:35:01
I like, pull him up there. Yeah.
00:35:03
So is there anybody else in the in the audience that has a
00:35:06
question please? Upon rewatching the film, do you
00:35:08
genuinely enjoy it nowadays? Yes, I genuinely do.
00:35:13
I have to say that I have a hard time watching the horse drown.
00:35:17
I do, and I usually leave the room.
00:35:20
I don't enjoy watching the horse drown.
00:35:22
He looks genuinely scared to me. Yeah, and I'm glad I wasn't in
00:35:27
the room when that was being filmed.
00:35:29
But I am in love with the artistry.
00:35:31
I feel like the puppeteers and the people that did the
00:35:34
backdrops, like I, I feel like the hand crafted, like masks and
00:35:39
costumes and things. There's just so much artistry
00:35:42
and love in the production. I genuinely do.
00:35:45
And that's the only scene I don't enjoy.
00:35:47
It's it's funny, sorry. Before you came in here, I was,
00:35:50
I was talking with the, the, the crowd and I was like, is there
00:35:52
anybody here who didn't cry when our tax died and, and there and.
00:35:56
If you didn't, you need to leave.
00:35:57
You're a monster. If you didn't try when our tax
00:36:00
died, you're a monster. That's basically the way it is.
00:36:02
Yeah, it's OK. It's fine.
00:36:05
I'm just joking. So second on top of that, what
00:36:09
is your favorite scene from the movie?
00:36:11
Whether you were in it or not, what is your favorite scene from
00:36:14
that movie? I, I, I really genuinely love
00:36:18
the scene with Angie Wook. And what's the other one?
00:36:22
Ergol, Angie Wook and Ergol. I love it.
00:36:24
It's such a classic Borscht Belt slapstick.
00:36:28
I just think it's hilarious. I think they're adorable.
00:36:31
That was my favorite scene when I was 10.
00:36:33
I just always love that. I just love that scene.
00:36:37
Yeah. You weren't in the movie, you
00:36:38
would have been a fan of it. Definitely, absolutely awesome.
00:36:42
Hi, I have two questions if that's okay.
00:36:45
The first one, did you become friends with any of the actors,
00:36:50
like off scene? Yes.
00:36:51
We were all living in a hotel in Munich, and we hung out all the
00:36:57
time. We would run up and down the
00:36:58
elevator and bang on each other's doors.
00:37:00
And there was a pool and, you know, we hung out a lot.
00:37:04
We all got along really well. That's awesome.
00:37:06
Yeah. The other question is, you said
00:37:09
you kept a couple things from the movie.
00:37:11
What? What all did you keep So
00:37:13
devastatingly? They were supposed to send me
00:37:15
the dress and the tiara and they didn't.
00:37:19
Somebody in the costume department just didn't do it
00:37:22
because Wolfgang gifted it to me at the premiere was this big to
00:37:26
do. And then it just never arrived.
00:37:27
And I don't know if you remember, but my father's
00:37:30
English. And so I just, when you're have
00:37:34
an English father, you say, well, that's a shame, you know,
00:37:40
you know, like call up and, yeah, you know, so it's just too
00:37:43
polite to like, insist. And now I'm like, what was I
00:37:46
thinking? So what I have is I just have
00:37:49
these really sweet plastic figurines of the rock biter of
00:37:53
Bastion, reading a little book of the Empress and just, you
00:38:00
know, it's different characters from it.
00:38:01
And they sit on my office at home.
00:38:04
Yeah. All right.
00:38:05
Well, we have a couple of wrap up questions here before we
00:38:07
finish up here. Some of these are the hardest
00:38:09
questions you've ever gonna be asked in your life.
00:38:11
I'm ready. Anybody who's been in any of the
00:38:14
other interviews here, you guys already know what questions
00:38:16
coming. What is your favorite kind of
00:38:18
Taco? Mushroom.
00:38:22
OK, It's like a sauteed mushroom.
00:38:25
Yeah. OK, a little bit of parsley.
00:38:27
OK, I've had those before. It's actually not bad.
00:38:29
That's good, yeah. What's some advice you might
00:38:32
have for anybody trying to get into either the film industry or
00:38:35
even if they want to get into dance?
00:38:37
Persistence is the most important thing in life, period.
00:38:40
That's actually really good. What do you prefer?
00:38:43
Getting another hard question. This is a dance specific
00:38:45
question here. Crown or ballet toe shoes?
00:38:49
Ballet toe shoes or what's a crown toe shoe?
00:38:52
Crown shoes. So it's it's I'm trying to
00:38:55
remember. I knew somebody who had them and
00:38:57
they were like supposedly supposed to help.
00:38:59
Oh, I'm a modern dancer. Yeah.
00:39:01
You're talking about whether you have like the harder sold tip or
00:39:05
so. I got severe tendonitis in my
00:39:09
feet at 12 after being in the Berkeley Ballet and on toe since
00:39:14
I was 9 and I threw out my toe shoes and I never put toe shoes
00:39:17
on again. Yeah, I mean, I wore like Air
00:39:20
Force One. So I mean, just hip hop, Yeah.
00:39:24
What's what's next for you? Next for me is Man and Witch.
00:39:29
We have a premiere in London on June 2nd, and then we're opening
00:39:33
through Fathom Events in July here in the US.
00:39:36
If enough people go see it in the theater, it'll get extended
00:39:39
through August. So please, please, please go see
00:39:42
it in the theater. And then if Man and Witch does
00:39:45
well, we have two more films in the pipe to Sequel and Prequel.
00:39:52
Well, I'm going to go pre buy my tickets.
00:39:55
Where can everybody find? Where can everyone follow you
00:39:58
and learn more about everything that you have going on?
00:40:00
So you can go to my Instagram under score Tammy Stronach, OK.
00:40:05
And you can go to manandwitch.com where we'll have
00:40:09
everything about the film. And then I also have a Patreon
00:40:13
page. You can just do a dollar a
00:40:15
month. And in that, I share all the
00:40:18
highs and lows and lunacy of this remarkable and strange
00:40:22
journey that I'm on with my Patreon friends.
00:40:26
That is awesome. No, I, I'm, I'm very happy that
00:40:28
we've got a chance to talk to you today.
00:40:31
Thank you very much. Everybody get put, put, put your
00:40:33
hands together for Tammy Schronach.
00:40:34
Thank you. Thank you SO.
00:40:39
Much. Well, we hope you enjoyed this
00:40:40
week's comic conversation. This was the production of the
00:40:46
Distance Nerding podcast and Time for Tacos Media.
00:40:49
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00:40:54
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00:40:57
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00:41:00
Thanks and keep nerding together.