India Dupre

Transcript

Take Fountain S02E07 India Dupre AI Transcript

[00:00:00] Ella: [00:00:00] Johnny Carson once interviewed Betty Davis and asked if she had any advice for young starlets wanting to get ahead in Hollywood, she suggested take fountain fountain avenue runs parallel to Santa Monica and sunset boulevards in Hollywood, and is often used to avoid the heavier traffic. And isn't that what we're all after a smooth run?

No holdups, not only in traffic, but. Also in life. How do people handle those holdups, the rejections? How do they create a life in the entertainment capital of the world? How do they identify and express their uniqueness in a place where hundreds of thousands of hoping to do the same, welcome to take fountain, compelling stories from passionate people.

Who've made it are making it. In Hollywood writers, comedians, actors, filmmakers, I'll talk to anyone with a story to tell,

VO Guy: [00:00:59] to take [00:01:00] fountain, a podcast of passionate people working on their dreams, compelling stories from Hollywood, your

Ella: [00:01:07] host, Ella James. So if you've watched take found, and before you know that this is a story about. People on their journeys, in the entertainment industry or attached to the entertainment industry.

But I really like to just find out people's stories and what led them from one thing to another. It's not the rags to riches thing, but it's more about. The decisions that we make and how we cope and all of the, the internal stuff that happens, the existential act, um, and the good stuff. And it's fun. So you're going to love my guest today.

Her name is India Dupre, and we met at Australians in film. Welcome India. It's so good to have you onboard.

India: [00:01:49] Thank you, Ella. I'm very honored to be a part of this. So

Ella: [00:01:53] cool. We're going to talk about a number of things. Um, we're going to talk about your amazing story with your [00:02:00] mother, that you turned into a short and soon to be feature film called stripped.

It is available for people to see. Is it on Netflix or Amazon prime?

India: [00:02:09] It's on Amazon prime and it's free on Amazon prime. But if you don't have Amazon prime, you can pay 99 cents to see it. Yeah. In that

Ella: [00:02:17] sense it's well worth it.

India: [00:02:18] Yeah. It was the cheapest one I could put. I was like, I don't want to charge people.

So the cheapest one was 99 cents. I was like, okay.

Ella: [00:02:26] So look, let's start with that story of stripped. And then I want to move on to some of the other things that you've done. Um, it's obviously, it's, award-winning, it's a wonderful story, but let me start with the question to lead you into the story you were born in the UK.

What took you and your family to Australia?

India: [00:02:47] Well, um, my mom was a single mother. She had three kids and, uh, she was a moment and, you know, we hadn't always been moments, but she, she was converted to a [00:03:00] moment when my uncle became Holman. And, um, she quite liked it because, you know, she baked bread and it was warm and we lived in a very cold little.

Part of Essex in England. And, um, basically I had very bad asthma as a baby and as a little girl, and it was so bad that I would have to spend Christmases in oxygen tents and, um, Eventually the doctor suggested when I was about four, that we should go to a warmer climate cause that would help, uh, fix my asthma.

And he told mom about a place called the Fairbridge society. And he said she could apply at these at the Australian embassy in London. So my mom went down there and filled out all the paperwork and, and um, you know, you have to qualify. So they had to make sure that you have. Control of your three kids that there's not shared custody, you know, that, um, there's a lot of requirements, vaccines, all kinds of things.

And, [00:04:00] um, and this was in the nineties? Yeah. Late seventies. Yeah. So my mom was, uh, You know, very excited for this opportunity. They said, they'd give her a job and a place to live in Australia. My mom had worked as a, um, a book illustrator for an advertising company. So she was, um, very good with like illustrations and, um, she also worked in a daycare center and she was also a cleaner and she sold the Avon.

So she did many, many different jobs and, um, she was very shy. And so she loved this opportunity where we could all go and be born. And we were showing films of, of the beach and little houses that we'd live in. And, um, it just sounded amazing. So my mom's sold everything. She even sold our front lawn, rolled up the grass.

And, um, we, we had to come up with 200 pounds for the assistant pack passage program. And, you know, once we got there, everything [00:05:00] would be taken care of. So. Um, you know, we, we flew to Australia, my, my siblings and I with my mom and we got there and we got on a bus and we drove out on this bus to the middle of nowhere in Western Australia.

And, um, we went super jet lagged and, uh, you know, Complete different weather, boiling hot. And we kept driving and driving and driving on this bus. And there was literally nothing around, you know, in, in, in England where we lived, it was, you know, lots of noise and shops and prams and buses and cars, and suddenly it was just empty.

And, uh, we ended up at this place, which felt like the middle of nowhere in Pinjarra Pinjarra, uh, Western Australia. And it was this place called Fairbridge, which was like a. Kind of like a commune of cottages. And, um, it was very unusual all upside down, but [00:06:00] it was what it was. Um, the problem became when they told my mom she couldn't stay with us.

And in fact, they told all the mothers that they couldn't stay with their kids and they sent them on a bus and said, you can get your kids back when you have a house and a job. And they had a forged document that my mom had given the rights to us kids. I actually found the document and I did a lot of research and got all the fabric files and everything.

But, but basically, um, suddenly my mum was in this foreign country and stripped of her children who were everything

Ella: [00:06:36] she lived for. How old were you and your siblings at this time?

India: [00:06:40] Four. I was almost five and my sister was three and my brother was nine. So, um, it was very devastating and not long afterwards, we were told my mum was dead.

So, uh, which is what they have [00:07:00] been doing. You know, you know, I found out a lot about this organization since then, but since 1912, they had started this organization and they often told the children that their mother was dead because it was a way to get control of the kids. If they thought they weren't going to be getting out of there, they kind of settle and take the discipline and.

Adhere to the rules. So that's how we say

Ella: [00:07:28] this is something that so many Australians are not even aware of because didn't the Fairbridge society continue until quite recently.

India: [00:07:38] Well, it actually, we were one of the last families to go through it. It ended in 1981, at least. This fabric, Western Australia, and, um, news of the bad conditions and poor conditions and abuse got back to England.

And that had been going on for years. These reports had been going back to England, but it got to a point where [00:08:00] they couldn't. Keep it any more so that it was closed in 1981 and prince Charles actually owns the fabric of society now. Right. And, um, I'm sure he didn't know what was going on there. Um, he actually came visited Fairbridge in 1979.

Um, but it's, it's like a trust. Uh, it's a Fairbridge society trust that he owns. And in all fairness, Kingsley Fairbridge who started the school in 1912, uh, was a very noble person who was from South Africa. He was a Rhodes scholar and he saw the work houses in England and he thought, okay, there's all this open land in South Africa.

Why don't we take these kids from the work houses and. Get them, teach them how to farm, give them some land. And when they come of age, they can have that piece of land. So this was his, his original idea, which he presented to a board in [00:09:00] England and they said, well, Let's forget South Africa for now. Let's go to Australia because it's this huge Commonwealth we want to fill with white kits.

So, um, they, it, it changed and it went to Australia and, um, but the problem was is they we're taking children from children's homes where the parents were still alive and. Especially during the war, mothers would put their kids into these homes, uh, to get back on their feet because they would have lost their husband in the war or just, you know, die at times.

And they'd come back to get their kids and be told that their kids have been adopted to wealthy families in England. And they couldn't receive any information about them. No matter how hard they tried, they had no idea that children had been shipped to Australia. And we're basically on a work farm as children and [00:10:00] told that their mothers were dead.

And we are lucky. We have our mom that many of those children were never reunited with their families and had no idea that the family still existed. And it wasn't until I think it was the eighties or the nineties that this woman called Margaret Humphreys. Found out about it didn't actually believe it was true at first when people said I was shipped, what

Ella: [00:10:27] kind of do that?

Well, I mean, what kind of mines we've seen it, but yes.

India: [00:10:35] Yeah, yeah. And this woman started finding the parents in England who thought their kids had been grown up in these fancy homes and reuniting them with their children in Australia. You know, a lot of the times it was too late, but oftentimes they were able to meet.

So that that's kind of the history of Fairbridge what happened in 1968 is they [00:11:00] couldn't get the kids any more from the children's homes. Cause some laws had changed and some reports came about. So they started looking for single mothers. With several children to bring out because they were paid to keep these organizations running.

So they had to have enough kids to keep it going too.

Ella: [00:11:20] So you and your siblings are in Pinjarra. Your mother was where Perth.

India: [00:11:29] Yeah. Perth. So my mum,

well, um, We were at bear Bridget initially six months, and then we were transferred to another place Bridgewater. So we, we went, so it was, it was two years until my mom actually, um, properly

Ella: [00:11:53] had us back. Could she visit you

India: [00:11:57] well, um, some [00:12:00] brief times and in between. Yes, she could, but it was always, she had no money.

It was nowhere to live, no nowhere for us to sleep. And she was going between a lot of migrant hostels and, and, um, so it was, it was very, um, it was a very crazy time to the, to the point where I thought I had imagined it, you know, because I couldn't find any proof that this place existed. And then, um, 2005, I just Googled it and found all this information about it.

And I, I wrote to Fairbridge and I said, I was there and I would like to have my files. And they said, Nope, you weren't here. And we don't have any files. And, uh, it was pretty shocking because we had no proof. We even came into Australia. Um, and my brother couldn't even get a passport because he had no [00:13:00] proof that where he'd been all this time.

So, um, I wrote to a place called the freedom of information and ended up getting a lot of information that way.

Ella: [00:13:11] How did your mother get you back?

India: [00:13:14] Well, um, you know, she ended up becoming a stripper. And she went into strip competition. She won first prize and she got enough money to get a little cottage and eventually got us on a visit.

And, um, you know, kind of went on for two years, all the different things that happened, but eventually she just took us and we fled. We hitchhiked over the Nullarbor. And basically we got in it. Hello

Ella: [00:13:47] Americans, please understand Latin for no trees. I mean, that's, you're not from there. And it, and it spans the Eastern and Western [00:14:00] coast of Australia where Sydney is here and Perth is here and this is vast and hot desert.

And. Just unbelievable. And, and so, I mean, I don't wanna, I don't, I'm torn. I don't want to ruin the movie clearly, but I mean, your mother, who's such a beautiful woman. Um, found herself with her three children on the gold coast. What happened then?

India: [00:14:34] Well, you know, All of this transformed my mother from this shy person who was kind of afraid of men, um, into this shocking woman who the gold coast hadn't seen anything like it.

Although they had, you know, topless women on the beaches, my mom just kind of. [00:15:00] She wore high heels all the time. She rode her bike up and down the coast. Um, she had a little denim shorts on, she had long blonde hair and three kids peddling behind her. And so she was just very unusual. So most people from the gold coast of around that era will have known of my mom.

And I get people writing to me all the time on Facebook with photos and things saying, oh, you know, look at this picture of your mom or I was in a. Lift with your mom once. And it was most exciting thing.

Ella: [00:15:31] Was she, I mean, it's wrong? Was she one of the gold coast meter maids? Is that what she holds? Bikini and, and for people who aren't familiar with this, these women were hired to put money in.

Parking meters so that people wouldn't get ticketed in their cars. And she was recently gorgeous. And as you say, the high heels, the bikini, the long, yeah. Long hair, and this thing that seeing single mothers doing [00:16:00] whatever it takes to keep it, their children to raise their children. And I want, I want people to hear the rest of the story by watching the movie, um, that either the short or the feature is on its way.

Do we have a timeline for the feature? I mean, I know it can take 20 minutes at the

India: [00:16:17] moment. I wish

Ella: [00:16:20] and understand about like, you, you write this fabulous script and you get some interest and you get some finance and then it can still be 15 years away. So I get that, but the short at least is going to satisfy people.

As far as the story is concerned.

Like many of these. Stories here

We have sitting in front of us. A magna come loud, a graduate from UCLA with an arts degree, majoring in theater, you studied the Meisner technique as a performer for three years. You're a [00:17:00] performer, a voice actor, a singer. You've had an album with Nick Hayward, um, who was in haircut 100.

Um, I mean you have you yourself have led an extraordinary career. What brought you from Australia? To LA

India: [00:17:19] well, um, growing up in Australia while I miss it so much, and I think of it as home and, um, I, I miss Bondai beach because that's kind of where we, we moved so much that that was like one center in place.

And when I see it, I feel really good. Um, I think. I think I always wanted to get out of there. You know, I think after what happened to us, um, and Australia is very different now. I feel like the younger generation of Australia who are now in their forties or so just much more well traveled and much more [00:18:00] open.

And, um, it feels like a different climate now, but when I was growing up. It was tough. It was really tough, especially with my, although a lot of people liked her. She didn't really have any friends and she had very few friends and. Um, it's

Ella: [00:18:17] very cool when they, when they don't have, they neither have a nine to five job where they can, they're working three or four jobs.

Um, they don't have a partner and everything in Australia comes in Noah's Ark. It's they, they traveled two by two, you know, rooms or twin share everything. Um, no, no woman is going to have a woman like your mother, very attractive to her home. Um, Because I don't know. I mean, for heaven sake, you know, even rotary has only just started having women on board because the Rotarian women didn't like women being included.

So it's very difficult for them to have friends. They can't mix with the mothers of, of your friends pool [00:19:00] because their mothers are going, oh, I don't think so. So where do they, where do they find trip friends? They don't have time to go and Zoomba or, yeah. Play tennis or, you know, like, like they just don't have all of that.

And that that's very difficult. And I think that, and I raise all of this because you saw my show unmistakably, Ella, in fact, you, my mum, your mum to the show. Um, my mother's experience it's, you know, this is, this is another thing where we bonded on. Um, but I, I, I think, um, it, it can be very difficult for.

For single parents to form those relationships. And then as the child of a single parent, we're also struggling to know because the other thing is we also can't have people over to a home that maybe isn't what their parents would want. Um, and so it, it. It, I, I totally understand that. I want to get out of here.

And I got to tell you, uh, uh, an American friend of mine said to me today he's 80, but it's [00:20:00] really, really good. He said to me today, I read something I had to share with you. ELA Australia is 50% uninhabitable because of desert and 30% uninhabitable because of Australians.

India: [00:20:18] Yeah,

Ella: [00:20:20] despite what's happening there at the moment and Mathias Cormann being elected OACD leader like, whoa. Um, but there is that thing of, of going to a different place, which may or may not be societaly or culturally better than that is different from. Yeah, right. Yeah.

India: [00:20:44] And so it was, yeah, at the time, um, you know, when I was 15, I went on this singing show in Australia and won it with my best friend and, and.

As a result, [00:21:00] I joined a modeling agency at the time and I did a bunch of commercials and I suddenly had some money, which was unusual to be able to go to the tuck shop at school and order whatever I wanted, you know, because we'd always survived on so little and, um, suddenly I could go to the movies with my friends.

So, you know, I had had money, um, And so I use that money to come to America. And I was saying that how old? No 17. So I did it from 15 to 17 while I was at school. And, um, it was that thing, like if you, if you said in Australia at the time that you wanted to be an actress or a singer, it was like tall poppy syndrome a little bit at the time.

And, um, whereas.

Ella: [00:21:58] Most Angeles, all that'll [00:22:00] never work. My cousins, brothers, sisters, and that'll never work. I think I'd like to be an astronaut and people would whip out their phones and say, hang on a minute. My brother knows someone at NASA. Yeah.

India: [00:22:17] I made a short film. A while ago. Um, and it, and it's kind of like, oh, look at you, you should give up. I mean, you just pass that on. It has that, like, you know, you know, you're already an age where no one's going to want you, you know, you're just. Come back to England. I know a lovely fellow is a little hairy, a little chubby, but you can see past that we can get past this, you know, because if I was you I'd kill myself.

Oh, you handled all that rejection. You know?

[00:23:00] So, so, but obviously when it, when you come to California, It's a whole different personality. Like, oh, you're an actress. Oh, you sing? Oh gosh, I love that. Can I hear you saying, what can I hear you saying? Or, um, you know,

Ella: [00:23:17] To your shows. Like I met a woman in ice cream section of Ralph's in here in studio city.

And I was talking to a friend of mine. Who'd asked me to go and get her some ice cream. And I'm standing there looking at this, you know, vast selection and I'm on the phone and I'm like, well, listen, there's this one. And there's that one. And there's the other, and this woman who was straight out of sunset Boulevard, she had on the turban.

You know, the coach green and the fingers and like everything. And she walked it up to me when I got off the phone. And she said, are you

India: [00:23:51] an actor with that voice?

Ella: [00:23:55] Totally.

You said, yes, I [00:24:00] am. And we'd have a little chat. And I said, I'm doing this show at the moment in this theater, just around the corner, it's called unmistakably Ella. And I gave her one of the cards and she said, I will come and see your show. Well,

India: [00:24:11] Wow.

Ella: [00:24:13] The next in this day night, there she is in the audience and you know, I'd go and speak to the audience after the show.

It's such a small theater, 60 seat theater, and I'd speak to people and they would tell me their stories about their mothers and so on. It was so wonderful, but there she was, and I'm like, God, I can't get people to watch this show on show catcher in Australia. Yeah. Because they're too busy watching the bachelor or whatever.

Uh, but total strangers would turn up to be a part of it. Directors, producers, they would hear about it on the grapevine. They'd see in a nearby shop, um, that there is this show on, at a local theater and they just want to see stuff, which is, it gives you growth. It gives you wings, right?

[00:25:00] India: [00:25:00] It does, it does.

It's w it's just this form of encouragement and belief that you can do anything. And, um, it's, uh, I'm very blessed and I, I love that kind of attitude. And I do have, um, some Australian friends that are also of that mindset and that, and they're like you, and, uh, you know, that's wonderful to be around. And there's a group of Australians here in LA.

That, um, I'm in a writer's group with, and, uh, we were all very encouraging of each other. And,

Ella: [00:25:34] um, I think Americans, not all Australians, not all men, et cetera, et cetera. But it is nice to be in an environment where anything is

India: [00:25:45] possible. Yes. And I mean, ideally one day I would love to have a little flat in Bondai that I could go back and feel like I made it.

And I've got a flat in Bondai and, you know, I mean, it doesn't have to, I don't have to [00:26:00] own it just, you know, but we, we probably lived in about 30 different places in, in. Fonda. So when I go with my husband, I'm like point out, oh, you lived across that shop that now shop with a request that, and yeah. You know, and one place which I stayed at with my husband as an adult, um, just the old time's sake.

With so bad now, but at the time it was this old hotel called the Biltmore hotel and it was right on Campbell parade across from the beach. And we had a single room with a sink, no toilet, no bathroom. You had to use that at the end of the hole. But, um, anyway, and we, we don't sing in the bath tub and when we'd come back down the hallway, the other residents would clap and, you know, there was all different types of people living there.

And I would see dead bodies leaving and it was quite an interesting hotel. Um, so I went back and stayed there with my husband, like, oh, that's going to [00:27:00] stay at the Biltmore hotel. And, uh, the carpet looked like it was still the same. Yes.

It was like going to a prison. You know, I was sleeping in this, uh, bunk bed and looking up and seeing all the writing on the top of the bunk bed, like, like felt like full of prisoners. And, um, it was just, it was horrendous. And the bop groups look like they hadn't changed either. I mean, you, you literally had to bleach yourself after you.

Stayed there. But since my mom has heard, which I'm kind of sad about the Biltmore hotel has been sold for, I think it was 27 million, most likely $47 million. And he's being transformed into something, which I'm not surprised. It's right there. Prime, prime, real estate

Ella: [00:27:53] people. Poor people who would like to live near and iconic beach, can't do that anymore [00:28:00] because I have feelings about that.

I mean, we lived in a lot of places in housing commission at LA Perouse and call GRE and Bellevue hill mum finally made it go and see the shows show catch up unmistakably. Yeah.

Thanks darling. But there really is that, that, um, We move people away from the communities. Like we move and we move the nurses, the police, the teachers away from the communities they serve because they get to live there.

India: [00:28:32] So true. No, like even when I go back now and it's like, oh, where, where could we stay?

I want to go to Bondai. And it. It's like, you have to stay in like a very fancy places, like $300 a night or more. Otherwise it's not really anywhere. You have to stay further away and then just take the bus in. Um, but, uh, before I forget, I just have to say Ella, we, my mom and I loved your show. We see you [00:29:00] twice.

We saw your comedy show and your, uh, your one act show and. They were just so funny. And I just want to say one line, which I really love, which is a little naughty, which is you talking about the pencil test, which is where you can hold a pencil and do your breasts. And if it doesn't flop over the top, then you're still kind of perky.

Well, I get home and I've had under one and a printer under the others

like that. That was my mother,

Ella: [00:29:37] you know, because she said you come from a family of large breasts women and they will start to droop. And, uh, I do got the line, you know, I've been sag eligible since I was 12 making reference throughout union, but that was her, you know, she looked around the house, single parent, You know, not wearing many clothes and singing [00:30:00] over my shoulder goes on and can

India: [00:30:06] absolutely

Ella: [00:30:07] go from me to her from me. And I mean, she's right. She was right about a lot of things and she, I mean, she, she taught me. Um, yeah, I was, I was thinking about this on my morning hike, a new hike year. So, you know, these things, these random thoughts come into your head and she was in my head going, I believe in you.

Why don't you believe in you? And it wasn't that I'm not believing in myself at the moment, but it, like, it came up and I thought, oh, I must remember that because that's, that's just something that, that, you know, you need to hold on to do the pinky squeeze and hold onto that. Yeah. She'd say you're unique.

You there's nobody else like you stop trying to be like everybody else, you know, because if you've got curly hair, you want straight hair. If you've got straight hair, you want girl like. All of that. [00:31:00] You want to be, you want to be different, particularly as a little person, like up until 50.

India: [00:31:09] So you you're just so incredibly talented. And I also got a chance to read, um, the beginnings of one of your screenplays, uh, at Australians and film. And I was just so drawn to it and just loved it. And I can still remember everything. Thank you, you read it like

Ella: [00:31:28] free right at the moment, but it has been registered with the WGA because I was talking about the story in the show so much.

So I thought that I should anyway, look, this is the show. This is just like you and I are talking. There are hundreds of thousands of people listening. Um, I want to move on from stripped the film. Because I want people to discover the story on Amazon prime or buy it for 99 cents. Um, because it's just extraordinary and it will touch you no matter where.

You [00:32:00] live, whether you're you're in Australia or here or in the UK, it will blow your mind. Um, but I want to move on. Yeah. Because, you know, um, I have, uh, I had a burning desire to tell that story, um, yeah, bunny, which is in the show and we'll be a film. Um, and also the story of, of the city, single parent, who was the private detective, started her own business, like all of that, but similar kind of thing.

But ultimately doing standup comedy all the time, you have to keep coming up with new stories and that can be hard when you've kind of been a one-story person. You have done this ring, an amazing film, short film with such an exciting story. In fact, you want to know, or for it being a really unique story.

Um, what film festival was that, that you won?

India: [00:32:58] Well, we premiered it at [00:33:00] Sedona film festival right before the pandemic. So we actually got to go and, um, that the other films that we wish screening with rural, so wonderful and exciting. And, and, and we thought there was no way we would win an award there. So, you know, we, there was a big closing night party.

We went to what we had a great time, and then it was the awards. Um, French the next morning, thousands of people. It's an amazing festival. And we thought, should we go before we drive back to LA? Yeah, we'll go. We'll go. So we just want I'll sweats. I had brushed my hair cause we were just about to get on the, you know, back in the car to drive back to LA for nine hours and we won, um, best drama, most innovative, so most innovative, short film.

And so suddenly we have to go up on the stage in front of all these people and it was. It's just so wonderful because his best time we'd showed the film. And then it [00:34:00] went on to win quite a few more festivals, um, Catalina international festival and horrible imaginings. I won best director that, and then it, it played in Australia at St.

Kilder and Western Australia and the Western state of culture wards. And it played in India. And they became finalists in a few different countries. And, um, and then it just recently played at the women had found shorts over here in LA and, and it's been wonderful because all the panels have been online.

You know, it's sad. You don't get to travel to those countries and, and experience it in, in theater. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, so basically, yeah, it's, it's, it's. It's unusual, you know, w stripped has taken me so many years. I started writing it as a book in 2005, wrote it as a screenplay, made the short as a proof of concept to, to get [00:35:00] funding, to make the feature.

It's all still going on. It's been about 15 year process re I wrote it in two weeks, filmed it and it today. And, you know, so it's just, it's, it's, it's interesting how. You can have an idea. And I was luckily lucky enough to have friends who were accrued that came and helped me make it. And Leanna, my husband is an editor, so he edited it and I have a friend who's a great composer.

So it all came together very quickly and easily. And that was quite wonderful. Yeah. Yeah, it was, it was really fun to make.

Ella: [00:35:40] I've got to, and this'll probably be the last question, but I've got to ask you, you're clearly a very resilient person, um, over the last 12 months, um, because this is like anniversary time for lockdown and so on in California.

And, and as many people know, we've had it [00:36:00] worse than many, many places in the world. How have you kept. Body and soul and brain and spirit and mind together. Do you have a routine? Do you have one thing? Have you taken up something new? What's been your thing.

India: [00:36:18] Well, um, we bought a house, right? Um, we, we had an apartment that we really loved, you know, old 1940s apartment in, in, uh, Toluca lake.

And it was being torn down, just like go out more to make fancy condos. And so we had to move them. And it was very difficult to buy a house at the time to even get a loan or anything. And we found a little home near Griffith park and, um, and so we've just been pouring all our love into it. You know, D I Y like crazy, you know, just we've done it all ourselves.

And then Griffith park is right next door. So we [00:37:00] go for these lovely Heights into the mountains and. It feels like you're in Europe, it's just so magical. And I spent a lot of time with my mom. Um, she lives in Hollywood, so she comes over pretty much every other day. And we got in, so I now have soil and I can grow roses and, and, but Convenia and Jasmine, and so it's.

It's just been, I I've actually kind of enjoyed it. Yeah. There's time to just kind of cultivate a nest for us to live in and, um, take care of my mom. And, and I wish I could say I've been writing more, but I've actually been writing songs more. I've been playing piano and, and, um, in the spin recording in the studio, um, that I am working on a horror film based on this house, uh, you know, I

Ella: [00:37:49] love that this is the thing.

Um, a friend of mine said to me, um, is that a dream of yours or have you set goals around that? And I said, oh, I [00:38:00] don't do any of that stuff because if I have a dream and I'm focused and if I have a goal and I'm on that, I'm missing all of this stuff. That's happening around me. That might be. I think it might be an idea.

And if you have enough of those things and you're focused on all of them, rather than dissipating energy, I believe it stimulates one thing stimulates the next, stimulates the next. And, uh, and that leads into. The next thing, which has been my experience anyway. Um, I'm just, I'm so delighted to have you to have you on and to expose you to the take found an audience who were just gonna love our store.

Um, they're probably going to want part two, so we'll do that. Um, but just to recap, has your song been released yet? The song that you wrote?

India: [00:38:56] No, no, we, we were just mixing it this [00:39:00] week. Um, no, but reading is also on Amazon prime and, um, hopefully I'll get some music on Spotify soon and yeah. So thank you, Ella, for this opportunity.

What, what, uh, I, I, you know, I actually had a shower and put on a dress, so I'm all dressed up now. And I was thinking, where can I go after this? And I was Nope, somewhere really fancy whole foods, go to home base

algae and go to whole foods. And I'm with my double masks on and, you know, That's about, that's about as exciting as it gets lately.

Ella: [00:39:41] So I know I am, so I've taken up knitting and oh really? I'm just

India: [00:39:50] so enjoyable,

Ella: [00:39:53] you know, because you start creating art and I make these little critters in acrylic boxes and people go, oh, that's [00:40:00] so gorgeous.

You should sell those. And I'm like, no, I just do them for fun. And so I needed. Something that wasn't somebody wasn't going to go, oh, your knitting is so amazing. You should okay. To do something. Just engaging that isn't about earning money, because what we do, the voice, the writing, the singing, the everything is just like, oh, I could make money or I could make money out of that.

Cause you're always looking for money to fund something, you know? So, well, I'm going to keep in touch and find out, um, The progress of everything that you're doing and we'll let the audience know on the various social media sites that I maintain when I'm not knitting. Um, it was so lovely speaking to you today.

India: [00:40:46] Thank you, Ella. Thank you for listening and thank you for this opportunity. Fantastic. Thank you India.

VO Guy: [00:40:59] You’ve been listening to Take Fountain with Ella James available at apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, Iheartradio, or your favorite podcast player. You can also stream on demand @bitesz.com. This has been another quality podcast production from bitesz.com.