I can think of more than 13 Reasons Why y’all should listen to this one. Alisha Boe joins Josie, Alycia and Yasmine to talk about everything: her acting career — including her latest flick, When You Finish Saving the World — living everywhere from Oslo to Edinburgh to the Valley, being Norwegian and Somali in the entertainment industry, caring for your mental health, and learning pasta recipes from her Italian ex-boyfriend.

Show Notes

Alisha Boe: Instagram

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TRANSCRIPT

[AD BREAK] [music break]

Josie Totah: Are we recording? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I think we’re recording now, so–. 

Josie Totah: But. Okay, ho– 

Yasmine Hamady: Ho whoa 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Ho. 

Josie Totah: Wait do you guys know that my first time having I’m I’m not even just saying this, it just came into my brain. My first time having an uncrustable was actually two days ago. In my whole life, I was afraid of jam. Or is it jelly. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: It’s jelly. 

Yasmine Hamady: It’s fake jelly. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Wait so you watched me eat them four times a week at work. 

Josie Totah: And I never knew why. And now I eat them for dinner every single night. It’s the only thing in my fridge. 

Yasmine Hamady: So, you’re nutrition– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: So now you understand my addiction. 

Yasmine Hamady: Well, okay. The nutrition aspect of that for dinner. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah, you do need to eat other things. 

Yasmine Hamady: What do you eat during the day? 

Josie Totah: Anyway. 

Yasmine Hamady: Okay. 

Josie Totah: So how are you guys doing? 

Yasmine Hamady: Alright. Okay. Good morning. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: But you understand my addiction now? Right? Fun fact our–

Josie Totah: I do. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Our crafty guy banned me from getting them on a daily basis. 

Yasmine Hamady: Why? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I wish I was kidding. 

Yasmine Hamady: But why? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Because he was worried about my health. Because I would have one every single day and then sometimes two a day if it was a rough day. 

Josie Totah: Speaking of eating, we did so much of that in Puerto Rico. [laughter] This this past week. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: That was such a seamless segue. 

Yasmine Hamady: That was really good. 

Josie Totah: When I was visiting–

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Wow. 

Josie Totah: –Alycia in Puerto Rico. And I became– 

Yasmine Hamady: The accent comes out [?]– [banter] 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: [?] you sound like one of those white people that go to a–

Josie Totah: Listen! 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: –foreign country for the first time. 

Josie Totah: I became a Puerto Rican queen. 

Yasmine Hamady: Where’d you go? 

Josie Totah: I now have a playlist called air con um. 

Yasmine Hamady: Why Air con? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: What does that mean? 

Josie Totah: Because you need to have air conditioning in Puerto Rico, and it’s all Puerto Rican music. And yes, every song is Bad Bunny. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: [laugh] Oh, they’re obsessed. 

Yasmine Hamady: Oh good. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Like I–

Yasmine Hamady: Well, bad bunny. You know, he was on another date with Kendall Jenner last night. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I can’t talk about it. [pause] Moment of silence anyways. El Conejo Malo. Like I knew people were obsessed with him, but being in Puerto Rico, like they’re injecting him, like in their veins. You can’t go to a coffee shop. You cannot go to a club. 

Yasmine Hamady: Without– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: –Like you just hear him out all the time. 

Josie Totah: I did feel like I fit in very well in Puerto Rico. [laughter] Do you not agree? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Do you want like a seal of approval? Like– 

Josie Totah: I’m just saying, do you not agree? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: What does that even mean? 

Yasmine Hamady: As an Afro-Latina. What are your thoughts–

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Um. 

Yasmine Hamady: –on me being– 

Josie Totah: No, but I genuinely I loved– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: What does that mean? 

Josie Totah: –spending time with you. I loved celebrating you– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: No. 

Josie Totah: –on your beautiful show with your beautiful castmates who are so lovely and so kind. And I just also love. Yeah. Everything that we did together. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I hope, you know, like, ugh I couldn’t be more grateful for you. It was so special. We did have the best trip. And yes, Josie fit in very well in Puerto Rico. 

Yasmine Hamady: I will just be honest right now and say the trips that you guys have had together, I have such FOMO. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Stop we love you. 

Yasmine Hamady: I have such FOMO. If I could just leave everything and all the commitments I have behind and travel with you guys, I would. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: We love you and you’re with us in spirit. 

Josie Totah: We do like it. Anyway. 

Yasmine Hamady: So– 

Josie Totah: I’m so excited today because I have one of my favorite people in the room right now who you guys have both met. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Speaking of birthday trips. 

Josie Totah: Yes. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yes. 

Josie Totah: She just had her birthday trip in Mexico City. One of the most talented actresses that I know. She’s going to get really uncomfortable that I’m saying this. [laughter] Literally one of the most beautiful people I’ve literally ever met and someone who I’ve grown to love over the past year and I feel like gotten close with and I’m just honored to live life with is the queen herself, Alisha Boe. [cheers]

Alisha Boe: Hello! 

Yasmine Hamady: Welcome to the pod!

Alisha Boe: Wow. What an intro, that was amazing. 

Josie Totah: I mean. 

Alisha Boe: Thank you. 

Josie Totah: A little sap. 

Alisha Boe: Huh? 

Josie Totah: A little sap but. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah, I love it. Should I go for you too? 

Josie Totah: No, please don’t. 

Alisha Boe: Josie Totah. 

Josie Totah: Literally [?]– 

Alisha Boe: Let me count the ways I love you. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Wow. 

Alisha Boe: Me and Josie spent eight months in Edinburgh, Scotland, together. 

Yasmine Hamady: Wow. 

Alisha Boe: In a corset in the freezing cold. 

Yasmine Hamady: Hot. 

Alisha Boe: And living in basically– 

Josie Totah: Dying. 

Alisha Boe: –dorms. 

Josie Totah: Yes. 

Alisha Boe: Um. With a bunch of college kids. 

Josie Totah: With only cool toned materials. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah, It was like living inside of an IKEA. Um.

Josie Totah: It was. 

Alisha Boe: It was. 

Josie Totah: It was.

Yasmine Hamady: Scandinavian dream.

Alisha Boe: Yeah, literally. 

Yasmine Hamady: Love. 

Alisha Boe: And um I don’t think I could have survived that time without Josie. It was my first time working outside of the country. 

Josie Totah: Oh same. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Really? 

Alisha Boe: For an extended amount of time. I mean, like, you know, it’s just when you have to leave all of your friends and family behind. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah that’s a lot. 

Alisha Boe: Like, you know, acting like sure can be glamorous sometimes, but also most of the time it’s just a lot of hotel rooms. You’re alone. You don’t really know anyone who knows if, like, you’re going to make like, close like bonds or relationships with who you’re working with. But thank God I had you because honestly, you were like my safe space that whole time. I think I would have gone crazy without you so. 

Josie Totah: Same. I feel the same. I literally love you. Okay I’m done. [laughter] But I think that you mentioned something really important, which is that yeah, that was both of our first times going outside of the country. And I think that is such a big change. 

Alisha Boe: To work. We’ve been outside of the country. Wait had you been outside the country? 

Josie Totah: Well no for a project. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah mm hmm.

Josie Totah: But speaking of–

Yasmine Hamady: She’s like–

Josie Totah: But going across the country, especially from, you did the opposite when you were born– 

Alisha Boe: Oh right. 

Josie Totah: Because you were born in Europe. [laughter] 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: You were born in–

Josie Totah: You were born in Norway, which I feel like a lot of people don’t know about you. I mean like– 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: I feel like you’ve talked about it– 

Alisha Boe: Really? 

Josie Totah: –in a lot of interviews. 

Alisha Boe: I feel like that’s my whole personality trait is to be like, Hi, I’m Alisha. I was born in Norway. You wouldn’t guess huh? 

Yasmine Hamady: I’m an immigrant actually. [banter]

Josie Totah: But weirdly people don’t. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I’m actually different. 

Josie Totah: You guys didn’t know? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I didn’t know. 

Alisha Boe: Oh! 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I was just going to say it’s definitely not your whole personality, cause. 

Alisha Boe: Oh. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I had no idea. 

Alisha Boe: Really? 

Yasmine Hamady: No. 

Alisha Boe: Because I always feel like I always say like, Oh, yeah. Well, hello, my name’s Alisha. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Okay. 

Alisha Boe: I was born in Norway. 

Yasmine Hamady: Incredible. 

Alisha Boe: I am [laughing]

Yasmine Hamady: Welcome to America. 

Alisha Boe: Thank you. Tusen takk. Um I uh I’m half Norwegian, half Somali, and um my mom and I moved from Oslo to Los Angeles when I was seven because she met a man. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Okay purr. 

Alisha Boe: My stepfather. 

Josie Totah: Okay purr. 

Alisha Boe: American. And then we were like Oslo, eight months of winter or L.A. Like, you know, sunshine. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: So we made– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: The choice was made. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah, we made a big migration. 

Josie Totah: Because your mom isn’t Norwegian? 

Alisha Boe: She is Norwegian. 

Josie Totah: Oh, okay. But she moved there. 

Alisha Boe: No, no, no. My mom– 

Josie Totah: Oh she moved to here because she met a man. 

Alisha Boe: She moved to Los Angeles– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: LA. 

Alisha Boe: Because she met a man. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Because she met a man.

Josie Totah: Understood. 

Alisha Boe: My mom is super Norwegian. Generations generations of– 

Josie Totah: Okay. That’s what I thought. 

Alisha Boe: –Norwegians. Yes. 

Josie Totah: Okay. 

Alisha Boe: And my dad um was born in Somalia. And then um was he there was the war and the civil war in the nineties and um late eighties. And he escaped the war. Um. And at 17 years old, uh he was adopted by a Norwegian um who had met he had met a couple of years prior, just like showing him around Mogadishu. 

Yasmine Hamady: Wow. 

Alisha Boe: And then he was in a bit of trouble escaping the war. He called up my grandpa now um and said, I really need help and my grandpa um went over and adopted him and brought him to Norway and raised him– 

Josie Totah: Wow. 

Alisha Boe: As his own. 

Yasmine Hamady: Wow. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. And then five, six years later, he met my mom and, you know, had me. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Wow that’s [?]. 

Josie Totah: For a second. I thought you were saying that your mom’s dad adopted him, and I was like, that is so strange, but so just a man adopted him who uh? Yeah.

Alisha Boe: Yes. Yes. 

Josie Totah: Okay. 

Alisha Boe: That would have been cra– is that legal? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Um. 

Alisha Boe: Like could you?

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I don’t. 

Josie Totah: Wouldn’t that have been iconic though? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Think that’s so special. I didn’t know your dad was adopted. My older siblings are adopted. 

Alisha Boe: Oh, really? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. My mom adopted them when I was like a baby. 

Alisha Boe: Oh wow. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: So that is so cool. 

Alisha Boe: How many siblings do you have? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Ooh, girl. Too many to count. 

Alisha Boe: Really? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: It’s a real blended family. There’s, I think some I don’t know about, but it’s okay. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. I have a couple I don’t know about either, so. [laughter]

Alycia Pascual-Peña: It’s okay though. Wait. So speaking of family, your mom had married your stepfather, and then you were here at seven years old and then did you guys you guys just stayed in L.A.? 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: And you’ve been here ever since? 

Alisha Boe: Yeah, ever since. So I’m very. I’m like, I’m a valley girl through and through really because–

Yasmine Hamady: Okay. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Where in the valley? 

Alisha Boe: Um. I grew up in West Hills. Canoga Park area. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yes. 

Alisha Boe: Went to El Camino, if anyone knows it. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Okay. 

Yasmine Hamady: No. 

Josie Totah: Not one person here. 

Alisha Boe: Cool. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Okay. 

Yasmine Hamady: No. Not one. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: But we respect it. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: But we love the valley. [laughter]

Yasmine Hamady: Okay incredible. 

Alisha Boe: But yeah, deep it was one of those things where it’s so deep in the valley that I think it might I’m probably wrong, but I think Woodland Hills might be the end of the west side of San Fernando Valley. And then by that point, it was like a 20 minute drive over Malibu Canyon. And that’s how I spent like all my summers where we would there was this dollar beach bus. 

Yasmine Hamady: No way. 

Alisha Boe: That would pick us up at Calabasas High School. [gasps]

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Real bougie I love it. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah, it was in the parking lot. And then all of these teenagers would just hop on this bus and we’d go to Tower Seven at Zuma Beach. And it was I hated where I grew up when I was, you know, growing up because I’m like, ugh it’s so boring. But looking back, it was such a it was literally like, I don’t know, Fast Times at Ridgemont High or something. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: It was such a, it was a quiet. 

Josie Totah: Like quintessential. 

Alisha Boe: Very quintessential Californian. 

Josie Totah: Experience. 

Alisha Boe: You know, all of the d– parents were probably like ex-hippies from Topanga Canyon or something. 

Yasmine Hamady: Wow. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Wait. 

Alisha Boe: So it was an interesting, interesting thing. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I love that. 

Yasmine Hamady: Oh my– 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: And you talk about like coming to America and you said that your mom saw you, like doing, like, cartwheels and, like, jumping up and down– 

Alisha Boe: Oh! 

Josie Totah: –when like, first getting here. 

Alisha Boe: Oh my god I love you for remembering that.

Josie Totah: What what do you think the first thing that you saw here was the most jarring compared to Norway that really stood out to you? 

Alisha Boe: Um. That’s a really good question. I you know what I think it was? I mean, obviously the vast landscapes and how empty the streets are, really, and um because I also it was a metropolitan city and you can, you know, walk around and be self-sufficient. I the second I moved to the valley, which is very spread out, um I wasn’t allowed to walk down the street by myself and I was used to–

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: –being able, there was a 7-Eleven I lived by. I lived in front of the 101 freeway behind Ventura Blvd. 

Yasmine Hamady: Okay. 

Alisha Boe: In like an apartment complex. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah yeah yeah. 

Alisha Boe: And there was a 7-Eleven on that corner. And when I was a child, like five, six years old, my mom would send me to the corner shop in Norway to, like, get her stuff. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah, go pick up a– 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: –like a chocolate bar or something. 

Alisha Boe: I’d walk to school, to kindergarten, which is wild to think about. 

Josie Totah: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Um. When you grow up in America. And um I wasn’t allowed to do that anymore, and I just felt like a little part of my freedom had been taken away. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Because it’s so– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: [?] your little childhood independance.

Alisha Boe: Yeah. Like I couldn’t take my bike around, and that was the biggest thing. But other than that, it was just the heat, Woodland Hills. 

Yasmine Hamady: Horrific. 

Alisha Boe: West Hills, Canoga Park is like the hottest area in L.A.. 

Josie Totah: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: I would have heat strokes three times– 

Yasmine Hamady: Yes. 

Alisha Boe: –a week. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yes. 

Alisha Boe: Because my body wasn’t used to it. 

Josie Totah: That’s Yasmine in [?]. 

Alisha Boe: Really? 

Yasmine Hamady: No, do you have like a sweating problem?

Alisha Boe: Not anymore. No. 

Yasmine Hamady: Oh, uh. [laughter] How did you get rid of that? [laughter] How did you get rid of that? Because I’m still figuring that out. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I’m not like you. No.

Yasmine Hamady: Like I my body temperature runs at like 190 degrees. 

Alisha Boe: Oh, yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: But baseline. 

Alisha Boe: You know what? I have night sweats. I will wake up–

Yasmine Hamady: Oh I don’t have night sweats. 

Alisha Boe: I wake up and I’m like, did I pee? Did I pee because I–

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah yeah yeah yeah. 

Alisha Boe: The bed is soaking– 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah it is. 

Alisha Boe: –wet. 

Josie Totah: Damn. 

Alisha Boe: And I don’t know what that’s about. I hope that’s not an underlying health issue. But [?]–

Yasmine Hamady: We could talk about that. We could talk about that because my scalp, I was thinking about getting botox on my head because it– 

Alisha Boe: Yes. 

Yasmine Hamady: It paralyzes the muscle. But then I like went for a consultation they’re like yeah that’s around like 300 pokes. 

Alisha Boe: Oh. 

Yasmine Hamady: And I was like, listen. 

Alisha Boe: No. 

Yasmine Hamady: And it only lasts for like 4 to 6 months. 

Alisha Boe: No, no no no. 

Yasmine Hamady: And I said, I’d rather just sweat and put my hair in a sleek bun. Snatched. 

Alisha Boe: Yes. 

Yasmine Hamady: And have sweat than have 300 needles every 4 to 6 months. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah, it’s like that look is good it’s like a Bella Hadid like–

Yasmine Hamady: It’s a Bella Hadid sleek. 

Alisha Boe: Oh yeah it’s so chic. 

Josie Totah: I love it. I need a little bit more oil in my [?] right here. [banter]

Alisha Boe: Yeah, such, my hair’s falling out and– 

Yasmine Hamady: No. 

Alisha Boe: So dry and brittle and gross. 

Yasmine Hamady: And that’s the L.A. heat. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: The LA heat will do that to you. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: And Norwegian was your first is that the– 

Alisha Boe: Oh, my gosh. Yeah. 

Josie Totah: Your first language

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Oh my gosh. I didn’t know that. I love that.

Alisha Boe: Yeah, so I didn’t speak any English when I came to America, um I had a thick Scandinavian accent. Um. Yeah, Norwegian was my first language, and I uh completely forgot my first language and in forgetting my language. You know, you kind of lose a part of your identity–. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Because my whole family still lives there. And so we’ve been going back. I mean, we go back um every Christmas at least once a year. And I mean, there is a huge disconnect because it’s such a big part of my identity. But then culturally, because I don’t speak the language anymore, there is this um this disconnect. But I mean, I’ve been saying for years now that I need I’m going to relearn it. And it’s it’s one of those things it’s such a small language and it’s– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: –so, it’s hard to find tutors. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah I– 

Alisha Boe: It’s hard to yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: I know what you’re saying, though, because I feel like once you like I knew Arabic growing up and then I lost it all and then I– 

Alisha Boe: Did you? Oh I didn’t know that. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. So like, and then I’m trying to get back into it now, like I took Arabic in college and it’s– 

Alisha Boe: Oh wow. 

Yasmine Hamady: –so much harder. But no matter what, there is still that memory– 

Alisha Boe: Yes. 

Yasmine Hamady: Ingrained in your head. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah, there’s certain things that I still remember and can comprehend when my family are speaking. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yes. 

Alisha Boe: And um the only problem is, is that my family is from this town called Trondheim, which is like a little bit more north of Oslo. 

Yasmine Hamady: Okay. 

Alisha Boe: And Oslo, and they have completely different dialects. I remember getting into arguments with my cousin because like, let’s say in in when you’re speaking the Oslo dialect, you would say for the number seven, you would say, sieve. And my cousin says shoo. So it’s like these crazy different– 

Yasmine Hamady: Yup. 

Alisha Boe: –pronunciations that we’d be like, I don’t know what you’re saying. Like, you’re not saying you’re not speaking the language correctly when– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: Please. 

Alisha Boe: So and so when I go back, I’m listening to my family speak this different dialect that I didn’t grow up speaking because– 

Josie Totah: So it’s even more. 

Alisha Boe: –It’s– 

Josie Totah: It’s like double confusing. 

Alisha Boe: Yes, exactly. Um. But yeah, but we just did a show for. Yeah, the show that we worked on together. We worked with Kristine Froseth who is super Norwegian. 

Josie Totah: Also Norwegian. 

Alisha Boe: And from the same area that I grew up in. And I didn’t utilize her. I didn’t. [laughing]

Josie Totah: Once in a while. 

Alisha Boe: We– [laughing]

Josie Totah: You guys would–

Alisha Boe: –would try. 

Josie Totah: –would riff. 

Alisha Boe: But then she’d just get frustrated. Because she’s like, oh gosh, I can’t like. I can’t speak.

Yasmine Hamady: It’s the way you said– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: No. 

Yasmine Hamady: –but I didn’t utilize her. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. [laughing]

Yasmine Hamady: That’s what got me. 

Josie Totah: She does she does speak it really well. 

Alisha Boe: And well, it’s her. I mean, she’s fully like her both her parents are Norwegian. She’s just she’s been back and forth. 

Josie Totah: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: She’s very Norwegian. 

Josie Totah: From Jersey to– 

Alisha Boe: Jersey Norwegian girl. Yeah. 

Josie Totah: Which is iconic. [music break]. 

[AD BREAK]

Alycia Pascual-Peña: You obviously like talked about your connection to your Norwegian culture. Like, how did you navigate like being this young Black Norwegian girl, like coming to L.A. 

Josie Totah: Somalia. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Err. 

Josie Totah: And Black. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yes Somali and Black um because I know, like specifically for me, I think I’m perceived differently depending on what country I’m in. So like, how has have you experienced that also being in Scotland? How was that? 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I feel like I asked you a bunch of questions. You you choose. 

Alisha Boe: Yes no. I got you. I’ll answer all of them. You know what’s actually so funny about moving from Oslo to Los Angeles is that my school in Oslo was way more diverse than the school I went to in L.A. 

Josie Totah: Huh really? 

Alisha Boe: Because I was living in a place where there was a lot of immigrants. In this place called Sinsen, which is a lot of Somali, a lot of like Middle Eastern people. There were two fully Norwegian girls in my class. Everyone else was were people who looked like me or from different places, just immigrants, really. And I moved to probably the whitest place in um the valley, I think. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yup. 

Alisha Boe: And I was maybe one of five Black kids in my elementary school. Um. And, you know, the culture of being Black in America, in the United States of America is. United States of sorry. Um. [banter]

Yasmine Hamady: That was crazy. 

Josie Totah: I love you being so formal. [laughter] [banter]. 

Alisha Boe: I know

Josie Totah: –[?] America. 

Alisha Boe: Um. But it’s completely different from being African, which I was used to with my dad. Just, you know, we just the African cultures just different from, you know, African-American culture. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: American yeah. 

Alisha Boe: And when I moved here, I quickly realized that there were certain ways I was meant to act to other people, to make them feel more comfortable. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: And be like, no, you’re Black. You’re supposed to be acting like this way. You’re supposed to be acting like this. And I was just so I was just so confused. I was a child and it was, you know, it was racist. Like– 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Kids were inherently racist– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Because of, you know, generationally, culturally, how they grew up. And it was um I felt really insecure. I felt othered. I felt um like I wanted to conform as any kid wanted to do. Didn’t want an accent. I didn’t want to look too different. I didn’t want to you know, I wanted straight hair. You know, I wanted to just conform, which is so heartbreaking, really. And um yeah, it was it was hard trying to fit in because I felt like I couldn’t really fit in anywhere. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: In that way. And then um speaking to being, like, just going to different countries, um there is. There is um something that I realized the older I get is that I actually have to think about, you know, as you know, I think everyone sitting on this couch actually has to think about if we’re going to be safe in a certain country or even a state in America. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Um. And I, I dated an Italian. 

Josie Totah: The Italian. 

Alisha Boe: I know. [laughter] 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Okay.

Alisha Boe: It was like a it was– 

Josie Totah: No the two pasta recipes. 

Alisha Boe: Yes. No, I– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Oh. 

Alisha Boe: Josie’s just heard so much about it because I learned how to cook pasta, and I only know how to make it for two people. And it always and I’d be like because I dated an Italian guy for a couple of years. 

Yasmine Hamady: But that’s fun. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: That’s fun to say, What’s it because like [?]– 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: –an Italian. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. Just so you know, because like– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah this is authentic. Um.

Alisha Boe: I know what Chianti wine is because– [banter]

Yasmine Hamady: Right. 

Josie Totah: I know every time I see Chianti on a menu– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: She’s cultured. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah I know. 

Josie Totah: –I think of you. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. Literally. 

Yasmine Hamady: You’re like–

Alycia Pascual-Peña: She’s cultured, period. 

Yasmine Hamady: –so I know the different types of Pastas. There’s linguine, rigatoni–

Alisha Boe: Yes like and also this isn’t actually Italian. Um.

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah yeah yeah.

Alisha Boe: This is Italian-American. And–

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: –people in Italy don’t actually eat– 

Yasmine Hamady: No. 

Alisha Boe: –meatballs with their spaghetti. [laughing]

Yasmine Hamady: And because I–

Alycia Pascual-Peña: And do you know why? Because I had dated an Italian. 

Yasmine Hamady: –had dated an Italian.

Alisha Boe: Because I dated an Italian. Anyway. 

Josie Totah: –[?] Pasta water al dente four times– 

Alisha Boe: I– 

Josie Totah: –in a row. 

Alisha Boe: Let me bring it down real bad. Um. I never felt more. [laughing] Attacked.

Alycia Pascual-Peña: She said, let me take a hard shift. 

Yasmine Hamady: You’re like, all right. So going there. 

Alisha Boe: I’ve never felt more othered and attacked. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Oh, God. 

Alisha Boe: And um then I um had felt in Rome when I spent and I spent uh my my pandemic months in Rome. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Oh, gosh. 

Alisha Boe: And I– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: With the Italian boyfriend. 

Alisha Boe: With the Italian boyfriend. Um. [laugh] And and um I had never which was so interesting because I was in Italy and I’d spent time in the Deep South before, and I was expecting to feel, you know, it was just an unexpected place. Like we were in a restaurant for my birthday. And all of these older Italian woman were looking at me with this pure sheer disgust that you, your gut feeling knows like, Oh my God, they’re looking at me because I’m of the way I look and because I’m Black. And how dare I be in this restaurant? I remember going to the bathroom and this woman didn’t want to wash your hands after me like it was like I’d been. It was something I read in history books of like. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Oh my gosh, I’m we’re not experiencing this in– 

Yasmine Hamady: No. 

Alisha Boe: 2023, 2020 when it was but like um it was it was jarring. It was scary. Um. And in Scotland uh we were doing a period drama. So we’d have to spend a lot of times in these stately homes that go back to like the 17th, 18th century. And the memorabilia there is just, you know, the history of the world. There was one location where there was um like those– 

Josie Totah: Golliwog. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah, that a golly, that’s how that it’s called? 

Josie Totah: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Golliwog. And like–

Josie Totah: Which is like it sounds racist. 

Alisha Boe: It sounds so and it was–

Josie Totah: –a racist toy. 

Alisha Boe: It’s a racist doll. 

Josie Totah: That they used to play with. 

Alisha Boe: Mm hmm. It’s like Blackface, basically. And it was just–

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Like a minstrelsy toy. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah, it was. And, you know, it’s just. Yeah. So it’s it’s strange as you kind of all were yeah it’s it’s– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: –a strange thing navigating in this world. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: And based on environment and–. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: Specifically when you were living in Italy, that was not just any time it was the summer of 2020. 

Alisha Boe: Yes. 

Josie Totah: And– 

Alisha Boe: Yes. 

Josie Totah: Was so turbulent. And I feel like for so many people here, obviously, especially Black people. That were living in L.A., were experiencing such a visceral time that you can– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: –obviously attest you more than I can. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: I can’t even imagine being isolated away from–

Alisha Boe: Oh my gosh. 

Josie Totah: –community. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: Because I think that was something– 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: –that you speak about a lot. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I say it all the time. Like, I think that that was one of the most difficult years of my life. And mind you, I want to decenter myself from the conversation. Like the people who were on the ground every single day creating mutual aid funds and literally having their life at risk on a daily basis in very aggressive ways. Those are the people that I think will deal with the repercussions of that time more so than someone like me. Like, yes–

Alisha Boe: Absolutely. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: –I protested and engaged in activism. But um all that goes to say, even though it was a super disheartening, difficult time here in America, and I think for Black folk across the country, across the diaspora, one of the only reasons that I think I was okay and I survived was because of community and camaraderie. And that is what I was thinking of the whole time of you talking like I was like one, how awful. And thank you for sharing. But two, um you had to do that without other like Black people around you or like without your community, like, and camaraderie. Like, how have you found that? Like on set or when you’re alone, Like you talked about the solitude that comes with acting and how it’s not as glamorous as people think. Have you found community like in your Blackness? And just like as a woman, like have you found, like your peace on set while working and navigating acting, whatever this crazy world is? 

Alisha Boe: Oh, wow that’s a good question, because I’m still finding it. I still to this day find myself being maybe one of two people who are of color in my on my on the set that I’m on. Um. And I find that there is. I’m I find myself being a bit upset that it’s up to me most of the time to have to speak up for myself for things I where I shouldn’t have to. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Um. And I’m so grateful for when I have people that I’m working with that recognize that and speak up for me because it’s tiring um and it’s unfair because I think as much as this industry likes to say that, you know, we are changing and it’s getting better, um it’s just untrue really. 

Yasmine Hamady: 100%. 

Alisha Boe: It’s tokenism at best. And there is I mean, there’s so much Black talent in this industry. And, um you know, when it’s when there are behind the scenes, like you know, when you’re watching a television show like, oh, this is real– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Feels sincere.

Alisha Boe: This is [?]–

Josie Totah: Authentic. 

Alisha Boe: –and this is authentic. And that’s those are the projects I want to be a part of. But um yeah, it’s been with my career so far, the shows and movies that I’ve been on. You can just, you know, look, I’m usually the one Black girl in it or one of three maybe, or one of two. But like, you know, they’re predominantly, you know, white stories that I’m I’m supporting, I guess. Um. And um that’s not to say that I’ve had really great characters with great arcs, um but that’s just the reality of it. And I’m still navigating it. I’m still, you know, trying to figure out how I can. It’s also building my own confidence as a woman in a business sense and how to advocate for myself. And it’s something that I haven’t perfected yet, but it’s a learning experience and it’s just I think it’s important, you know, like when you meet people like Josie who will stand up for you no matter what, which is honestly like maybe one of the first times I’ve had someone do it so visibly for me. Josie’s just stood up for me a lot in the work sense even, and in obviously in my personal life. So um seeing that made it clear to me that I need or made it clear to me that it’s not really my responsibility all the time. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: It’s not. 

Yasmine Hamady: No. 

Alisha Boe: Like I shouldn’t have to because it’s exhausting. 

Yasmine Hamady: It’s I think– 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: –there’s a fine line because, yes, always advocate for yourself, but at some point that is not, educating people, checking people is not your responsibility. 

Alisha Boe: Exactly. 

Yasmine Hamady: It is the people around you who are not who are not going through your experience to stand by you and stand with you. I think– 

Josie Totah: Yeah. I remember having a– 

Yasmine Hamady: Do you know what I mean– 

Josie Totah: –conversation– 

Yasmine Hamady: –by that? 

Josie Totah: –with you, we were in the drive back from like one of the first pre-production days where they threw us in a lake and it was like 20 degree lake, um [laughter] Fahrenheit Lake. And we were in wetsuits– 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: And they had to see how long we could– 

Alisha Boe: Last! [laugh] 

Josie Totah: –like last. And if– 

Alisha Boe: It’s like an episode of Survivor when we’re repeating it because– 

Josie Totah: It was! 

Alisha Boe: –that’s wild that that–  

Alycia Pascual-Peña: What? 

Josie Totah: They bussed us all. [banter]

Alisha Boe: Wait. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Run this back. Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: And also [?]–

Yasmine Hamady: Wait can you paint this picture please? [banter]

Josie Totah: One thing is we never spoke about that day after that. 

Alisha Boe: No. Wait, wait, wait. Let’s just. Yeah, let’s explain this. 

Josie Totah: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: We there was a scene that we had to shoot where we all had to jump into a real, like, waterfall lake. And so basically they had to test how long each of us could last in a lake to see who they could, who would go in the lake, right? 

Josie Totah: Yeah, they had to like approve– 

Alisha Boe: For the longest. 

Josie Totah: –it. Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: So they had to approve it. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: So you guys wouldn’t get injured?

Alisha Boe: Yeah. I I guess. 

Josie Totah: And it was the most cold water. 

Alisha Boe: –that I’d ever been in, but like, basically they were timing us while we’re all in a lake with wetsuits on on the day we’re not wearing wetsuits. But they were like, okay, Alisha could last 30 seconds, Josie could last 40 seconds. And they’re like, okay. 

Yasmine Hamady: You could last 40? 

Alisha Boe: I don’t remember. 

Josie Totah: Well to be fair I was the in there the longest out of all the girls. They did tell me that. 

Alisha Boe: Oh my god. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Okay flex. 

Josie Totah: I did swim around, I did swim around. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Okay, subtle. 

Josie Totah: But the boys were, like, insane. They were like– 

Alisha Boe: Oh yeah they loved it. 

Josie Totah: –Olympians. Except–

Alisha Boe: Yeah. [pause] [laugh]

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Oh, no. 

Yasmine Hamady: Oh god. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Y’all are disrespectful. 

Yasmine Hamady: You guys have to say it now, but don’t say it but– 

Alisha Boe: No! [banter]

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Don’t say it. 

Alisha Boe: But there were no boys in our cast. 

Josie Totah: You know, we didn’t work with we didn’t we didn’t we didn’t work with– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Boys what? 

Josie Totah: We didn’t work. We did not work with any boys. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: But I remember being in the car ride home and speaking to you. And we were we stopped by to see some cows with– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Aw. 

Josie Totah: –our driver. Do you remember his name? 

Alisha Boe: No. But he was so lovely. 

Josie Totah: Anway. 

Alisha Boe: Stuart. 

Josie Totah: Oh, yeah. Oh, fuck. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: I’m awful. Your driver. Well, he was your driver but to be fair I had– 

Alisha Boe: He was not my driver. 

Josie Totah: Who was your driver? Oh, yeah. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I can’t. 

Josie Totah: Rat right? 

Yasmine Hamady: Rat? 

Josie Totah: You had Rat. 

Alisha Boe: I had a driver named Rat. But David– 

Josie Totah: I had Kevin. 

Alisha Boe: –little David little David would drive me a lot, and then–

Josie Totah: I had Kevin and Ian. 

Alisha Boe: I loved the days when Ian would drive me. Ian– 

Josie Totah: Ian drove you in the beginning. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. I love Ian. 

Josie Totah: And then I had him. [laughter]

Yasmine Hamady: I love Rat. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. Right? 

Yasmine Hamady: I don’t know why but I stand with Rat. 

Alisha Boe: Rat is a cool guy. 

Josie Totah: And then David Little David and Big David. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. I love them all. 

Josie Totah: I love them all too. I don’t why– 

Alisha Boe: We just named all the drivers. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Shout out to [?]. [banter] [laughter] Yeah. 

Josie Totah: That was just to test our brains. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: Wait. But anyway. 

Alisha Boe: What did we say in the car Josie? 

Josie Totah: Sorry. I know I’m awful. I don’t know how to tell a story. But in the car I literally said to you I was like, you are going to have a very different experience. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: Than we are. And this is in this was in the very beginning. And Kristine was in the car as well. And I was like, people are probably going to say shit to you and it’s not going to be fair and it’s not going to be right. But it is our job to speak up about it. Ours and mine and Christine’s. And it’s it’s not yours. And like lean on us, but know that, like, we’re not looking at this with rose colored lenses either. And maybe you weren’t in the beginning. Maybe you weren’t expecting it to be as, as whatever you made it out to be. I don’t want to speak for you. But I think, like, there were certain moments where there are just ignorances and it was never not always mal intentioned, but I could just feel you not necessarily knowing how to go about certain things because of the compassionate kind person that you are. And also just the environment that you were in was just so predominantly white and like and no one was really not many people really cared. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah, because thank you so much. I remember. Yeah, I remember that conversation. And it was um no one had ever done that for me ever before in the in on a set ever. So to feel protected by you was I mean, it was the most meaningful thing ever. It felt I felt safe. Even when I was feeling uncomfortable or feeling lonely. I made, I knew that I had you and that it would never be too much. So thank you. 

Yasmine Hamady: Aw. 

Alisha Boe: Uh. That’s so sweet. 

Josie Totah: I love you so much. 

Alisha Boe: I love you. I love you. The problem was twofold, because you’re dealing with race and you’re dealing with cultural differences. Um. And it’s just. Yeah, I mean, not to I mean, I had a great time in the UK. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: People are nice. They are really nice. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: It’s just that– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: But two truths can exist. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. At the same time. 

Yasmine Hamady: At the same time yup. 

Alisha Boe: And um yeah, it’s just interesting to reflect on because uh it, it’s strange living in a place where nobody um looks like you. But then I’d go to London and I lived like– 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: –in the Somali central of the world. 

Josie Totah: Right. 

Alisha Boe: Or and it was just um–. 

Josie Totah: Everybody was Somali. 

Alisha Boe: Everyone was Somali. 

Josie Totah: [?] and all his Somali friends. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. [laughing]

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I cannot. 

Alisha Boe: So like. 

Yasmine Hamady: Please. 

Alisha Boe: It’s um that was amazing cause I never been around so many Somali people like for like in that in a very, very, very long time. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Um. And also there’s a small community but in London there’s so many eastern Africans. 

Yasmine Hamady: There’s so many. 

Alisha Boe: And I loved it. 

Josie Totah: And Scotland. There was little pockets of– 

Alisha Boe: There was little pockets. 

Yasmine Hamady: There is little pockets. If you go to Glasgow, I feel like. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah, we spent most of our time in a very posh– 

Josie Totah: We we love– 

Alisha Boe: –Edinburgh, but– 

Josie Totah: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. But we loved it.

Josie Totah: [?]. And also you like did. I don’t want to keep talking about this one show like you did an incredible job, like you were one of the leads of our show and like were so talented and like your arc is beautiful and every time I watch a new DR, I think it’s so stunning. And– 

Alisha Boe: Thanks. 

Josie Totah: The last thing I’m going to say is that you were there for me too, as well. Like it does go both ways. 

Alisha Boe: Oh I’m glad that– 

Josie Totah: I do want you to know that. Like I’m not trying to be just to keep it melodramatic or whatever, but I am being serious like there and I I spoke to Alycia about this like–

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Josie doen’t speak about people, the way she speaks about you. She’s very kind, but she’s one of the most truthful people I’ve ever met. And when she spoke about you and I was so excited to, like, meet your lovely cast, like I knew how special you were just because of, like, how Josie speaks about you. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah she Facetiming her and, you know, it’s like also as as a best friend, but also like, as, like an older sister type of thing. You know, it’s very I was I was not worried, but concerned for her going away for eight months in a new place. And I remember she was telling me, you and me, but like you were her rock during this time. And all I can say is thank you for doing that, like as a best friend, like truly, because it’s a scary place going to a foreign country, not knowing what you’re doing with for work too. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: As a young adult as well. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: This town, we don’t know. We don’t have any trans people that are that are that close to us. That is just like the–. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Josie Totah:  –fact of the matter– 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: –in our life, like we have– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Facts. 

Josie Totah: –beautiful trans people in our lives that we love and we look up to and MJ in India and all of these people that we see at events. But– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. But they’re not here.

Josie Totah: –you know they’re a little bit older than us. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: And they’re they have their own communities and they have their own lives. And like so not to say that trans people don’t exist in Los Angeles, they certainly do, but certainly in our circles, I’m the only one. And I think like obviously you’re not trans I’m like outing you as trans. You’re not trans. [banter]

Alisha Boe: I am. [laughter]. 

Josie Totah: Yes you are. You’re not trans. But like [laughter]  I just like I struggled a lot like in the summer. And and I just remember like having breakfast with you and I was like, crying to you about something and you’re like, I don’t remember this, but I felt so–

Alisha Boe: Shut the fuck up. 

Josie Totah: I no no no. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: You’re so annoying. [banter] [laughter]

Josie Totah: But I I’m not kidding but I and I get so uncomfortable talking about this stuff, but, but like I I don’t know how to explain it other than to say is like, I just felt seen by you. And I felt like you and we’re going to talk about positive things after this.But I do feel like you felt my pain and you felt like my otherness. And even though we have very different experiences, I am not Black. You are not trans yet. I [laugh] [indistinct in background] I did feel like I did feel like we connected in that way. And it and it made me feel like I was going to be okay. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: And I do not know if I would have lasted without that. 

Alisha Boe: I feel exactly the same. Absolutely. I love you so much. 

Josie Totah: I’m so proud of you for many reasons, not only for this show, but the movie that just came out. Who our producer Fiona? Did you see it? 

Fiona Pestana: When you finish saving the world.

Josie Totah: Yeah. 

Fiona Pestana: Yeah [indistinct in background]

Alisha Boe: Oh! Thank you– 

Josie Totah: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: –so much. Thank you. 

Josie Totah: They told us awesome things about that. And this was your first project after– 

Alisha Boe: Covid. 

Josie Totah: –13 Reasons Why. Right? 

Alisha Boe: Oh, yes, yes, yes. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Oh my gosh.

Josie Totah: Because this was before Do Revenge, right? 

Alisha Boe: Yes, it was. I so I had not. We wrapped 13 Reasons Why December 2019 and we knew it was going to be the last season. We were ready. We were like, okay, great. We you know, we told it was Four Seasons. We told the story. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Now it’s time to graduate um. [laugh] I how old was I? I think I, 20 21 I was 22 years old when the show ended and I’m 26 now. 

Josie Totah: Which is crazy because you booked the show when you were 19. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: That’s insane. 

Yasmine Hamady: Was that your first acting role like– 

Alisha Boe: Not my first acting role, my first um series regular like– 

Yasmine Hamady: Okay. 

Alisha Boe: –big role, I would say. 

Yasmine Hamady: Incredible. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah and um I was 19. Intense show, to say the least. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Um. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah, babe. 

Alisha Boe: It was. And yeah, so we finished the show December 2019 and then COVID happened. Of course, I went to go to Italy um with my Italian boyfriend. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Mmm okay yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: Incredible. 

Alisha Boe: At the time. 

Yasmine Hamady: I love how he’s like– 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. [laugh]

Yasmine Hamady: –honestly a co-host on this podcast. 

Alisha Boe: I know like he’s right here. 

Yasmine Hamady: We should give him a producers like credit. [laughter] I hope he’s well.

Alisha Boe: Yeah me too, who knows. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. [laughter]

Alisha Boe: I um I so and then I went March 6th which is my birthday and then obviously Italy was one of the countries that got hit the worst. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: Right. 

Alisha Boe: So. 

Josie Totah: But you guys were singing on patios. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. It was a beautiful experience. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: You guys were a lot cuter than us, we were losing our– 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: –shit here. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. [laughing] [banter]

Alycia Pascual-Peña: [?] got real nasty. 

Yasmine Hamady: No it was– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Ratchet. 

Yasmine Hamady: It was–

Josie Totah: That’s when we all moved in together. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Oh my God. 

Yasmine Hamady: It was. It was– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: –crazy. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: We saw. We saw the best and the worst. Real quick, like– 

Yasmine Hamady: It was–

Alisha Boe: I want to know about the arguments. I want to know about– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Ooh. 

Josie Totah: Oh there were so many. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Different episode babe.

Yasmine Hamady: I would like to say that I was never in an argument. I w– [pause]. 

Alisha Boe: Oh my god. Oh girl you better. 

Josie Totah: The argument was never– 

Alisha Boe: The receipts are about to come.

Josie Totah: –between us. 

Yasmine Hamady: Who was I arguing with? 

Alisha Boe: Go on, let’s hear it. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: So we were losing our shit, but also following in, falling in love. You were in Italy. And how long did you stay there before you worked on a project? 

Alisha Boe: Um. So I was. So I got stuck there and then also, like, chose to stay there. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Um. And I was there for six months. And um me and my boyfriend, the ex-boyfriend that I had only been with together with for six months at the time, spent another [laughing]– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Whoa. 

Alisha Boe: –six months together in quarantine. 

Yasmine Hamady: What were you doing? You know what that is?

Alycia Pascual-Peña: That is a pandemi relationship. 

Yasmine Hamady: No I’m sorry. That is a gay relationship. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Shut up. 

Yasmine Hamady: That is gay. 

Alisha Boe: That is lesbian. 

Josie Totah: She’s just quite gay in her relationships. 

Yasmine Hamady: That is so Uhaul of you. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah, I know. [laughing]

Alycia Pascual-Peña: You know what? You committed. You said I got this boo might as well.

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I know. And then um anyway, uh I left. I went back home in September, didn’t I was going crazy, couldn’t get work, didn’t I hadn’t read a script in so long. And then I got this gig in When You Finish Saving the World and we filmed that in January in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Um.

Yasmine Hamady: Did Jesse Eisenberg direct it? 

Alisha Boe: Yes, so Jesse Eisenberg directed it. I played um Finn Wolfhard’s lover. Um. [laughter]

Yasmine Hamady: I’m pissing at that. Him just turning 18– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: The way you said it. 

Yasmine Hamady: –or something, how old is he? 

Alisha Boe: No, he literally turned just 18. I was so I was a little I was apprehensive to do it because I was– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Okay. 

Alisha Boe: –23 then at the time. And I’m like Finn every you know, Finn is I mean, he’s so tall now. But um at that time, I’m like, maybe someone who’s maybe closer to Finn’s age should play this role just so it makes sense a little bit in my head. Um. But then I, I spoke with Jesse, and it made sense when he watched the film. I’m meant to remind him of his mother, who’s played by Julianne Moore, and he has this crush on my character. I play this character named Lila, and I am we are kind of it’s like this push and pull weird relationship where I’m like, oh, you have all this passion and charisma, but it’s all like just in the wrong places and you’re kind of cringey. And I kind of like, oh gosh, he’s like an annoying little brother. And that’s that’s how our dynamic is meant to play on screen. And I’m like, and um so I took it. And also we don’t, we don’t um, we don’t kiss or anything in the movie so. It’s like– [banter

Alycia Pascual-Peña: You said disclaimer. 

Josie Totah: There’s no licorice pizza. Um. 

Alisha Boe: No. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: No. 

Yasmine Hamady: There’s no like Jennifer Lawrence going– 

Alisha Boe: Because that well, I’m just going to say because the only reason why I was apprehensive is because I’ve been 17 years old having to kiss like a 36 year old man. 

Josie Totah: Shit. 

Alisha Boe: And it’s– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Um. 

Josie Totah: I’m so sorry. 

Alisha Boe: For a T– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Wait. 

Alisha Boe: For a movie. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Which project?

Alisha Boe: For a well so I did a movie with Matthew Gray Gubler when I was wait I lied I was 18. I was 19. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Okay okay okay.

Alisha Boe: Yeah. Because that’s legal. 

Josie Totah: That’s fine. It’s fine. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: That’s legal.

Alisha Boe: That was fine. But I’m just saying.  

Josie Totah: [indistinct] but that and you can do that. No, I think there’s a certain amount of gap when you’re under– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: –years. 

Josie Totah: –18. 

Alisha Boe: No, no, no. 

Josie Totah: I think it’s like seven years or something. 

Alisha Boe: I was of age because it was 2016. 

Josie Totah: Okay. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Okay. 

Alisha Boe: I was 19 years old.

Josie Totah: You’re like I was 12 years old having to make out [laughter] with Matthew Gray Gubler. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah you’re like I was–

Josie Totah: –in the back of a Volvo. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah um. 

Yasmine Hamady: Please. 

Alisha Boe: But it’s just and it’s just, you know, I feel like when you there are age gaps in Hollywood are kind of like they’re too–

Yasmine Hamady: Normalized. 

Alisha Boe: Too normalized. 

Yasmine Hamady: They’re they’re very–

Alycia Pascual-Peña: And romanticized. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah 

Yasmine Hamady: It’s also very much like I feel like everyone has, like, dated someone who’s been over the age of 30 and you’re like, just turned 20. 

Alisha Boe: Yes. 

Yasmine Hamady: Where it’s and it’s like I’m obviously– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: The grooming is real here. 

Yasmine Hamady: The grooming is real but also– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: –in LA. 

Alisha Boe: Yes. 

Yasmine Hamady: –I’m all for like love. You can’t control love or whatever the fuck that’s called. But what you can control is the power dynamic that’s happening. 

Alisha Boe: Yes. 

Yasmine Hamady: And like you see Leonardo DiCaprio and his like under 25 girls. 

Alisha Boe: Yes. 

Yasmine Hamady: And like, all these rappers dating younger girls. 

Alisha Boe: Yes. 

Yasmine Hamady: It’s just very, very odd. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. And, you know, it makes you look twice. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Absolutely. 

Alisha Boe: It makes you. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Um. Yeah. It’s an interesting thing to think about because then you also meet, like, parents who are ten, fifteen years apart. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: You know where you’re like, oh, they– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: And that makes sense. Yeah.

Alisha Boe: And they and they’re like, oh my gosh, you know, they’re this seems good. But then it’s the power dynamic that shifts it. And I just think also on television and movies, I mean, especially with women, I guess so like women always have to be super young and the men I get have this thing where they become more handsome, the more– 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah, the gray wolf–

Alisha Boe: –ie a Daniel Craig– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: The ageism is so real.

Alisha Boe: –and George Clooney and like, we’re okay we’re just seeing them with 22 year old girls. And it’s just it’s– 

Yasmine Hamady: It’s like that’s normal. 

Alisha Boe: –misogynistic. It’s so misogynistic because when women are allowed to age gracefully or anything– 

Yasmine Hamady: No God forbid we age. 

Alisha Boe: Like, oh, my gosh, Emilia Clarke’s Instagram photo blew up because some people were like, wow, she looks her age and people were being so– 

Yasmine Hamady: God forbid. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Oh yes. 

Alisha Boe: –disrespectful. 

Yasmine Hamady: God forbid. 

Alisha Boe: She’s one of the most beautiful women– 

Yasmine Hamady: –human ever. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Stunning. 

Alisha Boe: And– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: And the same thing happened– 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: –with Hilary Duff like, wasn’t there an ad– 

Alisha Boe: Oh my gosh. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: –that was like, can you believe it? Like 37 or something like that? It’s like, why? Why are we– 

Yasmine Hamady: That’s– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: –fixating on people’s age. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: And they’re always like– 

Alisha Boe: Wait. Actually I will say I did see some comments about me, just to making it about myself. 

Josie Totah: Yeah no please.

Alycia Pascual-Peña: You should please make it about you. 

Alisha Boe: Because going back to When you finish saving the world, it came out and like, I think I mean, most of the fans of I think mostly Finn, they were like they were like this old woman how like, she’s still playing– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Are you serious? 

Alisha Boe: She’s still playing like– 

Josie Totah: Jesus Christ. 

Alisha Boe: –she’s in high school. I’m like, wait a minute, aren’t all the Euphoria kids my age? And that’s like like everyone I’m– [laughing]

Josie Totah: Yeah, literally fix your mouth. 

Alisha Boe: I was 22–

Josie Totah: –Nina Dobrev was 25 playing a 14 year old– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Um. 

Josie Totah: –season one. 

Alisha Boe: I was like, I feel like I’m 45 years old. Fifty years old. 

Josie Totah: I was on Glee where it was like on AARP live. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Um. 

Josie Totah: And and I was the only child there.

Alisha Boe: I’m like I’m kind of like the–

Josie Totah: Everyone was in their 30s. 

Alisha Boe: –everyone is my age playing high school– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: People are so– 

Alisha Boe: –or older. Yeah. [laughing]

Josie Totah: Also by the way you have the most baby face. And you hate that about yourself. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah, I know I want I wish. 

Josie Totah: You always say, anytime you call Alisha cute she like– 

Alisha Boe: That’s my [?] yeah. 

Josie Totah: –pulls a knife on me. 

Alisha Boe: Never call me cute.

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Trigger word. 

Josie Totah: But like she is cute like your face is so precious. 

Alisha Boe: I have these little you know these cheeks. And these– [laughing]

Josie Totah: And supple. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: And this round face. 

Alisha Boe: My mom is like, I you know, you’re going to be very grateful when you’re, you know, getting older. But I’m like, I want to you know, sometimes you just want to be [gestures non-audibly]. 

Yasmine Hamady: No no don’t say that. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I [?] feel that, you want to be snatched. 

Yasmine Hamady: Because– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I’m not that either. I’m a–

Yasmine Hamady: No because–

Alycia Pascual-Peña: –big ass cheeks round face. 

Yasmine Hamady: Like that’s the thing everyone’s doing this buccal fat bullshit removal. 

Alisha Boe: Oh I know. 

Josie Totah: Buccal. 

Yasmine Hamady: Buccal. And here’s the thing that– 

Alisha Boe: Is it buccal or the buccal [elongating vowels]? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I thought it was buccal.

Yasmine Hamady: It’s more like Buick, you know what I mean? [laugh] So I’m just thankful– 

Josie Totah: Buccal. 

Alisha Boe: I don’t. [laughing] [banter]

Yasmine Hamady: Yes, you do yes you do know what I mean. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Don’t. [banter]

Yasmine Hamady: I know and I and that’s all there is to it. 

Alisha Boe: Okay. 

Yasmine Hamady: But I do think it’s people just want to look so snatched all the time like I do. I that’s how I contour my face. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Same. I’m trying to be Bianca Lawson. Um. Do you see that lovely black woman, 35 years old, playing a high schooler. 

Josie Totah: Beyonce’s stepsister. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Period. 

Josie Totah: An iconic woman. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Period. 

Josie Totah: Who I did try to use her name to get into the gold after party. It didn’t work out well. 

Alisha Boe: What do you mean you tried to use her, how how’d you– [laughter]

Josie Totah: Did you know that? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: No, I didn’t. That’s why– [banter]

Alisha Boe: –what are you talking about.

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I’m shook. 

Alisha Boe: Anyway, but wait going back to women aren’t allowed to age. 

Josie Totah: Yes. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I don’t like that. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. So that’s I mean, there’s like this whole obsession of looking young and well, it kind of goes against with this whole buccal fat removal because, like–

Josie Totah: –the buccal makes people look old as fuck. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. So I’m confused, like, there is this double do like duality going– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I also– [banter]

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s like– 

Josie Totah: Well, no but no, but it makes sense though, because when you’re really young, everyone’s sexualized, everyone’s– 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: –over matured. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: Girls have way too much, make-up on and are being put into this light. And then suddenly when you’re older, you you’re getting hated for looking older. It’s like a weird thing. 

Yasmine Hamady: I have a weird relationship with it because I do get some work done some times. And it’s not really to ever look young. It’s more like to look what the trend is. A.K.A like a lot of white women, you know, I’ve always I mean, I used to have curly hair like you like when you said the straightening the hair thing. That’s what I used to do constantly and I get my lips done and I do like my lips, but like I went to get my, my lips done and one of the estheticians was like, you should do something under your eyes. And what about thoughts about doing cheek and chin a little bit? And I was like. I was taken back a little bit, but I was also like, oh, wait, maybe I should do this. And I like–

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: I went home and I was like, I’ll think about it. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: Not thinking like that goes against so much of my culture as well, because like, Arabs are known for their sunkened eyes and like, my cheeks, they’re already big. Why do I need to make them bigger? And my chin is it not prominent enough? And it was like, no matter what, as a woman or a female, presenting human, you’re damned. 

Alisha Boe: Mm hmm. 

Yasmine Hamady: And it’s like yes, like there can, two truths can exist where I do want to get my lips done– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: –but I don’t want to have to– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: And you should feel that agency to do whatever makes you– 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: –feel beautiful but–

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: –not to appease other people. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Or pander to beauty standards. 

Yasmine Hamady: 100% 

[AD BREAK]

Alycia Pascual-Peña: [music break] Speaking of beauty standards and like you obviously talked about like projects that you’ve done and girl, you were a part of like one of the biggest shows of our think like our time, like I remember being in high school and– 

Alisha Boe: Oh my gosh. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: –13 reasons coming out. 

Alisha Boe: –[?] you were in high school? 

Yasmine Hamady: I was in high school. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I was finishing up high school. Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: How old are you guys? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I’m 24. 

Yasmine Hamady: I’m 24. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Girl we’re like the same age. 

Alisha Boe: Oh, okay. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Don’t do that.

Alisha Boe: Wait I was. I mean, I was 19 what am I yeah– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah, you were– 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. Why are you talking about like you were– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I was like, what you were? 

Alisha Boe: I was like wow, you were in high school. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: She said, wow um. 

Josie Totah: I was 46. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: We just weren’t killing it like you, but we were around the same age. 

Alisha Boe: That’s so funny. [laughter]

Yasmine Hamady: I was in Orange County at that time in college. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: She literally was like, um I was too busy, like, trying to cheer and run student government. I’m sorry I was not a star like you, but that makes me want to ask you, how were you dealing with beauty trends and people having all these comments about the work that you were doing– 

Alisha Boe: Oh my gosh. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: –at such a young age. Because now, you know, I think we’re all still very young. 

Alisha Boe: Yes. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: But we’re a little bit older. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: And we’ve learned some things. But how is like navigating the industry and navigating like people always having something to say because you’re on a very large platform. 

Alisha Boe: Right. 

Josie Totah: So many eyes. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. When– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah 

Alisha Boe: When 13 Reasons Why came out it did yeah, it was super popular and it was, it was overnight. It was kind of like the beginning of Netflix, like original. I mean, like it wasn’t the beginning beginning because you had um, you know, House of Cards, which we’re not allowed you know– 

Josie Totah: Ooh. 

Alisha Boe: Ooh. [all making weird sounds] 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah we don’t talk about that. 

Alisha Boe: Orange is the New Black. Orange is the New Black. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah yeah yeah. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Period. Period.

Alisha Boe: But then, you know, they didn’t really have YA um any popular YA original content. And then Stranger Things and 13 Reasons Why came out like within a year of each other or two years I forget. Um. And it was this weird thing of all of a sudden I was very visible and I was so young, um but I was also personally stepping into my adulthood like I was living alone and my friends had gone off to college and I had to kind of I felt very lonely at the time. And then I felt highly visible at the time, and um I was really depressed for years um on that show, not because of the show, but because of just, you know, my personal life. Um. And everyone was commenting on how I looked and I had gained weight. I had gained maybe like fifteen twenty pounds between seasons, which is a lot for like um a young teenage girl to have to go through. And then especially in like a highly visible setting and everyone online just, you know, would call me ugly. I had acne too. And like I would be called– 

Yasmine Hamady: Because you were young. You were a– 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: –young teenager. 

Alisha Boe: I was like going through my second puberty. I was a– 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: And I was just like, all of a sudden I had money. I could afford food I could afford, like eating. I could afford like because I was living in a one bedroom like Santa monica and Vine apartment before I got this show. Like, you know, you know, having to support myself. But anyway, I my body and my face and my like whole life had changed so much. And then everyone was commenting on it. I became even more insecure. And I had I just became so self-conscious and I wanted to hide. And um it was I was so hard on myself and I felt so ugly because I was basing my I needed I was basing my I was getting validation from other people. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: And I in turn just wasn’t taking care of my mental health or my well-being. And it started from the outside in so like– 

Yasmine Hamady: Of couse it does. 

Alisha Boe: –how I was presenting outside made me feel mentally unwell. Um. So it was really hard. It’s too much for a young girl to go through that. And especially I was um I played a character who had been sexually assaulted. So a lot of my the parallels of my life of like my character was going through, you know, feeling out of her body and feeling so out of control with her body. Not to compare my personal journey because there’s nothing comparable to sexual assault or being, you know, raped. Um. But it was this the eh my body was confused because I have to go into work every day and then– 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: My character’s also like– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Heavy work. 

Alisha Boe: –oh I hate my body, I hate my life, I hate this. And it was just yeah, I was super young and it was it was a learning curve. And then I got used to the visibility and I got used to like people. It’s just people just type things and they forget–

Yasmine Hamady: People think no– 

Alisha Boe: –about that I’m not a real person. And I just realized like, oh shit. Like. 

Yasmine Hamady: No. 

Alisha Boe: It’s not true. 

Yasmine Hamady: It’s Twitter fingers. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah, like it’s not true. Yeah.

Yasmine Hamady: And they’re hiding behind their screen. And because people think that they have agency towards you. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Yasmine Hamady: And they have no idea who the fuck you are. 

Alisha Boe: Exactly. And then I realized, like, damn, I’m really cute. And I was like–

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah like god damn you are fucking [?]– 

Josie Totah: Hot. 

Yasmine Hamady: [?] one of the most beautiful [?]. 

Josie Totah: Every person is– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Bitch, I’m staring at you right now. Like, I’m sorry. Like, I actually thought about it for a second. I was like, yo, on this video, am I gonna look crazy because I’m leaning in because I’m just like, you are so stunning– 

Alisha Boe: Aw. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: And so beautiful. 

Alisha Boe: I love you. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: And intelligent. 

Alisha Boe: Thank you.

Alycia Pascual-Peña: But– 

Alisha Boe: But no it was a process. It was a process because it was just like, imagine being a teenager and you have to see yourself on screen and then– 

Josie Totah: Oh. It’s a mind fuck. 

Alisha Boe: –find your self-confidence, it’s not find yourself as like, transitioning into womanhood. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: And find that– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: In front of everyone. 

Alisha Boe: In front of everyone. 

Yasmine Hamady: In front of–

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Speaking of the past work that you’ve done and the importance and the weight that it’s had, um it makes me want to think, what are the goals that you have like in regards to projects that you want to do? Like are there other goals in the industry or even outside? Like what do you see yourself? Oh, I don’t want to ask you that, because sometimes I get annoyed. 

Josie Totah: Not in ten years. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah, I don’t want to give a timeline, but what are– 

Josie Totah: But places you want to be in. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. The places you want to be in or intentions that you set for the future years to come? 

Alisha Boe: I’d like to have more control over my career, I think. Where in the sense of um I’m not, you know, relying on everyone else to give me this job that I need to– 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: You know, like– 

Yeah yeah yeah. 

Alisha Boe: –where it’s like I’m still I’m still, like, hustling, like I need to audition and I need to do this. And then I want to be able to have control of the stories that I’m a part of a bit. So I would love to be producers on stories that I really care about and move into that space. Um. I love acting so much that it’s just that this is kind of what I want to keep doing. I just want to move into um being more, I guess, mindful about the projects and, you know, um being I don’t know, I just want to keep working. Those are my goals. 

Yasmine Hamady: No but that’s enough. 

Alisha Boe: You know? 

Josie Totah: And you and you will and– 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: I remember also another car ride. It was it was literally one of the last– 

Yasmine Hamady: I’m sick of the car rides. 

Josie Totah: One of the last– 

Alisha Boe: I know. 

Josie Totah: This is the last car ride that I’ll bring up. We were drinking whiskey in the back of this– 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: –car ride– 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: And you said. [laughter] And I remember you said, you said I want to be intentional. 

Alisha Boe: Yes. 

Josie Totah: This taught me so much. I want to be intentional. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: I want to know what I’m getting myself into. I want to see into the future more when it comes to projects and not just taking them for face value, but really– 

Alisha Boe: I mean you can, you guys can relate because you when we started when we were really young with acting, so like it was you you kind of– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: You take what you can get as a kid.

Alisha Boe: You take what you can get. 

Josie Totah: Well. And it’s fun. 

Alisha Boe: –and then you forget and it’s fun. 

Josie Totah: And you don’t even think of it being like– 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: –something that you need to decide to do. 

Alisha Boe: Exactly. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. It’s summer camp with your friends, and then–

Alisha Boe: Exactly. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: –really quickly becomes a commodity. 

Josie Totah: And then you’re like oh, this is a job. 

Alisha Boe: Exactly. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: And like, sorry, was that was that morbid? Um really quickly, it’s just a profession no. 

Josie Totah: But but it’s and it’s a part of it but– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: I think also something that it’s hard to do for all of us is to remind ourselves how far we’ve come. And I know if that girl living in that one bedroom apartment in Santa monica and Vine was looking at you right now. 

Alisha Boe: Memory whoa! [laughter[

Josie Totah: She would be so impressed by you. I mean, like you have built so much and you have this beautiful life with like, such a great community around you that I, I and we have been so blessed to meet. And shout out [?]. Shout, imagine you’re like he cheated on me this morning. No. 

Alisha Boe: [laughing] No, no, no no. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yo. 

Josie Totah: Shout out– 

Alisha Boe: We broke up.

Josie Totah: Shout out Mo and shout out Sky. 

Alisha Boe: I have a new boyfriend by the way, he’s English. [loud indistinct banter]

Alycia Pascual-Peña: He’s still not from this country. 

Yasmine Hamady: I understand. I have a Scottish girlfriend. 

Josie Totah: Not not the Italian– 

Alisha Boe: Yup. So we’re UK girlies over here. [banter]

Josie Totah: But Moes and and Sky and Gideon and all these wonderful people. And like, I am just so proud of you. 

Alisha Boe: Oh, yeah, Sky really wanted a shout out. Hello, Sky Bennica. 

Yasmine Hamady: Hi Sky! 

Josie Totah: Hi Sky. 

Alisha Boe: Hi. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: You’re so pretty. 

Josie Totah: I am so proud of you. We are so proud of you. And I’m so excited for you to, like, take the harness of your career and especially just like step into yourself even more you beautiful fucking woman. 

Alisha Boe: I love you, I love you, and I love you. 

Yasmine Hamady: I love you. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Love you. 

Josie Totah: We love you. Thank you for coming– 

Alisha Boe: Thank you for letting me into your community by the way, really quick. All of the barbecue’s all of like– 

Josie Totah: Always. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: The Seafood boils. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah, it’s it’s traumatizing. And it’s amazing. 

Josie Totah: It is it is.

Alycia Pascual-Peña: We’re a lot, but I feel like you knew that before coming here. 

Alisha Boe: I knew. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Okay. 

Yasmine Hamady: It’s crazy, I remember–

Josie Totah: Oh shit. 

Yasmine Hamady: Josie was telling me, Josie was like, when you meet Alisha, you guys will cause destruction in the world together. And I remember you said that to me, and I was like– 

Josie Totah: No one has validated my my pain more than Alisha Boe in a quiet cafe with expletives. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. [laughing]

Yasmine Hamady: Is it the cafe in Edinburgh that I went to to say hi to the people? 

Josie Totah: She didn’t really frequent Milk as much as I did. 

Alisha Boe: No I didn’t. 

Josie Totah: But you know what, she was at Milk hanging out with this– 

Yasmine Hamady: I did. The the– 

Josie Totah: –her girlfriend and then they were talking about me and the barista came up to her and was like,  do know Josie? 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: You’re famous.

Yasmine Hamady: I swear to God. I took–

Alisha Boe: Famous in Edinburgh. 

Yasmine Hamady: I took a photo and no because she used to go and do work there all the time but they don’t have iced coffee there. That’s the– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Well no where. 

Josie Totah: There’s no where in Europe. 

Yasmine Hamady: They don’t have iced coffee anywhere in Europe. [banter]

Alycia Pascual-Peña: They looked at me crazy too. 

Josie Totah: Anyway. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yeah. 

Alisha Boe: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: We’ll go get some iced right now. But Alisha Boe, When You Finish Saving the World is the name of the movie? 

Alisha Boe: That is the name of the movie. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. 

Josie Totah: And where can we see it? 

Alisha Boe: You know what? I’m not sure. 

Josie Totah: [laugh] Okay. 

Yasmine Hamady: I’m pissed at that. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck up.

Alisha Boe: I think you can buy it on Amazon now. 

Josie Totah: Okay. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: I think so. 

Alisha Boe: Amazon, you know–

Alycia Pascual-Peña: She plays a badass politically conscious character. 

Alisha Boe: Thank you. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Watch all her shit. Watch–

Josie Totah: Stream Do Revenge on Netflix. 

Alisha Boe: Yes that one! 

Yasmine Hamady: Yes! 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Funny as fuck. 

Josie Totah: [?] we love and look out for this Apple show which we’re unsure what the title is or when it’s coming out or if it’s coming out. 

Alisha Boe: But– 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yeah. Watch Josie and Alisha’s show. 

Alisha Boe: –just let it be known. We have a show coming out. 

Josie Totah: We do have a show coming out. 

Yasmine Hamady: Yes. You do. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: Yes. We’re blessed that they found each other. 

Alisha Boe: Okay yes. 

Yasmine Hamady: Alisha we love you. 

Alisha Boe: Yay. 

Yasmine Hamady: Thank you so much. 

Alisha Boe: Thank you. [screams in background]. 

Josie Totah: Dare We Say is a Crooked Media production. 

Yasmine Hamady: Caroline Reston is our showrunner, producer and Mommy and Ari Schwartz is our producer and show Daddy. Fiona Pestana is our associate producer and Sandy Girard is the Almighty executive producer. 

Josie Totah: It’s hosted and produced by me, Josie Totah. 

Yasmine Hamady: And me, Yasmine Hamady. 

Alycia Pascual-Peña: And me, Alycia Pascual-Peña. Our engineer and editor is Jordan Cantor. And Brian Vasquez is our theme music composer. Our video producers are Matt DeGroot, Narineh Melkonian, and Delon Villanueva and Mia Kellman. 

Josie Totah: Lastly, thank you to Jordan Silver, Gabriela Leverette, Jesse McLean, Caroline Heywood, Shaina Hortsmann, Deisi Cruz, Danielle Jensen and Ewa Okulate for marketing the show and making us look so damn good. [music break]

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