Jana Kramer | Drama Queens

first of all you don't know me we're all about that High School drama girl drama girl all about them High School Queens forever we'll take you for a ride in our comic girl drama girl cheering for the right team drama queen Dr girl up girl fashion but your tough girl you could sit with us girl drama queens drama queens drama queens drama drama queens drama queens hi hi I'm so happy you're here literally so Rob had a conflict Joy is like in London and they were like oh no we're so sorry we're going to have to reschedule this week I was like everybody out of my way I need to catch up with my girl like we have so much to talk about and Rob was so cute he was like oh you have to ask Jan if she like did the same thing I did which was like you guys were doing the podcast he goes and for the longest time I was like why aren't my friends inviting me on their show and then I realized you only like have people on when their character is on screen so I was going to have to wait Seven Seasons I was like God it's I've been like I've been chomping at the bit to get to here and we're finally here yeah no 1,00% I thought this I was like well I everyone's like kept asking me when are you going be on dving Queens I was like I don't I don't still think they like me because I'm not on so but it's fine you just forget that we did our show for essentially the equivalent of 140 years so it took us a while to get to Alex dpre yeah I mean a like so many episodes and just so long and that's just kind of so unheard of now in this day and age of like TV and so I'm like when I even tried to rewatch things from I'm like there's no time there's no time by the way I think about that so often like when we go do our sweet little conventions and we get to regroup with people um it's like someone will say oh I'm on my fifth rewatch and I'll look at them and be like do you have like a time management app you know something about free time that I don't know and I would love your skills and people look at me like I'm crazy I'm like I just don't I don't feel like I have the time to watch new things right yeah but I am loving the experience of going back and watching our show okay for our friends at home I clearly am very excited I actually started before you got in I was just like talking to everyone about how excited I was that you were here and then realized I wasn't recording because I'm like so amped that I have forgotten how to do my job but I voice noted Jana last night and I was like I'm beside myself that you're coming I I had obviously the most most fun working with you like for everyone at home we were roommates for years I love this woman but like Brooke and Alex were adversaries so I had to be in scenes and obviously I was so enamored with you because you're the most Charming person alive but like I never got to just watch you I had to act with you and now I'm watching you and I am like cackling out loud I'm obsessed with Alex Dupre I I finally relate to Joy where she's like oh yeah it's really weird for me like anytime Nathan has chemistry with a girl on screen I'm like jealous and I was like that's weird and then I was like I was like how cute I guess CU you guys work together for so long and you know Julian is Brook's endgame and I was like they have really good chemistry I'm sort of offended I'm also sort of a fan should should Alex and Julian have ended up together like I don't know what's happening to me well spoiler alert um Alex did get Julian in the end in a different movie cuz we just did we just did a movie together and every piece of my heart I was like I'm going to go on drama queens and be like well Alex finally got to kiss Julian Alex finally got her man oh my God I was but then he tried to kill her so you know it didn't really end up well okay well that that was the plot twist I didn't see coming but probably the point of the movie yeah but yeah anyway but it was like it was very much like a oh wow I was like a lot of people are like Brooke Brooke is not going to like this cuz like the tree Hills like you know when when they casted Austin I together I'm like all right he's playing my husband and my first thought was the Tree Hill fans so I was like they're going to hate this I sort of love it though I feel like it's such a testament to our show that so many of us wind up coming together on all these other endeavors like there's something really special about the kinds of friendships you build where it doesn't matter if it's been a week or a year since you've seen someone you're like right back in the groove yeah it's something that only this little handful of us got to do together and it's so special yeah it was it was cool because I was um so my husband has never never watched One Tree Hill ever and oh my God I was gonna ask yeah he's never watched had no idea who I was on on the show and um he and and honestly like when I audition for One Tree Hill I didn't even audition for Alex I audition for shantel's character I didn't know that and Shantel audition for Alex what wait okay hold hold on hold on do you know that when the show first started and I didn't even know this until years later cuz Brooke's not in the pilot so like I missed you know I showed up in Wilmington in July for like episode one and everybody had had this pre-existing life for months where like they knew each other and all these things from the pilot back in April right and I had no clue about very pivotal pieces of information both on screen and off and I learned that originally the WB had tried to cast Chad as Nathan oh wow and he was like no I always play the bad gu I want to play the good guy because I guess his character on Dawson's Creek was like a really terrible person I don't know I didn't watch the later seasons of the show but so Chad was almost Nathan and you were almost Quinn yeah oh my God this is crazy yeah so I remember going into producer sessions with you know the the producers and then the Creator was there and and uh he was like you're great but I don't think this is your part and I was like okay he's like can you read these side can you go out in the hall and read these sides and so I'm just like yeah sure um yep and so I go out there and I'm reading these sides and I'm like this is so not me like this is the farthest thing from me I don't feel connected to this character at all and I I just like I don't know like the every time even like to this day whenever there's like a really big um energy I just I don't know I just it doesn't like it just feels weird I'm like she's an alcoholic and I've never been drunk before and I've never done drugs and so there's like all the things I'm like I just am not connected to character and then I booked it and I was like oh crap so so then like watching back I I was always really insecure of playing Alex because I just didn't I don't know it just it she didn't I really had to like try to like C create something different with her and try to make her have a little bit of heart in moments um because I just didn't like connect to her at times but then there's other scenes where it was like you know later on scenes I'm like oh my gosh I so connector but um but yeah it was it was always so weird but watching back I'm like okay wasn't in my head I thought I wasn't I wasn't good I wasn't like funny or I wasn't and I'm like oh I'm actually laughing along to like our scene so it was like enjoyable to actually watch back a few episodes to go okay like this was funny or I did do a decent job yeah I mean my God you're so good it's really interesting to hear you talk about it in that way because that's how I felt getting cast as Brook oh wow and you're like the perfect Brooke and and to me you obviously I know you as a human differently and you know me as a human differently but but on screen you embody so much of Alex and I think I think maybe that's the through line is when you can't understand why someone would behave in a way you really have to figure out why you have to figure out their emotional story you have to have something underneath it that makes this you know on paper outlandish Behavior feel like it comes from somewhere yeah and I remember early in us doing the podcast when when joy and Hill and I were talking and joy was like wait I but hold on because to me you know this all made sense why did it feel so different for you and I I told her this and I don't know if we've ever talked about this part but like I when we started the show like when I came in for episode one I was three years out of an all girl school oh wow like there were 55 girls in my graduating class and we were in school from 7th through 12th grade together and then I went to you know a big sort of traditional college for three years and then I came to set I was like what is high school who are boys like what do you mean they're in your class what do you mean people ditch I could never I could never have skipped class like in the school that I went to there's no way I could have gotten away with it so so to be this girl who was like sexual and into I don't know being wild and cut in school and didn't care I was I I felt like you felt being like uh okay I guess I have to figure out why she's like this right and you did and you killed it what a trip though because I feel that watching you I'm like you just absolutely crushed it well thank you but it was like we ended up watching a couple more of the episodes and um there was the you know the scenes where I ended up finding her and me through her it was it was a very like and I like I now miss playing Alex it's like I just she was so fun you know and I I feel like a lot of times I I don't take risks and I'm like oh I'm not right for this I'm not right for this and so she's like that character's kind of helped me go okay no I wasn't right for I didn't feel like I was right for that and I got it so like kind of and then like have fun with things cuz I I really truly like I there's I stop myself from the fun and the joy of a lot of stuff so cuz I'm too in my brain yeah oh isn't it so interesting when we go to therapy and we figure out how our childhood trauma presents as adults and you're like I'm not going to do that and I'm not GNA do that and I'm not GNA do anything that is maybe unsafe and then it's in the unsafe where you kind of learn the most and you have the most fun with yourself yeah so yeah that's that's why I miss her that's why it was fun to kind of like revisit and then Allan was just chuckling in bed last night just watching all of it he was just like he goes your voice is different I'm like I know why is my voice so high I don't know but maybe that maybe the voice helped you get into it you know yeah I love it okay so we are an easy 10 minutes in and I think what we have to do for the fans I want to go through some like Q&A let's get into some stuff questions and then do the episode because I feel like we have too much to talk about to try to do them all at the same time are you down yes okay great so you just talked about Allan also footnote so Megan Park you know who's married to Tyler Hilton for all the friends at home our our beloved Chris Keller um Megan got these hats made that say I've never seen One Tree Hill um because she'd never seen it and she sent one to Ash and I feel like Allan needs one too 1,000% and also though I mean I hate to say it but I never watched I never I personally never watched One Tree Hill and I watched a couple episodes but and then I didn't go back and like I didn't even know Nathan uh they I didn't know they were brothers like until like way later my God I really just didn't do my research before going on the show I knew you I knew like but I just yeah I I was so nervous I remember working with you I was like oh my gosh she's so Sophia Bush oh my God stop but yeah so I but yeah Allan for sure because he's never seen any of them so yeah until last night that is so great yeah wait so what what did he think what was the feedback he he was like you know in his little cute Scottish accent he's like he really he's like yeah babe he's like that was I get it I get why people like it so much he's like I got into it you know so then cuz he was asking questions about the episode we were watching he's like so wait did is is there a love child with Nathan or is that like she is she actually lying so I'm like oh you're asking questions okay you're you're into it invested in the drama yeah he's like okay so I thought then I thought ketti or Steven's character was with Mia what so I thought that was your boy so like he was like how does what's the progression like and so he was he was definitely asking so he liked it I love it oh I love it and then he was just like you're so young and you know he's like you're cute I was watching yesterday to get prepped and I'm on the east coast and so Ash sat down to watch with me our friend Sami is here and she was like wait but that's your boyfriend wait you also dated this guy in high school wait okay has Brooke dated every boy on the show okay wait there were so many questions and I was like oh man people it's the exact same feeling you're like oh you really do want to know who these people are you want to understand their world yeah and then the question that is the bane of my existence which doesn't relate to any of our characters is everyone who Tunes in in later Seasons goes why is your store so purple I'm like listen I didn't pick it out it wouldn't have been my choice I don't know what else to say other than it was the early ODS and people were really into lavender I it worked it worked it's fine it's fine it's fine okay you and Allan got married in Scotland we did congratulations how long has it been how is newly LED life tell us how you met your man so he DMD me on Instagram that's how we met he slid into the DMS but he was um he's a football soccer coach uh and so he was coaching in England and at the time you know I'm divorced have two kids and I had just had quite a fun summer and I'm like you know what I just need a break and I just want to just chill and uh but he was pretty persistent and I told him if he was ever in the states to come to Nashville and you know we can go out for a drink and he uh we were yeah we were texting and then he's like all right I'm going to I'm going to be in Tampa so I'm to come I'd love to take you out in Nashville so I was like sure I'll go out with you and then it was just like stepping into my own Christmas movie it was in November and the Christmas lights were all up and the tree and he just like turns around in his like Dapper you know peac coat and his like sexy Scottish accent and I was like oh I am so screwed yeah and then um you know things obviously progress pretty quick from there and uh he moved over in March I was pregnant in gosh I don't even what uh April and um then we had our baby in November and yeah and then we just got married on July 13th 24 so oh it's so exciting yeah and he's um I mean he's a dream it's it's been it's it's so beautiful now kind of where life is at because I always there were so many questions like why did this happen or how come I had to go through that and like I you know the struggle that I had with my ex-husband for seven years and just like the back and forth you know Affairs and it's like it's it's so beautiful now to go okay I had to kind of walk this path find me through that path and then find the absolute love of my life who I just trust with everything and he how he loves my you know my two kids his now step kids is just it's so beautiful and like they they now get to see what you know true love looks like and in you know a more modern world and it's just it's beautiful and he's he's so good with me like he pushes me but yet he's very um he's very protective he's very loving um yeah and we just we have each other's back and I just I don't there's no there's no doubts because he shows up he says what he says and he does what he does you know what says what he does so it's those words and actions match and it makes me then trust him and not you know freak out like I did the last time so it's just like it's a beautiful and it's peaceful and it's like I finally can take a breath and just like have steady ground and that's just a joy I like I I love that you chose to say peaceful MH we've certainly like been through the ringer together and in parallel and I didn't even realize for the longest time how hard all the work felt and I think when you have to your point past betrayal to heal you know vary by the way well-deserved trust issues like when you've been through things that are so hard I think there can even be at least there was for me this like subconscious desire to prove that that didn't change you and that you can move past it and and when you try to do everything right it doesn't necessarily mean that it's right for you doesn't necessarily mean that that checking every you know box off the list is going to actually lead you to happiness or peace yeah and and sometimes I wonder if especially because for us as performance artists we've been trained to like push through the pain sing through the sickness act through the illness whatever it is because you have to be a good team leader and I think that that that can be really great in a team sport but isn't necessarily so great in your personal home life yeah and when you stop like fighting through it and you find a person you can rest with mhm like what a gift yeah so yeah I mean there's there's that piece and then there's just there's a PE um there's a piece of just so much safety too not in like a a settling safety way like he's just like I feel so safe with him and um and with that is the support and the love and everything else but there's I've always kind of feared things and it's like I don't have to fear anymore I don't have to fear of the abuse I don't have to fear of the Betrayal like I get to just feel safe in a beautiful way and that's that's a gift for sure too well yeah when your nervous system gets to relax I know I'm like this is nice and so now I'm like with my ex I'm like thank you like yeah thanks this is good you know I think that's a really profound place to get to is when you can look at every shitty thing that's ever happened to you or every way someone betrayed your trust and go you know what if that's what it took me to get here and to just like lay it all down and be willing to start over and be happy thank you oh yeah it's big I'm just so happy for you too so what is what is life like tell us what's going on I mean you've you've been such a great leader with your platform like the things that you have been willing to speak about and the journeys you've been willing to take people on I think I think people don't always necessarily know what sort of courage inv vulnerability that can take but you've modeled it really really beautifully and I don't know like what what feels like next you know you you just talked about the movie you did with Austin yeah it was so fun that came out um that came out this summer and it was it was so fun and that was a you know that was a piece on domestic violence which you know obviously you know my past with domestic violence so to be able to kind of change the script and I got to um get the power back through acting was a really powerful moment like I never got to I got to see my ex in court but I never got to say anything and so this like I got to you know change the script with that and so that was a really powerful um thing I got to do this past summer and you know uh this year I mean my book I'm still you know promoting the book that I wrote last year the next chapter and that was you know walking through a really hard season of you know divorce and getting through that and but really I've always put my um joy and happiness on a relationship and a man and I really had to go okay I have I I forc myself to be alone to to find true happiness with myself and that was the hardest piece of my post divorce that I had to walk through because I've always was like I am happy when I am in a relationship and I was like I have to break that cycle because I will never be happy he will never be enough or make me happy so I'm like I got to find it so I think that was a you know so I'm still you know working on ways of um you know still talking about that and obviously through my podcast wind down has been you know a really we do like therapy Thursdays because obviously I think it's really important to talk about you know uh mental health so we have two episodes a week that we do uh and then you know I'm just grinding and auditioning and just trying to like my dream obviously is to be back on a show watching these episodes again and I I you know I kind of fast forwarded through a few more of the other ones and you know getting to one of the episodes in the season um one of the season finales it was like like having that like camaraderie again with like a cast and like it's just like I'm like I miss it like I miss I miss showing up and doing that and and working you know and um I've gotten so close uh on some shows that have just been heartbreaking in this industry is so hard you know it's like yeah I had one that I tested for got pinned for and you know working out all the stuff and then you get the call they're like they went with the other one other actress and it's just like it's just devastating you know cuz you get so close and you're like well I don't know when I'm going to be that close again but I'm for me I'm just like you know I support my kids and I will always be working and grinding and and a piece of that is like I want to be giving back and working on Charities and stuff but also you know dream goals or yeah get back on a show that's like my number one thing is is working towards that and and you know just being the best mama I can because I've got three kids now and you know my husband he's traveling a lot with soccer so it's just you know it's a lot as you know now with having Littles around and so it's you know it's a it's a responsibility and for me it's like I just I want to I want to keep grinding but I have to you know support supporting them and also like their childhood goes by so fast that I want to be present in those moments too like there's a lot of things that I've there was a movie I didn't take this year because I didn't want to go backtack movies because I'm like I'm not going to miss six weeks without my kids like that's just I'm still a Mom first and foremost yeah I know it's like the the grind changes and and to really realize how how everything you do models for them and you know I think there's no way that you go through like some of the things you and I have been through um and you get to the other end of it where you go oh I can see everything that led me here I see what I accepted that I shouldn't have I see that I didn't know my worth I see that I thought if I could build around um what might be missing maybe the the center would fill in like whatever whatever the AHA moments are you know I and I know you feel a lot of this like I love my parents but there was a whole lot I didn't learn in my house that I'm finally coming to terms with as an adult and I I cherish the fact that we have such a good relationship and now we can talk about about a lot of the things that I didn't necessarily understand as a kid but when you realize how early they get molded and how early they learn you know what healthy love is and and that they matter and that they deserve to be seen and heard and all these things it's like yeah shifts everything and and I get you know when you're young it's like you go yeah we can do it all we can have it all and then you you become an adult and you go yeah maybe but not all at the same time right and I I called one of my girlfriends who has two kids and I was like the fact that I ever with a straight face looked at you and was like well yeah why don't we just have dinner after the kids go to bed like 8:00 like excuse you yeah if they've gone to bed at 8 like you're asleep by 812 what are you talking about it's just like a crazy it's a crazy thing and it's fun it's really special to watch you get to do all this and navigate all this and I love I love the fact even by the way that you're so open like to have written the book and to talk about what it is to find that sort of Peace in yourself and then also to be like just because I finally put my own puzzle together doesn't mean I don't still have to work on me oh no I go every two weeks to therapy I'm you know because it's things come up that trigger you from certain things in your past you know that's that's the whole thing and what I think is cool about kind of you and I too is like I you've seen me go on that boy Chase struggle and that like and it's like there's so many times too when like I've can reverse it and go man you know it's when I've seen my friends kind of see what I was doing it's like you you can't do anything you can't say anything they just person has has to go through it you know so and it's kind of you know you and you've gone on your own path of of how your childhood has led you to walk different different roads so yeah you know and you just you find it out and then you get to make the choice whether you're going to uh succumb to that or you're going to change it and and you know grow so yeah it is it's so it's so surreal one of the things that I love that you mentioned about even carving out a space for that sort of growth on the podcast like what you do on wind down and what you do on Thursdays I just think it's more powerful than you might even realize the the the willingness to normalize growth to normalize learning how to choose yourself to to say no matter what it looks like on the outside you don't have any idea what's happening on the inside you know the the courage that it takes to share those things I don't know I just I'm I'm grateful that you do it well like we're always going to get thrown things our way like life isn't easy it's hard there's things that don't make sense to us that we can be triggered from but also like just because I'm not in a you know my relationship now is is the healthiest model of a relationship I've ever had but there's still going to be things that come in like I said like from my past so it's yeah okay how do I how do I make sure that I communicate from the the girl I am now as opposed to the girl 20 years ago cuz I don't CU I can I can go back real fast to her and I can go in protective mode and I can be an ass and I can be mean with my words and I can like but that's all like my protection and that's me trying to cuz I'm get scared and you're going to you're going to leave me you're not going to choose me and so it's like I go right back so it's like how do I like take those moments to just like breathe and go okay he's not leaving me he's not hurt you know so it's like or and it's not just him but like just anybody so it's like because I go straight into like got to protect myself D up like and so you know that's like those things like that is just you know continuing to work on that and then something that else you know anything else that kind of comes up it's just like I just think that you can always be growing you can always be healing you can always be learning and so if I'm because that's going to make me a better parent too so MH yes please I'm like you know when you know back when Oprah was on and she'd be like tweet it I'm like I'm like put it up make it a billboard yes yes yes yes yes yes I just I love it well we were having it was funny there was it wasn't even because we haven't even had like an argument like we've you we bickered a few times but like the other day I had to I had to work something in with we were just kind of walking through something that I knew was possibly going to be triggering for both of us and so I was like all right I'm going to tap into some therapy right now I'm like okay what I heard you said was this and I'm like is there anything I missed so that way you know and I'm like and then what did you hear me say so it was just like and we had like the most amazing conversation and like old school Jana it would have been probably like a big fight you know right isn't that cool though when you see yourself grow and you're like wow I had that I had that recently too like you know the ringer of my early 20s and like going from this tiny environment to college which you know in 2000 like I felt like I was on the set of Can't Hardly Wait or something like it felt like a romcom and then to be on our show which which was such a highlight but to like get chewed up the way women were in that early as era in the tabloids and whatever and and by the way to have all these other people project someone else's Behavior like onto me and I was like make the person who did the behavior answer for it like I don't want to answer for it stop asking me about it like it it was really traumatizing as a young as a young person and it was hard to go through it so quickly as our show you know was new and whatnot and like recently I felt that part of me get triggered that was like leave me the [ __ ] alone back off stop stop and I was like oh whoa like that old wound like that pain that 22 23y old version of me needs adult me to hold her and let her know that even though she was very alone then and the adults in the room were incredibly terrible to her and made a lot of this stuff worse like I'm the adult in the room now but I was like wow it's been a while since like since I saw her it's been a while since I let her drive the car and like okay really important to check in and be reminded that like it's okay to say it's hard to do what we do it's hard to be one little human on the receiving end of millions of people's feedback it's understandable that that's tough MH let's change our relationship to it for a while let's set better boundaries around it like yeah it's an interesting thing as an adult to start reparenting your you know your younger selves because you carry them around in you like little nest dolls forever well that in like just the age of you know when we started when I started uh wry hill we didn't have I didn't have an Instagram um and so God I wish I could you know there's Instagram has has helped me support my children and so for that I'm very grateful um for that platform and also it's been half the reason why I'm in therapy with because of the loud noises and the voices and the critic ISM and and also you know we're you know i' I've Fault in My in those areas too like I've been on the other side of it too and I'm like wow I I was just total hypocrite Oh you mean you were a human you were actually a human who's not perfect all the time like a robot right but it's it's just like everything is so um multiplied and and my therapist has really helped me work on because I would just sit and stew and read and like almost like be like be like oh that I am that person I'm like no that's not who I am and like and so she was she really helped me um with not letting the gas in she's like Stop opening the window to get yeah the gas like she's like you can't Brea he's like why are you you're literally letting the toxins in when you open the window she's like you are and you are doing it she's like I'm not opening the window for you you're allowing the window to open and I'm like yeah well but you don't understand and it's hard and you like you but and like me I just like always want to like defend myself and like prove that I'm not this person because that's what I felt like I've had to do with my past abusers like prove that I'm not the reason like that I should be hit or this that and the other and so it's like and I've and I don't know if you like you don't want to talk that's totally fine but like when I've kind of you've obviously had the other side of you know the criticism and online stuff too with other things and it's like how you've is that why you kind of go offline a little bit at times like I see you on there but then also like it's like how do you deal with like not absolutely feeding into that it's NE people are negative people are horri horrible and and what you realize is it's like you just don't know like people who saw you with your ex didn't know you were being abused MH people who saw me try to like build this life that I believed in and that I always wanted had no idea what it was like to go through the brutality of a year of fertility and social media does not know that inside walls inside the four walls they don't know how many years you struggle yeah they don't know what you're going they don't know any struggle Alan always says what's inside our four walls that's what that's what matters and that's the truth we love Allan we love Allan is just like my steady calm like anchor Rob calls me the president of the Janna Kramer fan club on drama queens and I I know you're clearly the president of the Allen Russell fan club but I would like to be your VP and co-chair you got it I be ashin since she's kind of my lesbian well she isn't kind of she is my lesbian Crush so if I could just thanks girl absolutely come over we all need we need to like we need to get the fan we can talk football we can do a double date and we can talk well like you know soccer that's you know I have to I have to say football though soccer okay thank you foot it is like it's so weird to me that we have this incredible Global sport that is played with feet does she call it soccer though even though they she's an American she played amican it's like back and forth for her she played in Germany she played in Sweden like she's done the whole the whole rig morall but it's very funny to me that like in America we're like well the for the World the game with the feet is football but here we throw a ball around with our hands and we'll call it football because we decided I'm like who did who did this who did this double date coming soon they can just talk football football I can't wait um this has felt like therapy for me I'm madly in love with you I have one million more questions for you about our show about Alex Due about I mean every dreamy wimington thing so let's go do 706 hey thanks for listening don't forget to leave us a review you can also follow us on Instagram at dramaqueens or email us at dramaqueens iheartradio.com see you next time we're all about that High School drama girl drama girl all about them High School Queens we'll take you for a ride in our comic girl drama cheering for the right team drama que fashion but tough girl you could sit with us girl drama queens drama queens drama queens drama drama queens drama queens