80’S television was famous for big blond hair, snug jeans, and action scenes. There were two “sex symbol” Heathers who perfectly fit that casting call. One was on a show with Hooker in the name. The other was on the hunt for her next stunt. This is Still Here Hollywood. I’m Steve Kmetko. Join me with today’s guest, Heather Thomas, from the TV series, “The Fall Guy”.
Heather's novel - "Trophies a Novel" is available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Trophies-Heather-Thomas-ebook/dp/B0016P2FDS?ref_=ast_author_dp
Steve Kmetko:
Yes, I'm Still Here Hollywood! Coming up on today's episode.
Heather Thomas:
I actually did some work after the Fall guy. I did a lot of movies and then I was just getting so many stalkers. I had one guy one night cut my screen in my bedroom and got in and I shot him.
Steve Kmetko:
Tell me, what was it like being an instant sex symbol? Did you appreciate that? Did you like it? Did you like the attention?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah, it was making me, I was making more money than I ever made in my life. I was young, I was happy. Why not? I think that the me too went too far. You know, people would get in trouble for complimenting someone's hair. That's ridiculous.
Steve Kmetko:
80s television was famous for big blonde hair, snug jeans and action scenes. There were two sex symbol Heathers who perfectly fit that casting call. One was on a show with in the name, the other was on the hunt for her next stunt.
This is Still Here Hollywood! I'm Steve Kmetko. Join me with today's guest, Heather Thomas from the TV series, the Fall Guy.
If you'd like to be more involved with us at Still Here Hollywood, you definitely can just visit patreon.com/StillHereHollywood. You can support us for as little as $3 a month. You can get our episodes a day before they post anywhere else. You can see what guests will be coming up and submit questions for them. You can even tell us what stars you want us to have on as guests. You'll see what goes on before and after the episode. Plus, exclusive behind the scenes info picks video and more. Again, that's patreon.com/StillHereHollywood.
So, let's go back to the very beginning. Let's go to the very beginning. How did you get into acting?
Heather Thomas:
I got into acting well when I was in junior high. These people, these producers came to the school and they said, we want your smart loud mouth kids. And a bunch of teachers pointed at me because I was a troublemaker, but I was also in all the accelerated classes. And I ended up hosting, co-hosting and writing a TV show on NBC that aired on Saturday mornings.
Steve Kmetko:
No kidding.
Heather Thomas:
Where we interviewed celebrities. It was called Talking with A Giant. And it went on for two years. And they censored us a lot.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, well--
Heather Thomas:
You know?
Steve Kmetko:
That happens!
Heather Thomas:
But it was my first taste of being on camera, and I felt very comfortable on camera. And then around that time, I was starting to take drama classes and I was in drama in high school and I was going to be Lina Wertmüller. I was going to enter, I was thinking I was going to be a filmmaker, but I just, by the time I got to college, I started getting work. And, you know, one thing led to another.
Steve Kmetko:
Lena was the first woman who was nominated for an Oscar.
Heather Thomas:
Yes.
Steve Kmetko:
How did “The Fall Guy” come about. Heather Thomas co-starred with Lee Majors on the Fall Guy TV series from 1981 to 1986. Her popularity also catapulted her into a pinup girl whose posters graced the walls of teen boys’ rooms all over the world.
Heather Thomas:
The fog I came about, like any acting job, I had done a one series under my belt. I then co co-ed Fever. And before that I got an agent. Because I was in a show at UCLA and, and I was starting to go out. I was-- I worked in a lot of commercials before that. It was great commercials paid for my film school. I wasn't a film major till I was a junior. Because They only had a two-year program at UCLA in those days. And then I ended up, and I used to lie at doing all these commercials. I would say I could do anything. I remember I did a milk, does a body good. Do you remember that campaign?
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, yeah.
Heather Thomas:
I did one where I said I could ice skate. I could not ice skate. I could get around, but they had to spin me. The director hated me and or I had to do bull riding, eating Triscuits. That was a horrible experience. But I ended up getting the fog. I just like going out for any other audition.
Steve Kmetko:
I'll share a secret with you. I lied too, to get into the business. Do you have a degree? Yes. But they didn't find out until when they did find out, they finally sat down. That's okay. You have enough experience. Okay. Thanks. How much do you think you went to UCLA?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
How much do you think that impacted your career here in Southern California?
Heather Thomas:
I think it did, because I was in a pipeline. UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) actors were getting agents and you used to have to audition if you were a theater major. And if you didn't get cast, you were part of the crew. You know, you worked on every production, major production they did. And I got in one called in the Boom-Boom Room by Dave Rae. And I was a dancer. So that got me an agent. And then what I learned in film school, I applied to writing and acting because I took a lot of writing classes. I took a lot of production classes too. But in my day, I got into the directors, assistant directors program. I had worked as an actress by that time. They treated women assistant directors. Horrible in those days. Horrible! If you did your job, everybody hated you. If you were ditzy, everybody kind of said, oh, he's awful. It was, there were, it was a dead-end street. And it wasn't until the later in the nineties that women started breaking through directing. But in the eighties, the early eighties, it was rough. So, I said, you know, I'm making-- I was making so much money. I just went with the flow of the least resistance, basically.
Steve Kmetko:
No fault in that.
Heather Thomas:
Yeah. And I love acting. It's part of storytelling.
Steve Kmetko:
And then you left “The Fall Guy”, correct?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
You cut your career short, ostensibly.
Heather Thomas:
I actually did some work after the fall guy. I did a lot of movies. And then I was just getting so many stalkers and then I--
Steve Kmetko:
Really?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah. Really bad. Really bad. At least two a week. I had tons of restraining orders. I had a guy; I had two little girls and a guy's jumping our gate with a giant buck knife. And yeah. In those days, I don't know if this is true now, but people would fixate. You could be in a soap commercial and they would fixate on you. And there weren't a lot of stalker laws. And I just needed to be home anyway. There was one year where I was home two months. And that's not going to raise kids.
Steve Kmetko:
No.
Heather Thomas:
Mine was scary.
Steve Kmetko:
Was it?
Heather Thomas:
Mine was really scary. There was, I got, I remember someone sent me a box of bullets-- you know, and people would send me like, funeral Reese. They stole from a graveyard. There was a lot of psychos. I always had a bodyguard in the house because that's where I didn't want to come home to a dark house. And I know I had one guy one night cut my screen in my bedroom and got in and I shot him and yeah, with rock salt and birdshot.
Steve Kmetko:
And did he go to jail?
Heather Thomas:
I have no idea. I don't remember.
Steve Kmetko:
Did the stalking stop when you left the limelight?
Heather Thomas:
No. Not for a couple of years.
Steve Kmetko:
Are you ever asked to speak about it anywhere?
Heather Thomas:
Not really.
Steve Kmetko:
No?
Heather Thomas:
You know it's not really my MO ("my way of doing things") you know, I don't want it to be, I'm the lady that was stopped. But you know, I've maybe discussed it in one or two interviews. That's about it.
Steve Kmetko:
And you just because of stalkers, decided to get off the air and go home.
Heather Thomas:
I pulled it for a while, and every now and then I'll do like a Sundance film or every now and then. I was in two movies last year.
Steve Kmetko:
Did stalking affect your children at the time?
Heather Thomas:
They didn't know much about it. When we got married in Paris there were a lot of paparazzi and they were very pushy. And so that was kind of the first time they got a lot of awareness. I mean, they'd been on the red carpet with me, but it was the first time they were really chased through a marketplace or around. So, they didn't like it?
Steve Kmetko:
No.
Heather Thomas:
No.
Steve Kmetko:
And you raise chickens?
Heather Thomas:
Yes, I do raise chickens.
Steve Kmetko:
Why?
Heather Thomas:
Because I can. I don't know. I had a daughter, my middle daughter got Crohn's really bad, and we basically took her out of it with Chinese medicine. Western medicine wanted to put her on a machine the rest of her life and remove her intestines. It was bad. She was altered from her throat all the way down. And we changed. We used Chinese herbs and acupuncture because they treat it like, oh, this is all one they treat the immune system differently. And we brought her back and I started raising all our produce. And the chickens just kind of started going naturally with that. I think there was a salmonella outbreak. When my third daughter was like eight years old. And I decided to get some chickens and it was easy.
Steve Kmetko:
And now with the price of eggs.
Heather Thomas:
Yeah. I mean I just got some new baby chicks. As a matter of fact, they sent me nine thinking three would die. Because I ordered six. So, I might have some extras. It's going to be tight in some of the coops, but we'll work it out. There are always personality differences.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, well, even with chickens, huh?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah. Even with chickens.
Steve Kmetko:
Were there instances where you thought your looks because you became like an instant sex symbol and your poster was up and Stuff?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah, I was really typecast.
Steve Kmetko:
Were you?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah. And so, I had some good roles. I did something with I did Ford, the Man machine with Cliff, Cliff --
Steve Kmetko:
Robertson?
Heather Thomas:
Robertson. And I did something with Martin Landau. I did something with Christopher Plummer. Those were three things I did. I worked in Sri Lanka on a German mini-series. I loved going on location, but that's when I started-- you know, looking at how much I was home raising kids. And they were my husband's kids from a previous marriage. And they were young and they were angry. They were like four and six, and I needed to be home.
Steve Kmetko:
Did they not like the fact that you weren't their original mother or something that they were angry?
Heather Thomas:
You know, it was this the usual thing. You just don't personalize anything. Because if you, if you say something wrong about either of their parents, that's like saying something's wrong with half of them. You know? So, I think really, we're very close right now. All of us, you know, it was, I got a little bit of the mother anger was transferred to me. But on the whole, we kind of grew to love each other.
Steve Kmetko:
How long have you been together now as a family unit?
Heather Thomas:
Oh my God. Over 30 years.
Steve Kmetko:
That's a long time.
Heather Thomas:
Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
What else do you have lined up?
Heather Thomas:
What else? I have lined up? Well, I have certain charities work on the rape foundation. That's through UCLA now. And I work on Don't Get Purged, which is a website I run where you can check to make sure you haven't been purged, wrongfully purged before an election. A lot of people get swept up in, in voter roll purges, and don't know. And I don't want, I hate the thought of anybody, any political party waiting eight hours in line and then finding out they're not on the roll. So, it's a website to make people aware of that.
Steve Kmetko:
Have you kept in touch with people who were on the fall guy with you like Lee?
Heather Thomas:
Yes. I see Lee all the time.
Steve Kmetko:
Do you?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah, when I do autograph shows every now and then I do that. I'm writing three things. I've been selling a lot of work.
Steve Kmetko:
Yeah. I think, I read that you wrote a novel.
Heather Thomas:
Yeah. Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
Where does that come from?
Heather Thomas:
It was because when I was a young wife, relatively young, let's say 29 what happens in Los Angeles is all the various charities and activist groups, they survive on calling young wives and bringing them in and-- you know, getting them into their organizations. And so, what I noticed was, this was an entirely interesting breed of people. You can think what you want about someone, a trophy wife. Let's say it's the third marriage or something. There isn't a school university, there isn't a museum, there isn't a political candidate. There isn't a park any kind of public thing. Any kind of medical research environmental conservation. None of that happens without the money from a trophy wife. They are responsible for about 80% of the donated monies in America. And I would say throughout the world.
Steve Kmetko:
Do you feel funny or is it putting you down to refer to yourself as a trophy wife?
Heather Thomas:
I don't know if I was a trophy wife or not, because Skip and I were friends for so long. And I certainly don't like the stereotype of someone who's vacuous and married an old guy for money. Because I didn't marry an old guy, you know? But I sort of was plunged into that world. There were certainly a lot of women that were definitely were trophy wives. They were like married to guys like 40 years their senior. And it was an interesting group. So, I couldn't help but have to write about them.
Steve Kmetko:
And have you enjoyed that? Has that given you a kind of a release in terms of your creativity?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah, I have. I write scripts all the time and sell them.
Steve Kmetko:
Do you?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
Any we would've heard of?
Heather Thomas:
A couple of them. There was school slot. That one's still in production. They're still, I have a whole bunch that like, are bought, but they're not in turnaround yet. So, I really can't talk about them.
Steve Kmetko:
Okay.
Heather Thomas:
Because I don't know if that's going to happen or not.
Steve Kmetko:
And we'll be right back. Did you do your own stunts when you were on the fall guy?
Heather Thomas:
Not all of them. No. I don't do fire falling--
Steve Kmetko:
I don't do that.
Heather Thomas:
Falling or, yeah, but the stunt fighting. Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
Did you ever get hurt?
Heather Thomas:
No. No. Well, Lee almost broke my nose one time, but it didn't get too broken.
Steve Kmetko:
No, it looks fine.
Heather Thomas:
Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
Substance abuse crept into your life, didn't it? How did that happen?
Heather Thomas:
Oh God. It was back in the 80s. I was still a kid and everybody was doing blow on the set. Oh. It was a closed set. And in those, literally in those days, they said it's non-addictive. And then I said, you know what I did it too much this year. I'm going to go to rehab. I went to, like, before they had, before rehab was glamorous. I went to, I just took myself to the local hospital and did a 30-day program.
Steve Kmetko:
And did it work first time?
Heather Thomas:
Did a blow. Yeah. Absolutely.
Steve Kmetko:
Has it been difficult sustaining that?
Heather Thomas:
No.
Steve Kmetko:
Because a lot of people, I think would have a problem with that.
Heather Thomas:
No.
Steve Kmetko:
You never went back.
Heather Thomas:
No.
Steve Kmetko:
Good for you. I went back a couple of times.
Heather Thomas:
A lot of people do--you know I drank rank and I would--
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, I did that too.
Heather Thomas:
Yeah. I drank, but I don't, I didn't never consider myself an alcoholic, so.
Steve Kmetko:
Tell me, what, what was it like being an instant sex symbol? Did you appreciate that? Did you like it? Did you like the attention?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah, it was making me MO ("my way of doing things"). I was making more money than I ever made in my life. I was young, I was happy, why not?
Steve Kmetko:
From your lips to God's ears. Where were you born?
Heather Thomas:
What year?
Steve Kmetko:
Where? I didn't ask that. I know better than to ask. What year were you born?
Heather Thomas:
Where born. You could ask what year? I'm not shy about my education.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, okay.
Heather Thomas:
I was born in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Steve Kmetko:
Do you get back there or you still have ties there?
Heather Thomas:
I lived there 5 minutes.
Steve Kmetko:
Okay. That's a good enough time to figure out a place.
Heather Thomas:
Yeah. I'm a California girl.
Steve Kmetko:
Are you?
Heather Thomas:
I lived in Rock View Maryland when I was from, when I was two to four. And then I've been in Santa Monica ever since.
Steve Kmetko:
Two to four. You must not have too many memories of it.
Heather Thomas:
I do. I remember in those days it was all forest. It was all forest. I remember the forest.
Steve Kmetko:
Well, I have a question for you from one of our Patreon subscribers. Her name is Zoe Togo. So, she asks, ‘’back in the eighties, it seemed that in every photo you were in a bikini. Obviously, times have changed a little. Looking back, how did you feel about being so blatantly sexualized by Hollywood?’’ That's from Zoe Togo.
Heather Thomas:
I think there's a certain amount of disassociation, and it was really my business. It would be like a woman who sells bathing suits. It was the way I sold things. They didn't in those days it wasn't, it was accepted. And I understood when they were, you know, when it, if something got a little misogynist there, there's a big difference. And I was happy with my body. I worked hard. It wasn't in a misogynistic way, in other words.
Steve Kmetko:
How have, are you able to, you've stepped back now for quite some time. Are you able to observe changes? Are there are changes that you've made note of in your head in Hollywood?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah, of course. Women aren't confined to like, using their feminine wiles to solve crime. You know, there's more of an acceptance that, it's just more reality that we're all human beings and equal intellectually. But who knows with today's atmosphere if that's going to change. But I think there's a big difference. And yeah, in my day, they swatted you on the butt and there was the guy you avoided at the wrap party. Because he'd get handsy or you know--
Steve Kmetko:
Hi Honey!
Heather Thomas:
There you get pretty savvy about that. Women, by the time you're 12 years old, you can tell whose men look at you like a lion looks like an Impala. You know, you’re kind of, in my day, you just kind of had survival instincts. Every woman did. It's like, I'm not going to be in the room with that one and that one's drinking. Okay, I'm going. Or that one's getting high. I am going, you know, you just try to keep yourself out of a situation. So thankfully that's gone away. I think me too went way overboard.
Steve Kmetko:
Do you?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah. I think that's responsible for the, the bro backlash right now. That's, that we're under where they're angry about DEI. Well, the DEI is just a watch word for something people don't like. But I think, I think that the Me Too went too far. You know, people would get in trouble for complimenting someone's hair. That's ridiculous. You know, I talked about this because, you know, I was-- there were some programs we were doing with the rape foundation in high schools because violence and sex was starting to get mixed up, like creepy. Where boys were hitting girls that wouldn't put out on a, you know, and I was talking about this with Beatrice Woods, the mother of Dadaism. I had a friend who was her protege. And this is years and years ago, we went to visit her. And she had that happy Valley School or something with JR Kurstimerli. And she was a she was a Dalits and also spiritualist and everything. And she, because she had asked me what I was doing lately. And I said, well, I went to Sacramento and we were testifying about certain things happening in schools and we're doing a program. And she said, you know, nobody square dances anymore. And I kind of thought, oh, that, that's nice beat. She said, no, listen to me. It was boys and girls touching each other in a non-competitive way. Nowadays, they don't want anybody to touch anybody That's not human. But it seems to me that it, if you look at old movies, the ones that occurred kind of during the war, and there was a period where men and women seemed to be more friends. Yeah. There were stereotypical roles, but it was a much more friendly atmosphere. It wasn't this hateful atmosphere that's out now.
Steve Kmetko:
When I was growing up and we had square dancing at school, my mother would send a note to get me out of it because we were Baptist and we didn't dance.
Heather Thomas:
Oh My!
Steve Kmetko:
Oh My. Yes. that was the rule. And it works weird.
Heather Thomas:
Jack Baptist.
Steve Kmetko:
Yes, Jack Baptist.
Heather Thomas:
Jack Mormons and Jack Baptists.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, I didn't know that.
Heather Thomas:
Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
How is it you got so involved in activism?
Heather Thomas:
I had a lot of time on my hands and a lot of money.
Steve Kmetko:
That's good.
Heather Thomas:
It's true.
Steve Kmetko:
Yeah.
Heather Thomas:
But also, if you're a public figure, I think you have a duty to give back--
Steve Kmetko:
A responsibility!
Heather Thomas:
If you have money, you have a responsibility to give back to the community. And if you don't have money, you have a responsibility to give back to the community. And I'd see something I didn't like. I'd get in, I started out as a feminist, and that evolved into, I remember with Bruce A. Vallance during aids, we had a charity that would get psychiatrists and therapists for people with aids and or I'd fight for the rainforest or something. You know, I lobbied Congress and the Senate in Washington for the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) trying to get toxics out of our food or begging them not to put radioactive material into the recycling market. There were, you wouldn't believe what they've tried to pass over the years. But I fear for that now. I feel, because there's an onslaught changing now of getting deregulation. And, I think there's, so we're in a political upheaval where people aren't really aware of what's happening. It's so much, it's like a fire hose. So, I worry for that.
Steve Kmetko:
Ted Lange, do you know Ted?
Heather Thomas:
Yes. He directed me in the fall game.
Steve Kmetko:
Well, I was going to ask you about that.
Heather Thomas:
Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
How was he to work with?
Heather Thomas:
Wonderful!
Steve Kmetko:
He came here and talked with us, and--
Heather Thomas:
He's lovely. I Loved him.
Steve Kmetko:
Yeah. He gave us a very nice interview. Very nice sit view.
Heather Thomas:
He's a very, very good guy.
Steve Kmetko:
Is he?
Heather Thomas:
I like him a lot.
Steve Kmetko:
What makes him a good guy here in Hollywood?
Heather Thomas:
He's actually very respectful. I watched him work with a crew. He was on time, knew his stuff. He was a fantastic director. I was really happy with him.
Steve Kmetko:
Do you ever see him or hear from him or talk to him?
Heather Thomas:
No, I do not.
Steve Kmetko:
No?
Heather Thomas:
No.
Steve Kmetko:
Would you be able to give advice, for example, to a Sydney Sweeney who's enjoying the kind of popularity you did at the height of your popularity?
Heather Thomas:
Really, I don't think she needs any advice. I think she's doing fantastic. And there are roles now for women as you age where there weren't in say, the seventies. I think there's bigger roles than the grandmother or the mom or the nosy neighbor. There's a billion different parts you can play. There are very interesting parts of my age. So, I don't know if I'd warn her about anything. I suffer, watch her business people. That's the most important thing.
Steve Kmetko:
How so?
Heather Thomas:
I'm the wife of a lawyer--
Steve Kmetko:
That helps--
Heather Thomas:
An entertainment attorney, and I've seen how many people have been ripped off by their business managers. And how many times he had to bring giant stars that someone would think are filthy rich. He had to bring them back from bankruptcy or had to get their money back. So that's the first thing I say. Be careful with your business people.
Steve Kmetko:
What did you think of the Fall guy movie that came out last year?
Heather Thomas:
I loved it. I was in it.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh!
Heather Thomas:
I'm in the last, I'm in the post credits.
Steve Kmetko:
The post credits.
Heather Thomas:
I know Cameo. Yeah. You know how Marvel always has a post credit thing--
Steve Kmetko:
Right?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah. Lee and I are in the post credits.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, cool.
Heather Thomas:
Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
Did you get any, have you gotten any feedback from the public about that?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah, the right feedback. I went to the premier. They treated me right. It was really fun. It was fun working again.
Steve Kmetko:
That's good. Let me get back to, to that for a second. Where you were just before this Paris, you got married in Paris?
Heather Thomas:
Yes.
Steve Kmetko:
How nice. How did you decide that?
Heather Thomas:
Because we knew that if we got married in LA we'd, because of who my husband was we'd have to invite half the city and pay for dinners for people we don't even like. So, we decided to go to Paris, save the money, and have an awesome honeymoon.
Steve Kmetko:
And did you?
Heather Thomas:
Yes. Yes.
Steve Kmetko:
Tell me about it.
Heather Thomas:
We did a week at the Ritz, and that was kind of gnarly because--
Steve Kmetko:
In Paris?
Heather Thomas:
Yes.
Steve Kmetko:
The Ritz where Diana spent her last night or something. Princess Diana.
Heather Thomas:
Yeah. Yeah. I love that hotel. I love it. I love going to jar the jewelry store, you know, right there. And you walk into the room and then they raise the velvet partition and you see all the jewels in the dark. I love that place. But then we got to go to Venice. And in Venice, I remember it was October. There's nobody there. It didn't smell and there were no tourists. It was so romantic and it was just kind of smell--
Steve Kmetko:
It didn't smell.
Heather Thomas:
Foggy. Well, it can get kind of ripe in the summer.
Steve Kmetko:
Yeah, I know.
Heather Thomas:
And I remember, you know, that first square in front of St. Mark's? Not the one in front of the Doge’s, but the first square I guess that's in front of the Doge’s Palace, right? First one's a Doge’s, the second one's St. Mark's. Okay. In front of the Doge’s. We just ate at Harry's bar and we walk into the square. And instead of solid cafes all the way around, none of them were open except for one where there was a saxophone player playing my blue heaven. And my husband grabbed me and walled me around that square. That was on our honeymoon.
Steve Kmetko:
That's romantic.
Heather Thomas:
That and gondolas and boat trips. It was beautiful. Had a beautiful honeymoon.
Steve Kmetko:
I've heard the phrase see Venice and die. Because There's nothing else to live for, they say. Oh--
Heather Thomas:
Food is pretty good.
Steve Kmetko:
Yeah, the food is good, but--
Heather Thomas:
You can't beat the food.
Steve Kmetko:
You can't beat the food in Paris either, I don't think.
Heather Thomas:
No. The food in Paris is a good scarf.
Steve Kmetko:
Yeah. A good scarf. Heather, was there a time when your looks hurt your career?
Heather Thomas:
Well, I was very blonde and I had done a lot of body stuff. So, there's an obligatory condescension that goes with being a blonde a type. So yes, in certain ways, but you could always find a role.
Steve Kmetko:
You have a very good attitude about this no matter what you are.
Heather Thomas:
When I want to work, I can work.
Steve Kmetko:
Really?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah. I've sold everything I've ever pitched. And I can work.
Steve Kmetko:
Good for you.
Heather Thomas:
Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
Do you have your name out there in terms of auditions or things you would like to do?
Heather Thomas:
No.
Steve Kmetko:
When you hear of something, do you go after it?
Heather Thomas:
I'm still a member of the Guild.
Steve Kmetko:
Yeah.
Heather Thomas:
And if there was something I really wanted, I would go for it. Right now, I'm just concentrated on my grandkids, my family. What's going--
Steve Kmetko:
How many grandkids do you have?
Heather Thomas:
Four.
Steve Kmetko:
That's a lot.
Heather Thomas:
Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
And your family?
Heather Thomas:
And My family. And my daughters-- you know, I've got three daughters, so there's a bunch of little families except for one. One's very young. And, I'm concentrated on politics and some activism right now. I think that's where I can contribute the best.
Steve Kmetko:
Did any of the children go into acting?
Heather Thomas:
No.
Steve Kmetko:
Did you warn them against it?
Heather Thomas:
No.
Steve Kmetko:
Did you encourage them to go into it?
Heather Thomas:
No. No. My oldest daughter was in all the plays and all through school, but she became a lawyer where an acting background is very helpful.
Steve Kmetko:
Well, when having your husband is very helpful too.
Heather Thomas:
Yeah.
Steve Kmetko:
If you're going to be a lawyer.
Heather Thomas:
Well, yeah, she was a litigator though. He said, he's a living legend of a deal maker.
Steve Kmetko:
I'm trying to remember what he did or who he represented. Brittenham?
Heather Thomas:
Yeah. Skip.
Steve Kmetko:
Did he represent Michael Jackson for a while?
Heather Thomas:
Zif and Brittenham did. John Branca was the lawyer for Michael Jackson. Skip represented him in some things.
Steve Kmetko:
Okay. Because the name is very familiar.
Heather Thomas:
He's in the Richard Pryor documentary. He's represented Henry Winkler and Harrison Ford forever. He's represented everything from Comcast to Warner Brothers, to Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Geffen everybody.
Steve Kmetko:
Busy guy.
Heather Thomas:
His firm. <crosstalk>. His firm has Beyonce. Yeah. We could go on and on and on.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh, okay.
Heather Thomas:
Kevin Feige is his client.
Steve Kmetko:
Who?
Heather
Kevin Feige.
Steve Kmetko:
Oh!
Heather Thomas:
Marvel. Millions of producers. All the independent television.
Steve Kmetko:
Are you happy?
Heather Thomas:
I'm so happy I got; he's a good guy. I'm not in love with him. Married him a long time ago. We've been married 30 years.
Steve Kmetko:
That's a long time.
Heather Thomas:
Yeah. I married my best friend.
Steve Kmetko:
That's the way to do it. Yep. Thank you, Heather. I appreciate it. Thanks for coming in.
Heather Thomas:
That was fun.
Steve Kmetko:
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