Episode 242: The Art of Animation with Yvett Merino
“Yes we need diverse voices in the room but it takes a lot of effort. And it’s not something that is accomplished and then checked off. It’s a shift in how we work and how we bring people into this industry.”
- Yvett Merino
Kate travels to Boston for work and a friend-induced cry and Doree decides to start intuitive exercise. Then, Encanto co-producer Yvett Merino comes on the pod to chat about changing the stories you see and hear from the inside, finding her way to producing animated films, and the importance of growing up with representation both behind and in front of the camera.
Photo credit: Mat Freschel
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Transcript
Kate: Hello and welcome to Forever35, a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves. I'm Kate Spencer.
Doree: And I'm Doree Shafrir.
Kate: And we are not experts.
Doree: We're not, but we are two friends who like to talk a lot about serums
Kate: Friendly reminder. You can visit our website forever35podcast.com for links to everything we mentioned on the show. You can find us on Twitter, although are we gonna stay with Elon Musk there now?
Doree: Well, It's also, we literally, we never tweet.
Kate: We already didn't tweet,
Doree: So now maybe we just leave.
Kate: Maybe we just get on our merry way. Well, anyway, if you're there Forever35pod and Instagram, we're still over an Instagram Forever35podcast, Facebook, where there's the Forever35 Facebook group or the password to join us serums. You can shop our curated list of favorite products at shopmy.us/Forever35. You can also sign up for our newsletter at Forever35podcast.com/newsletter,
Doree: Right? And if you wanna reach us, you can call or text at (781) 591-0390 and you can email us at Forever35podcast@gmail.com. I also do just want to give a little plug for our Balance Bound collab. Holidays are right around the old corner. They make a great gift for your favorite Forever35 listener, and you can buy that at balancebound.co/shop/forever35. Okay. What if I just got you, I was just say, what if I just got you a Dorees Hotel set for Christmas?
Kate: That was literally the joke I was gonna make.
Doree: Oh my gosh. Look at us.
Kate: So <laugh> <laugh>. Oh my goodness. I mean, we could, I really, I actually use my Doree's Hotel notepad for a lot of little notes at my desk. So right now there's a lot of little notes to self about the current book. I'm writing all on my Doree's hotel. And you know whats funny I'm recording this. I'm recording this from a hotel, from an actual hotel. I'm in a hotel. Hotel.
Doree: You're not at Doree's Hotel.
Kate: I wish it was your hotel, but here's their notepad. Our notepad is nicer than this actual hotel notepad that I'm at. I dunno if you can see.
Doree: I can, Right?
Kate: Ours is better. It's
Doree: Likes The one you have is like fine.
Kate: Yeah,
Doree: But it's not a, It's no Doree's hotel.
Kate: No, there's no Kate H Spencer manager listed. Yeah. Seriously.
Doree: Kate, You are, speaking of hotels. You are in our hometown.
Kate: I am in our hometown of Boston, Massachusetts right now. It's so weird to be here. It's so weird. I don't like today I don't even know where to begin. I get nostalgic and sad, but then I also am, I'm out of place. I don't belong. I get all these weird emotions. I don't know if it's just Boston. Then today I met up with one of my oldest friends who's my friend Angela. We've known each other since freshman year of high school. And we was so lovely for a long walk. And I do do the green tiny bushes with little red berries that you can squish. This is very
Doree: Specific. Yes, I do.
Kate: We were walking down like Boyleston or Beeker Street or something and I passed a bush and I was like, Oh my God, it's this bush. I haven't seen one of these. And so she was very patient. She was like, Oh yeah, these bushes are great. And I was like, I had one of these as a kid in my yard and I used to make magical stews out of these. Be like, I just get weirdly emotional. It's like, it's just a lot. I don't even know why. I try to figure out why it's so emotional for me. I think because I just connect to places in such a sensory way, it's October, it's the end of October. It smells like last night I was walking around and it was cool and windy and I realized the smell of leaves in the cold air is such a specific scent that we don't have in California. It gets cold. We don't have this leaf in cold air smell. Again, very specific, but I think I'm just very sensory oriented. And so emotions sense, all of that stuff just triggers a lot of feelings for me. So yeah, I, So I'm happy to be here. I'm here for the Boston Book Festival. I'm speaking on a panel and then I will very briefly see some family members and then jet back to Los Angeles just in time for trick or treating with my children.
Yeah, it's cold here, Doree, by the way. It's cold.
Doree: Oh, legit Cold.
Kate: Legit. East coast chili. I think it just turned. I know. It feels nice. It's the perfect weather for a romantic rendezvous with someone. I'm writing a romance in my head. I don't mean for me. For me I;m rendezvousing with my tiny travel humidifier that I brought, something about that weather just makes me wanna write a rendezvous.
Doree: Yes.I do love a crisp fall weather.
Kate: Yes. And it's sexy. Is that strange to say?
Doree: No, You wanna get all cozy
Kate: Or kiss on a street corner as the leaves swirl.
Doree: Now Kate, on a practical note, Yeah. Did you bring appropriate garb?
Kate: Okay. So traveling to different climates gives me a whole lot of anxiety, especially because I'm obsessively carrying on my luggage. And I tried to pack super light, so I think I did. I didn't bring my warmest coat. I think I did. I wore a puffy vest today. I looked like, what's her face? Elizabeth Holmes in that mini-series when she's always in that puffy vest. That's what I look like. I did had to kind of capsule wardrobe for the, I'm speaking in public and I'm supposed to go to a cocktail party, which I'm not quite sure how to navigate in a pandemic. I think I'm just gonna mask and what a cocktail party. Anyway so I have jeans and a nice pair of shoes and then alternating tops.
Doree: Okay, Okay.
Kate: But I'm still feeling out what fashion is. A lot of the stylish people here are wearing chunky white socks over their workout leggings.
Doree: Those are the stylish people.
Kate: Yes Doree, ankle socks are not cool anymore. What's cool is to tug a white sock up over your legging with your chunk like you, your sneaker, and then have a long camel coat. That's the look here in Boston
Doree: That says to me, I'm just heading over to the gym <laugh> with my camel coat on <laugh>.
Kate: I know, but it's definitely a choice. Look, cuz I went out walk, we went, walked around and got coffee. And that's definitely a specific style. I think it's an extension of kind of covid work from home casual. But it was definitely an active fashion choice that I'm seeing. You know me. Street style reporter, Kate Spencer. Just reporting on the trends.
Doree: I mean, Kate, I'm just saying if you started a street style blog 2010 style, I would read it.
Kate: Maybe I should start a blogspot.com of just my fashion thoughts.
Doree: Please do.
Kate: Okay, Right. I'll do that this afternoon. You know what, that's a great way to procrastinate. I'll start my new blog spot. I will say though, another thing that I did try to do is I am trying to moisturize both the inside of my body and the outside of my body while I'm traveling. So I brought my travel humidifier.
Doree: Hold on, hold on. Moisturize the inside of your body. Does that mean drink a lot of water? What does that mean?
Kate: Yeah, drink a lot of water and humidify. So I have my travel humidifier. I have it going not just at night, but all day, all night. I'm just trying to moisten this room up, this hotel room that I'm in and I'm drinking a lot of water. I brought my Brita water bottle, I brought my Liquid IV powder things. And then I also, for skincare, I only brought like moisturizer. I didn't bring any serums, so I brought my Boum Boum Milk spray moisturizer. I brought an Avene cream and then I brought Klur Unseasonal Kind Oil. So I'm just trying to lubricate everything.
Doree: Wow.
Kate: I've had a lot of coffee this morning, if you can't tell.
Doree: I have also had a lot of coffee this morning.
Kate: <laugh>. What is it about today? Is it just cuz it's a cool winter day. Not even a winter. Cool. Fall day. I don't know what's, What's going on with you?
Doree: Just coffee. I don't know. I had some coffee before I took Henry to school and then his school every Friday has a little thing after drop off for parents. There's a couple parents do it every week. It's coffee Friday and they have coffee for everyone. And I was like, Oh, just, I love that. I'll just mander over there and have a cup of coffee even though I don't really need it. Had a cup of coffee. So I'm like, <laugh>.
Kate: And you're Not like, you don't normally have wee energy.
Doree: No, I don't.
Kate: You're very glad. Very Torrance.
Doree: I am feeling a little like, woo. What could happen today, <laugh>. And as I said to you before we started recording, I've been working out a lot this week because I suddenly just felt, I felt called to get back into fitness in a real way. But what's interesting in a way that just felt very organic. Just not like, Oh I need, I'm gonna lose weight or I'm gonna, you know what I mean? It was just, I just feel like I wanna work my bod
Kate: You wanted to move?
Doree: I wanted to move. I wanted to feel the burn.
Kate: Can I say something? You have been running, which as someone who's known you for a while. Wait,
Doree: Wait, wait. No, hold on, hold on, hold on.
Kate: Sorry.
Doree: Let just clarify. I have did one run walk on the Peloton app. I have not been running okay. Okay. No, you've been running, makes it sound like I've been running seven miles three times a week. I did one 30 minute run walk and I, that's plan on doing another one this week.
Kate: But it's interesting to me because you have run marathons, you have run in the past
Doree: Well, no, I've never run a marathon.
Kate: Oh, cuz you were gonna run the year the hurricane happened.
Doree: Yeah. Which was exactly 10 years ago.
Kate: Doree trained for the New York City Marathon and then it was Hurricane Sandy. Is that correct?
Doree: It was. And of
Kate: Course
Doree: Devastating in the grand scheme of things. My disappointment over not running the marathon pale in comparison to people who died.
Kate: That was an awful, That was a really destructive
Doree: Their home. Yeah. I mean, of course very far down on the list of things to be actually sad about, but I had planned for it and trained for it for almost two years. And so that was kind of a bummer for me. And then I just never got up the motivation to train for another marathon. And then I started doing IVF and then I was pregnant and then it was, you know what I mean? There were just a lot of things in my life that happened where I was running is just not on the agenda right now. And I don't know, I think I'm just feeling like, okay, I could get back into this. So that's where I'm at right now. And I think it'll also help with tennis.
Kate: Get that stamina up. Yeah.
Doree: Yeah. Get the stamina up. I'm trying to also do some strength training to just feel a little stronger. So I had decided, I was originally, I was going to play tennis this morning and then I decided to take the day off. But now that I've had that cup of coffee, I'm like,
Kate: You're ready to go for that marathon run.
Doree: I am ready to do a long run <laugh>
Kate: Few Los Angeles, if you see Doree bolting by today.
Doree: Oh my gosh. Just gimme a little wave.
Kate: Yeah, just cheer her on <laugh> I think that's cool. I think it's great to just move your body in a familiar way that you haven't in a while. It's riding a bike. It's just kind of like, Oh yeah, I can, This feels good.
Doree: Especially if it's calming
Kate: When it is. Yes, when it is forced. It has a different I'm not a fan of it, but when your body is telling you to move the same way when your body is telling you to rest, it feels good to really be tapped into those cues.
Doree: Yes. Yes it does. Yes it does.
Kate: Kate, well, I hope you do some stretching kind of work on those sore muscles today.
Doree: Thank you. I do too. I do.
Kate: Well, and I am here in Boston, so if you want me to just walk the Boston Marathon route for you, just to get you psyched up and maybe thinking about things.
Doree: You're gonna walk the 26 mile Boston
Kate: Marathon route. I meant just kind of go over to the end of the No, no, no, I meant snap a photo of me. I, I wouldn't even go to Heartbreak Hill, but just to be like, Yeah, Doree, come do the marathon. I'm here on Boyleston Street. I think it goes down Boyleston Street at the end.
Doree: Yeah, yeah. Wait, werent you gonna run the Boston Marathon? Or that was a goal that you had?
Kate: That's like a dream of mine, but I don't think I want really want the physical aspect. I just want the experience of, I love the Boston Marathon. I think it's the best marathon in the world. No disrespect to the other marathons, but I think it's the best, Again, the emotional attachment of witnessing it. Every year we get the day off from school here in Massachusetts when the marathon's happening. So everybody goes, It's on a Monday. It's the made up holiday.
Doree: Patriots Day. <laugh>.
Kate: Yeah. Which I didn't know this is how provincial I was. I didn't know that. It was only in Massachusetts. When I got to college, I was like, we're all gonna have this Monday off. And people were like, What the fuck are you talking about?
Doree: Wait, I thought it was also a day off in Maine. Did I make that up?
Kate: There was some point in my life, maybe it was when I got to New York at some point I got to a place where I, I was still under the assumption that we all had the day off. So maybe if it did exist in Maine or it's possible. We had my college break during that April. I don't know. I just know I reached a point where I thought it was a national holiday and was like,
Doree: It is celebrated in Maine.
Kate: Okay, so it must have been when I got to New York and I thought we didn't work or something.
Doree: It is celebrated in Massachusetts or observed, I shouldn't say celebrated, observed by Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, and North Dakota on the third Monday in April and in Florida and Wisconsin on April 19th.
Kate: What a strange combination of states.
Doree: Bizarre <laugh>
Kate: It is. It's in Massachusetts. They do the reenactment of the battle of what? Lexington and Concord and the Revolutionary War. The Red Sox play an 11:00 AM game and then there's the marathon. So it's a lot happening here. That's very, very much tied into your experience as a person living in the metro West Boston area. Anyway, okay,
Doree: Here's something just to finish the discussion of Patriots Day, since I'm on their Wikipedia page.
Kate: <laugh> this hot self care topic of Patriots Day,
Doree: Connecticut only began observing Patriots Day in 2018 and North Dakota in 2019.
Kate: Why? Again? I ask why?
Doree: I Don't know.
Kate: It seems like one of those holidays we could not celebrate.
Doree: Totally. I kind of get it in Massachusetts, But why in these <laugh> other places? Okay. Anyway, moving on. Kate, we should introduce our guest.
Kate: Oh my goodness. We had so much fun. We talked to, Oh my gosh, my brain's blanking. We talked to Yvette Marino. Now Yvette, let's read her bio, but then we're gonna cap it off with one of her most recent accomplishments. So Yvette has been with Walt Disney Animation Studios for over 20 years now. She started as an assistant in the technology department, then she was promoted to an administrative manager. Then after 10 years in the technology department that moved to the world of production and worked as a production supervisor and editorial on films such as Tangled, which is one of my favorite Disney films. Oh, I freaking, Have you ever seen Tangled? No. It's the best. You know what? So it was one of these movies I didn't even know about until I had kids. And then we watched it and we've since seen it 8 million times. It's such a charming movie. It's so great. I love it.
Doree: Wow. Okay. Tangled. Who knew?
Kate: Oh, it's so good. Mandy Moore. Just Chef's Kiss is Rapunzel. The songs are good.
Doree: Okay,
Kate: I'll slow my roll. She's worked with the Stare team on the Lion King 3D, Wreck It Ralph. She's done it all. Then she was promoted to production manager on Big Hero Six Academy Award winner and most recently worked on Moana, but also, Encanto, and won an Oscar
Doree: <affirmative>.
Kate: Okay. As a producer. She lives here in Los Angeles. She's just a fascinating and fun person to get to talk to. Her career is so interesting. We haven't really talked to anyone in this side of the world, the career world. We haven't spoken with anyone who works kind of in this, the corporate production side of things, But it was just so interesting to hear about her career path. Anyway, it was so fun to get to talk to her, especially on the heels of Encanto being so huge. It's been such a part of a cultural point. And I know specifically in my home, it's been such a thing and it's such a beautiful film and such an important film. And it just talked to us about Lin-Manuel Miranda writing the music. I mean, we just got into all sorts. Also her self care, which is really interesting. She's also a mom of two, married, She's just amazing.
Doree: Ugh. All right. So Kate, we've been chatting for a little while, so let's take a little break and then we will come back with Yvette.
Kate: Yvette, welcome to Forever35. We're really glad to have you today.
Yvette: Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm super, super excited. I listen to you guys, so I feel like I'm talking to a couple of girlfriends.
Kate: Oh, well you are. Consider us friends.
Doree: Yeah.
Kate: Well, we always like to ask our guests off the bat about a self care practice in their life just to get things warmed up. So is there something that you do in your day to day that you consider Selfcare for yourself?
Yvette: I listen to you guys ask this question to many people, and I kind of shift depending on what I need. I used to be an avid runner and so that used to be my, I have to run, but unfortunately I need to get back to it. But the pandemic kinda messed up everything. But one thing I do make sure I do is I have time for myself. And whether that is in my car or sitting in my office or when I get home after the kids are in bed, I just make sure that I have something and I do something that I feel like I have to feel accomplished every day I've done something. And even on my weekends when I'm all kids and family and my husband, I just have to have a little moment where I'm like, ok, at least I've accomplished this.
So I just make sure that I have that time for myself and I like to if I don't, I give myself Grace <laugh>. It hit me a long time ago, <affirmative>, there's a lot of grace and forgiveness given to a lot of people around me in my life and oh, it's okay, we can do this. And I realized I wasn't doing that to myself. So I actually just make sure that I take, if I don't get to what I needed to that day, I just take a deep breath and I say, You know what? It's okay. We have tomorrow or we have another day, let's make another plan. So
Doree: To me, that's been one of the biggest things I feel like I've learned kind of growing older. I was so hard on myself when I was younger and now I'm like, I just, I'm gonna give. Yeah, it's okay. Okay. So I'm really glad that you said that because that's definitely something that I've been thinking about a lot. Oh, go ahead.
Kate: I just thought it was interesting that you mentioned the need to feel like you've accomplished something
Yvette: <affirmative>
Kate: That just set off a spark in me because I have that same feeling and I'm so ingrained in us. And I'm wondering if you've, that's something that's been with you your whole life. Is that just your nature as a person or do you feel like that's kind of external pressure that's been put upon you? How have you navigated this feeling of needing to accomplish, needing to have the thing done, whatever that is.
Yvette: It's something really interesting to get into and talk about because I feel like I've been that way my whole life. But I don't know if that's because that's who I am, or external pressures. My husband and I have been married for 22 years and when he got married, I love him dearly, but he is not that person and he's totally fine just hanging out, I'm just gonna watch movies all day. And I was like, Well, we just can't do that. And really, it was really a bump early on when we first started, when we first got married and started living together, I'm like, Well, we can't just sit around all day. We have to do something. And he was like, Why <laugh>? This is Saturday. We can relax. And it really kind of stuck with me for a little bit <affirmative> like why? So we've learned to balance since then a lot of years and a lot of conversations.
But it's also, he kind of said, But I'm not good if I sit around all weekend. I'm really not because <affirmative>, I work hard all week, but I feel like there's things that we have to get done during the weekend that I have to, and I've had those moments where it's like, I'm just gonna sit around and do nothing and I feel terrible at the end of the day, <laugh>. So it's just like I'm really just trying to find that balance of trying to get, whether it's like, Oh my gosh, I got up and showered and put makeup on <affirmative>. And then I feel like, okay, and I'll just clean something a little or do something organizing to get ready for the week. Then I feel, or even making cookies with my daughter and just then I feel like, okay, well I've done something. But, so yeah, I don't know. Think it's a little bit of who I am. I have three other sisters and we're all that way of trying to try making sure that we have to get something done. But really my husband has helped bring me that balance.
Doree: Oh my gosh, I relate to that so much. <laugh>
Kate: Are you the same. Do you feel the same Doree?
Doree: Yeah. I mean, Matt really will, my husband, Matt will really to just on a weekend. He just wants to stay home and relax and he doesn't have that same sort of almost compulsive <laugh> need to do stuff. And it's been an interesting of learning curve for me. But one thing that I do find helps is I'll sometimes make checklists of very mundane tasks and it's really satisfying to just check those off. And sometimes that just scratches the itch. Take a shower, check <laugh>. That can also often satisfy me. So I don't know, but it's definitely an ongoing process. So it's interesting to hear you talk about that.
Kate: I think it's interesting too because it allows each of us to define relaxation for ourselves. <affirmative>, I'm married to the two of you, this is what my husband's like, I could sit in bed all day and he's like, I physically can't do this. It doesn't make me feel relaxed. I think it helps to kind of understand what helps everybody. Everyone's different. Relaxing, just laying flat and watching TV all day. That sounds great to me. But I appreciate hearing you two share your perspective.
Doree: Yvette, I just wanted to ask about your work. Which is, you've had such an amazing career at Disney and I think one thing that I would like to do first is just kind of define what it is that you do. What does a film producer do and how does it differ in animation versus live action?
Yvette: That's a good question and I get that a lot and I'm still trying to figure it out. Sometimes <affirmative>. So as the producer on an animated film, I partner with the directors and making sure that, I mean, ultimately big picture, making sure that the director's create a vision, gets up on screen and the movie gets made on time and is able to be released. But it really is, the way we make films here at Disney animation is that we will, in animation, you have the ability, you write the script and then you board it out and then we cut it together and our editor will time it out and put sound effects and scratch temp voices and stuff like that. And we will screen at Disney. We, in Encanto for example, we screened eight times before, we actually before the final version was released. And so we screen over and over again and those screenings are big moments on the film. And where we'll screen in our studio it'll be our team and then directors from all the other projects, directors and writers from all the other projects. Our story trust Jennifer Lee, our chief creative officer. And we kind of screen and then we sit in the room for two to three hours and just hear from everybody their notes and what they understand, what they don't understand.
So we tear it all apart and then we build it all up, We'll rewrite the script, reboard it, and then screen it again a few months later. And this is our process that we go through. So my job in that is really making sure as we go from screening to screening to make sure that we are making creative progress from one screening to the next. And we're not just spinning, It's very easy to get caught up in one little section of the film, but we have to make sure that we keep looking and building the whole entire film and really kinda gauging what we need is what the directors need, what the writers may need as storytellers and saying, Hey, maybe we should get some this person's perspective.
And so that's a big part of what I do in the day to day is just really working with the directors and making sure that we are moving forward. I also partner with our marketing, obviously Fortune Disney is a very big company, and so we have different aspects of the company that we work with. So I, I'm look working with the other partners in the company to make sure that they understand that the story we're telling as they're building, getting ready for product or marketing and introducing, talking about how we're gonna introduce this film to the world. And a big part on Encanto was really overseeing the cultural aspect to make sure that we were celebrating the Colombian culture and making sure that working with our consultants and making sure that they were being heard and they were able to see all of the stuff that we were creating to make sure that we were doing it in the right way. So it's kind of a bunch of stuff. <laugh>, I don't wanna say a bunch of little things of a bunch of stuff, but there's an amazing team and structure here at Disney Animation. So it's not like I do it all by myself cause we have an amazing team that helps do that, get it all done.
Kate: It's wild. Having some friends who work in animation and having learned what the process is, has been so illuminating because for us it's just like, Oh, they just made this thing, You forget that there is so much that goes into it. And a film like Encanto, it's like always see is the end result and how beautiful it is. But it's amazing when you're in it. I'm sure there are moments where you're like, Is this ever going to really come together?
Yvette: Yes, <affirmative>, there are moments all the way through. I was on Encanto for about three and a half years and the directors really kind of start, they were on it for about five years. And really as you're kind of creating it and you're screening it and you're tearing it apart and building it up again, you know, have some moments of magic where you're like, Oh, this really works. There's a scene in there where Abuela Alma kind of tells her backstory to Mirabel, and we go into why she left. And it really, you gain a different understanding of Abuela Abma and her history. And that scene itself. Charise Castro Smith was our co-director and co-writer. That was the first draft that she wrote, and she had that section and we knew that was a section that, Oh my gosh, we have to figure out exactly the best way to do this.
We had that section in the beginning of the film, we had it towards the end. And so in the end we ended up doing a little bit of both Abuela telling her story to Young Mirabel as you would a five year old, and then towards the end where you really see the tragedy that she went through. But you have those moments where you're like, Okay, this we have to protect and we have to keep this. And then there's other moments where we look back now, we're like, Oh yeah, we thought it was such a great idea at the time, but it didn't quite work.
Kate: I'm literally, I'm sorry to be making crazy faces in the video, but I'm getting, I might cry. I'm getting emotional thinking about that scene. I've seen this movie so many times and every time I cry and even now just talking about it.
Yvette: Yeah,
Kate: I cry.
Yvette: Well, thank you for saying that. It is one of those, we see it in boards and we're like, Oh, that's emotional. Oh my gosh. And then we've watched it. One of the benefits and the gifts I have in my job is I get to see it from an idea talked about in a story room to written on pages to being boarded out and watch it go all the way through. And this scene in particular, all the way through in the very, very end of the film, we see the film over and over again just because we're listening to sound, the final sound, the final images. And literally, I would also cry every single time.
Kate: Okay. Well let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. All right, we are back.
Doree: I'm wondering if we could kind of zoom out a little bit. You've been at Disney for more than 20 years and in that time they're animated films have really diversified and I'm wondering what has it been like for you as a Latina woman to experience this shift and how do you make sure that the stories of people of color are told accurately and sensitively?
Yvette: Yeah great question. And I think I came in I was one of those people I didn't really know what I wanted to do in life. My parents, I'm gonna zoom out a little bit and go back to my college, which my parents didn't have the opportunity to go to college. So they sent me to school and they said, Go get a good job. And typically that means go be a doctor, go be a lawyer, go be something. And so I met my very best friend at orientation and she walked up to me because I was another Latina cuz I was in a pool of very blonde. I remember literally thinking, I've never seen so many blonde people in my entire life. Cause I grew up in a very Latino community. And it was fine, but it was just different. And so my best friend that I grew up grew that I met there.
From day one, she says, I wanna be a teacher, that's what I wanna do. And today she's all these years later, she's still teaching. And I've always admired that about her. I didn't have that. And I was like, Oh gosh, and there's so much, What do I wanna do with my life? What am I gonna do? And I didn't know. And so I just kind of bumped around school and tried to figure it out along the way. And so I studied sociology and my friends who studied sociology went to be social workers. So after college I was like, I, I'm gonna go be a social worker now. And I did that for about a year and realized it really wasn't for me. And then I ended up temping around and I got a temp job at Disney Animation.
And then again I was like, Oh cool, I can work at Disney then. So I got hired on as an assistant in the technology department and I worked there for about, I got promoted and I was there for about 10 years. And then all of a sudden I just was like, Ah, I don't like my job's, but I really liked the people I work with. I like working here. And I was like, Well, my parents never liked their job. Maybe this is work. Maybe that's what work is. And it's a weird thing to work at Disney animation cuz most people here are so passionate about being here. And I was like, gosh, everybody loves, they seem to not only love working here, they love what they do. And so I was having this, I call it my pre-life crisis of, okay, maybe this is just trying to figure out why can't I be happy here at work?
And I was able to switch jobs and move around a little bit. And then suddenly it became clear to me that I was like, Oh, this is what it is to my job. I got a new role in the studio and I was like, Oh my gosh, this is it. And then the job that I was doing was being eliminated, but I had met one of the producers here and he was like, I need somebody to somebody to run my editing department on the show. I think you'd be good at it. Would you be interested? And I was like, Yeah, my job's going away and I've always kind of wanted to get in production, but I hadn't had the opportunity. And so I switched over and the film ended up being Tangled. And so I worked in the editing department, but within six months I was like, Oh, this is what it's like to like your job and to really enjoy.
And then all of a sudden I had a career path and I was litter. I was in my mid thirties and I had this huge career shift where I started production and I really kind of got into the mode of like, Oh, I can see myself doing this. This is what it means to have a career. So going back to your question, Doree, of the changes I've seen, I didn't, didn't know these jobs existed when I was little. I never knew anyone in the entertainment industry. I never even thought it was so my dream as a kid, people thought, Oh, what was your dream? Did you always dream of this? I was like, I didn't even know it was possible. I wanted to buy a house. That was it. And so when I got here and then I was like, Oh, now I can see myself.
And so once I started working in production, I started seeing how important it is to make sure people understand that these jobs exist and that these rules exist. And so I'm so excited about here. And then is the shift of not only people seeing themselves in these stories, cuz we are really focused on telling stories that reflect the world that we all live in and that include, that are inclusive of everyone. And so that all, it's all wrapped up into how I bumped my way through this career of not ever seeing myself on screen or seeing people who look like me or my family on screen when I was little and really kind of coinciding with not knowing that these roles existed at all. So it's just, so now that I'm in this role, it's so important to me that I go out and talk to people and say, Hey, there are tons of jobs that exist within film and animation that people, you can find yourself in all these different roles in the same way of hoping that the stories that we tell people are curious, gets them curious about the process.
Oh, now my favorite thing is to see on TikTok or Instagram like little girls who, or little boys who are seeing themselves and there's a hate that looks like me on there. And then all of a sudden hopefully maybe they'll get curious about the process and what is this and all of these different things. It all kind of plays into it. I think for me, a little bit on my story of not really seeing anyone or knowing anyone who did these jobs and really making sure that the stories that we're telling reflect the worlds that we live in. So I think it, I think that answered your question, but
Kate: Yeah. Well I just like the point you make about, it's seeing yourself on screen and also off screen in seeing people like you who look like you in positions of power who are making these decisions and making these huge films. I mean, I think that's another part of it. I would just love to get your thoughts as a person who is in a position now of power in entertainment, how do you think we get more women of color into these positions of high up in the entertainment business?
Yvette: Yeah, I think about this question a lot and I do what I can in the roles that, the role that I'm in, and really, I like to talk about it so thank you for asking it. But I think a lot of people have good intentions. We all wanna do it. Yes, everybody talks about how important it is and how yes, we need diverse voices in the room, but it takes a lot of effort and it's just, it's it not only, and it's not something I think that is accomplished and checked off, off, Oh, we've done that. Okay, we're gonna move on. It is something, it's a shift in how we work and how we bring people into this industry. I think that as humans we naturally do. It's like, Oh, this person reminds me of me as when I was younger and up and coming.
And so you have a tendency to lean towards that, even though for people in the majority say, Oh no, we think it's really good to diverse hire. But when you have a room of candidates and you, or a list of candidates and somebody who either know someone or has someone who, oh my gosh, they totally remind me of being at that age. Cause I remember having that same exact feeling. You're going to naturally go towards that person. And I think that's the shift of like, yes, you can interview diverse candidates, but unless you have that awareness that you're gonna naturally tend towards a person who's like you and fight against that, and it's such a natural thing to do. I think that's a big shift because I talk about it here all the time with colleagues when we're hiring people. I was like, well, it's an opportunity to bring in a different voice. And more times than not, people are like, Oh, well I know I have experience with this person, or I've worked with this person before. And I was like, Okay, well let's pause a second. Let's talk about, talk to other people who have worked with these other candidates and see if they have the same feeling. And so it's just having that extra step in there. I think part of it
Doree: I wanted to go back to something that you mentioned when we were talking about your career path, which is that, you know, didn't often see people who look like you on screen. And I'm wondering what media did you consume when you were growing up and how has that influenced the work that you've done?
Yvette: Yeah, I think I grew up here in Southern California, so I consume, most i mean, both of all of my grandparents are from Mexico. And my mother was born in Mexico and grew up in El Paso. And my dad grew up here in southern California. And my mother had an interesting experience when she was young because she didn't speak English when she went to school. And she got made fun of and she got held back and she had a very, very difficult time. And so it was important to my parents, they're like, No, my kids are gonna speak English. And so I grew up in a very English speaking home. So I had exposure to Spanish speaking television, but really for the most part, I grew up many, many kids here in America watching, I grew up in, I'm a little older, I grew up seventies, eighties, and so Happy Days and Little House on the Prairie were in reruns, but still, I'd watch all of these things as a young kid.
And yeah, I enjoyed it, but I never, I had a deep emotional attachment to any of the content that I saw that a lot of times that when I talk to people now, they're like, Oh, I saw this and this really made me, And I didn't really experience that as a child because they were also different. And it was all just something part of what the entertainment industry was to be. It was something on the TV and not real to me. And so I think a lot of that kind of made up the, my story of not really even dreaming of working in entertainment. It was always attractive to me in some way of like, Oh, I think that's kinda cool. But it was never something that I brought into my internal because it was just something that just seemed so distant in so far.
Doree: That makes a lot of sense. Well, Yvette, if we could probably talk to you for hours, but we wanna be mindful of your time. And so we just have one last question, which is something we do ask all of our guests, which is, what is your skin care routine?
Yvette: Like I said, I'm a mom of two, so I'm very my, I'm like, Oh, let me just get it done. I, it's really, I just make sure I wash my face, I put some moisturizer on every day, take the makeup off at night. I've learned even I'm 50, I sometimes forget my age. I'm even I've learned even now in my fifties, even when I don't take out my makeup, I'll start to break out. So I take my makeup every night and wash my face every night. But it's really basic. I do am always, I'm on one of those people that's always on the search for something new. I was like, Ooh, let try this. Talk to my sisters. Let try this. <affirmative>. That's the basic routine is really just make sure some block moisturizer, sunblock, cleaning your face off at night.
Kate: I mean, I think we've kind of come to the terms with the fact that that's the best skin care routine. I think that's where we've, at least that's where I've landed this year. Who knows? Next year I'm sure I'll be like 20 steps, but right now. I think especially when you're trying to balance all the crap, there's no way to truly do it all. So I think fast is best.
Yvette: Yeah, it's quick and it's easy and I can remember to do it. So
Kate: Yep, that's all you need. Well, this has been so wonderful, Yvette, to get to talk to you and hear about just your work. It's been really inspirational and as we've noted emotional I'll probably need to watch Encanto this weekend. Where are you an online person? Are you someone that our listeners can follow along with online or is there another place that you like to recommend people get to go and experience your work besides Disney+?
Yvette: Yeah, I'm on Twitter and Instagram. I'm not great on them, but I am there and it definitely, my work stuff goes on there @YvettMF, whatever, Twitter and whatever it is that's kind of the handle, I guess that's what you call it. Yeah. But there's no E at the end of Yvette so it's Y V E T T mf.
Kate: Awesome. Just
Yvette: So
Doree: Everyone, thank you so much. This was so fun.
Yvette: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Doree: Well, that was fun. And as I said in our chat with her, I am really excited to start watching some of the classic Disney movies with Henry.
Kate: Yeah, I mean there some, I would say a lot of the new Disney movies have been really fantastic, like Rya and the Last Dragon is wonderful. Obviously Moana, I still cry at the music of Moana.
Doree: I tried watching Moana with him, I don't know, maybe a year ago. And he just did not have the attention span for it, but I wonder now he's able to follow a story a little bit better. So I think maybe we'll give it a try. The thing what's so funny is I do feel like if we lived somewhere that had weather, it would be like, Oh, it's a rainy Saturday afternoon, let's just cozy up and watch Moana. But
Kate: I know here it's
Doree: Like here so much. Yeah.
Kate: Going out again.
Doree: Yeah. Here it would be like, it's 95 degrees <laugh>. Let's blast the air conditioning and watch Moana <laugh>.
Kate: Very true, very true.
Doree: Anyway, Kate, how did your intention to learn more about ADHD behaviors go this week for you?
Kate: Oh, this is just gonna be a life's intention. It just kind of is what it is. But I'm just doing a lot of reading. I'm reading books and I'm also doing, I'm taking my ADHD medication. I can't remember if I mentioned that I'm newly medicated. Did I mention that on this podcast?
Doree: You mentioned it to me, but I don't,
Kate: I know. Remember up in the podcast really blur sometimes.
Doree: I know, I know.
Kate: So I started taking medication for my ADHD, whatever the fuck you wanna call it. So I'm just trying to be observant about my body, my brain, how things impact me, my self-esteem, all these things connected as one. So it's going okay. I'm doing more self-reflection as my intention this week.
Doree: Okay. I'm excited to hear about that.
Kate: I don't really know what this means yet, but I think I really need to do some work on really looking into my value, how I value myself, how I define success. How I feel about myself, my core values, what at the end of the day, what really matters to me and how do I measure my worth as a person. It's a lot. I tend to really seek external validation as or rather I use external measurements to decide how I feel about myself and I, that's not working for me <affirmative>, but I don't know how to break that habit.
Doree: Okay. This is big
Kate: Its A lot. I did some thinking on it last night. It's a lot. It's weird, mean, we don't need to get into this too deeply, but I don't know. It's very weird. It's weird being a creative person, and my job as a writer means that my work is just constantly public and there's a lot of external feedback and it's just a lot to kind of mitigate. So yeah, I'm just, as a podcaster, it's a lot too. We are me, our podcast can be measured by downloads or by ad sales or by listener reviews. All this kind of feedback is very helpful. But then I tend to internalize a lot of it and I'm not sure that I need to be doing that.
Doree: May I make a suggestion that you are, of course, welcome to take or leave at your leisure, So this is a lot of stuff that I've been thinking about with regards to my son, Henry <affirmative> because I think that there's a lot more awareness now perhaps than there was when we were growing up of the difference between external versus internal motivation and what motivates you. And I think there's been a push or just the awareness of how it's, it can be beneficial to people to be internally versus externally motivated <affirmative>.
Kate: I Like this.
Doree: And so trying to do that more with my son has made me more aware of it. And I think I am generally an internally motivated person, but it's hard not to be a little bit externally motivated. And I think everyone has to be right. There has to be a balance. You can't solely be internally motivated because then nothing anyone ever needs from you matters. You know what I mean? <laugh>, Right,
Kate: Totally.
Doree: So there does have to be a balance, but Dr. Becky has some good stuff on this. I think it can actually be helpful to read about how to do this with your kids and then apply it to yourself. Her book is great. I will say it's really good. It's really smart. I interviewed her, well, we interviewed her on this podcast before her book came out. And then for my newsletter, now we're talking, we did an event with her and I published the transcript of our conversation which we'll link to in the show notes. And her book is really good because it kind of distills everything really clearly and it feels very accessible. And it's not scoldy like I think some parenting advice or how to books can be a little scoldy. And she's not scoldy, which I really like about her. Anyway, total sidebar. Kate
Kate: <affirmative>.
Doree: Can I talk about my intentions or do you wanna keep talking about it? No,
Kate: Keep talking.
Doree: Last week I said I was gonna meal prep and I did. I made, I made a lunch for the week. It was fine. It was not great. I was trying a different recipe. I'd never made this before and I was kinda like, Meh, this is not amazing. But I still did it. And other than yesterday when I was not at home and for various reasons, I had a meal that was not that meal. I have been eating leftovers or eating the meal prep thing. So I think I'm gonna try to do that again, but tweak it a little bit. And I also call back, I like to call back to a very long ago intention. I have almost totally cleared off my desk. The only things left to clear off are like a tangle of wires, <laugh>, and various equipment that I don't use. But there was a massive pile that just existed next to me that is gone. So you were
Kate: On one of our group chats. You were giving some highlights for things that had been on your desk and it was Oh yes. A smorgasboard <laugh>.
Doree: Well, just to give you a sense, my son has, My son is obsessed with garbage trucks and he has these little plastic bins for his garbage, for his toy garbage truck. And he has something that he calls the dump, which is just a little plastic bin filled with,
Kate: He's So cute.
Doree: Like small detritus debris. And I found some stuff for his dump. I found a small yellow plastic guitar that that's like two inches. There was just all this stuff and he was like, He was like, Mama, where did this come from? <laugh>? And I was like, You know what? Great question.
Kate: <laugh> <affirmative> in my desk. <laugh>. Years and years and months and months of just building up.
Doree: Yes, exactly. So anyway, this week my intention is just to call back to what we discussed at the beginning of the episode, which I just wanna continue on this fitness journey that I've decided to be on.
Kate: Love it. And
Doree: I'll report back. You know what? It feels good.
Kate: Well, it doesn't seem like you're pressuring yourself in any way. It doesn't seem fueled by anything other than you just listening to kind of your body cues.
Doree: Yeah, it's intuitive exercising. I like that. Thank you. Just made that up. All right. Well Kate, this has been so fun and I just wanna remind everyone, Forever35 is hosted and produced by me, Doree Shafrir, and you, Kate Spencer, and produced and edited by San Junio. Sami Reid is our project manager, our network partners, Acast. Talk to you all soon. Bye.