YouSaid · the spoken record

Clarissa Ward

lines on the record: 66
first: 2021-09-09
most recent: 2021-09-09
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yeah. And also, you know, the problem with, if I'd say it in the UK, you end up just like being friends with all your friends who you already know when you go to university. Whereas like going to the US constituted this huge new universe opening up to me of like understanding a much deeper and broader swath of America and getting to study different subjects as well. In the UK, you pick one subject when you're 18 and that's all you do for the next three years. So it was much more appealing to me on so many levels and it was the best decision I ever made.”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think I always knew I wanted to come back to the US because I never really left that, or rather that sentiment never really left me of not quite fitting in in the UK. And there's so much in the UK, like you can't talk about being ambitious or you can't be overly earnest. Everything's about Banta and the art of being charming, which is entertaining and beguiling even, but it lacks depth. And for someone who was always attracted to intensity, I found that exhausting and I was tired of being told a little bit condescendingly that I was too ambitious or whatever, you know, because ambition is very much looked down upon in the UK in certain circles.”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's because there were no boys, David. There were no boys. So I'm a fan of boarding school for older kids. If there is. Co ed. I mean, like, I think it's unnatural at a certain point when you're 17 years old and like in the British countryside with a bunch of girls. So yeah, that's why I went to London. And also my parents had this sort of, they were like, you can only leave if you go to a school that's academically better, which actually didn't really give you that many options. But there was one school in London that's actually a boys school that only took girls for the last two years. So they were like, if you get into Westminster, then you can go. And so that's what happened.”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, I just was so desperate. We weren't allowed to wash our own hair in the school, which is the most ludicrous thing. There was a woman who would come in from town once a week and wash it for us, which, you know, when you're 12, you're like, lady, I know how to wash my hair, okay? So, my final act of rebellion was to dye my hair in the shower on my last night, and as a result I wasn't allowed to go to the graduation and everything. It was bright orange. And it was very funny, though, because when my mother picked me up, she did not care at all that I couldn't go to the graduation, that I was, you know, in deep trouble. None of that bothered her. The only thing that made her crazy was why would you ever choose orange? It's a terrible color for you. You look jaundiced.”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And make it bearable. And I was always interested in being naughty as well from a very young age, which kept me busy kept my teachers busy.”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it did. Yeah. Yeah, there's not really any getting around that. I mean, it's, you know, I'm actually a fan of boarding school for kids who are a bit older. I went at 10, I think that's too young personally. My father went at seven and he saw his parents once a year. So it's all relative. I think the Brits are slowly evolving in terms of like what constitutes emotional harm to children. But for my experience, I will say that like I take a lot of positive things from it. We weren't allowed to use the phone at my first boarding school, so we had to learn to write letters. And my father was a great correspondent. And so also was my granny. So I used to write a lot of letters and read a lot of letters and read a lot of books. We weren't really allowed TV. And it was incredibly strict. And I think you, again, you come up with all these sort of creative ways as a young child to make it fun.”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I mean, I think my mother felt it was the best education and a very sort of traditional British path to take. And I think my father probably agreed. My mother and father will always very focused on education. I had a lot of freedom always in life except on academics. That was always like very, very strict. I think also they just were both workaholic. So, like, having a 10 year old”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I didn't feel that I really fit in. And then I got sent to this oval boarding school, which again, you know, I think that definitely taught me the survivalism in the sense of being able to like fit in anywhere, make it work anywhere, be self-sufficient anywhere.”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it was a bit because by then I was sort of American. And so I came to London and all the girls were like very snotty about the way I spoke. And so then I started trying very hard to be like very, very English. And you can see my accent to this day, it's like being bilingual, but it's totally useless, except occasionally as a party trick. So yeah, I didn't feel that I fit in as well in the UK. I found them a bit stiff. And because my mother was a bit eccentric and was all like, let's order sushi and hang out and, you know, watch Thalma and Louise. And I'm like, I'm nine. We're not supposed to be doing this.”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's really true. That's really true. That's what she was called to us, Granny Griegs. And she really nurtured and encouraged this sort of storytelling. Lots of travel because she was married to my grandfather and they were in the colonial service and they lived in Singapore and they lived in Somalia. And so it was a different generation, a different era. And she used to enthrall me with her stories and she was a frustrated failed novelist herself. And I think all of that had a big impact on me, definitely”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was it was lonely. I mean my mother was amazing in terms of she was always organizing activities and ice skating and ballet and all that kind of stuff. But she was very busy and very much workaholic and so was my dad. And so there were. There were like these acres of solitude and loneliness. But at the time, it didn't make me sad. It just meant that I had to like, I think that's when I really developed this passion for storytelling. And I had a very close relationship with my father's mother, my British grandmother, Granny Griegs. Who you know?”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She's a force of nature. My mother, she's very brilliant and intense amounts of energy. And she has always been very ambitious for me in ways that are sometimes a little intense. But on the other hand, I probably wouldn't be where I am today. I certainly wouldn't be where I am today without her. And I like to joke that those kids and toddlers and tiaras got nothing on me, you know?”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So my mom was, she grew up in sort of between New Jersey and also California for a bit. And then she left the US really when she was 22 and spent most of her life then in Europe. She's one of these Americans who like talks about like Madonna and thinks they have a British No, you don't.”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So my father was a Henry Fellow at Yale and after he did his undergraduate in Cambridge and he didn't know anyone in the US and through, I guess, an acquaintance of my grandmother's, he was given my mother's friends, family's information that they would sort of look after him sometimes on weekends. And so then years later, my mother's friend was always talking about Rodney, Rodney, handsome, Rodney. And then years later, my mother went to London and was like, You need to hook me up with Hanson Rodney. And my father came to pick her up. He's six foot six. And he was driving a mini at the time. My mother said he looked like a turtle. She's 5'5", and they're absolute opposites in every way. But yeah, a match was made, and both of them have been huge influence on my life and on my career. They're incredibly supportive of my career.”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's funny you should say that because I did Anderson Cooper's show the other night and before the shot they were like, it's just so nice to see you in an elegant room. No one's ever seen me in an elegant room before.”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's a good question. I am at my parents' house in France right now because I cannot return to my home in London in the United Kingdom because Afghanistan and Pakistan are both on a red list in the UK, which would mean that if I went back to the UK, I'd have to do eleven days in a hotel quarantine. So instead, I came to my parents' house and my kids came here. You're right.”
2021-09-09 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 459 — Clarissa Ward · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source