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Ricki Lake is opening up about getting her big break as a talk show host at just 23
In a new video shared on Instagram, the actress, 57, reveals she was cast as the host of the talk show
The Ricki Lake Show aired from 1993 to 2004.
Ricki Lake is looking back at how the world got to know the real her.
The actress, 57, was already enjoying success in her field when a different opportunity came to her.
“I was basically cast into it,” Lake explains in her recently shared Instagram Reel.
“I was one of 100 women that they met with. There were journalists and models and all different types of people. I was an actor. I went and met with Garth Ancier and his team, and they chose me to do a pilot.”
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“I was 23 at the time we did the pilot and I went on the air at 24, and the show was just this sort of overnight success,” she continued.
“To this day, I look back on it. It was such a phenomenon and no one expected it, most likely me. I had truly never, ever thought that it would be the hit that it became and sort of the cultural point for so many people.”
Lake opened up about her surprise at the success of her talk show in a Sept. 2024 conversation with PEOPLE.
“I come from John Waters, being Tracy Turnblad when I was 18. I was surrounded by different types of people. I was around openly gay people for the first time in my life. What that did for me was make me see everyone as equal, so when I did my show and we had so many gay and lesbian couples featured, it was new to audiences but not to me. I didn’t think of it as anything but normal,” she explained.
Lake shared her pride in the fact that “I was able to treat every person with respect.”
“To hear back from people that grew up in Middle America, where they didn’t necessarily see people around them that looked like them that loved the way they loved … I think it was really healing and very much like a rite of passage for a lot of people that grew up watching my show,” she shared.
“I didn’t really consider that but I’m super proud that I got to be myself and treat people well. The people watching were able to reflect and learn to love themselves.”
Read the original article on People
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