Evie Colbert Talks Jersey, Film, and What’s Next!

Evie Colbert on Film, Community, and What’s Next

Evie Colbert may be best known to some as Stephen Colbert’s wife but as this heartfelt conversation reveals, her story is rich, complex, and deeply rooted in community, creativity, and reinvention.

Raised in Charleston, South Carolina, Evie grew up next to the historic Dock Street Theater and spent her youth immersed in performance and surrounded by world-class artists thanks to her mother’s legendary hospitality during the Spoleto Festival. That formative experience planted the seeds for what would later become her passion for building artistic communities most notably in Montclair, New Jersey.

After moving north with Stephen and starting a family, they outgrew their NYC digs.  What she and Stephen discovered in Montclair was a community with soul one she could “sink her teeth into,” as she puts it. That instinct led her to help co-found Montclair Film, a festival that began as a four-day event and has since grown into a $5 million nonprofit with year-round education, production training, and two movie theaters under its wing.

The episode’s emotional centerpiece is the long-awaited reopening of the Bellevue Theater in Upper Montclair, an iconic space that had been closed since 2017. Now, under the stewardship of Montclair Film, the Bellevue will reopen as a full-time, community-powered theater. Evie shares the risks, the hopes, and the popcorn dreams behind the project (and yes, there may one day be wine).

The conversation also talks about when the Colberts were forced to produce The Late Show from home. Evie recounts holding the camera, pretending to know what she was doing, and cheering on Stephen from behind the scenes. That intense chapter led to the unexpected: the couple forming a production company and signing a first-look deal with CBS.

There’s laughter, too, about avocados at the grocery store, the rules of her family cookbook (Does This Taste Funny?), and the perks and quirks of being a celebrity in a small town.

Above all, what shines through is a story of transition, success, obstacles, community, and family.

Evie Colbert (00:01)
Hi,

Janette (00:00)
Hi, Evie.

Rachel (00:00)
hi.

Janette (00:02)
nice to meet you.

Evie Colbert (00:03)
Nice to meet you guys.

Janette (00:05)
welcome to Lost in Jersey. It’s so great to have you on Evie Colbert

Evie Colbert (00:09)
Thank you so much. I’m happy to be here.

Janette (00:11)
wanted to pause there when I said your name because I believe you use your maiden name as well. What’s going on with that?

Rachel (00:17)
How should we

address you, ma’am?

Evie Colbert (00:19)
honestly

don’t know who I am.

This is sort of funny because

So it’s Evelyn McGee Colbert without a hyphen is my name. But I introduce myself sometimes as Evelyn McGee and sometimes as Evelyn Colbert and sometimes as Evie McGee and Evie Colbert. And so I don’t know who I am.

Janette (00:28)
Yeah.

Rachel (00:28)
⁓

You’re all of those things. That’s what it is. Yes.

Janette (00:42)
Yes, you are.

Evie Colbert (00:42)
people.

Janette (00:44)
And to that point, and I think that’s what this interview is about, is that you are more than just the Colbert part. You’ve also got your own portion of your own life that is fascinating in its own.

Evie Colbert (00:52)
Yes, I am.

Rachel (00:57)
Yes.

Evie Colbert (00:58)
Well, it’s funny

that you say that because, you know, having a public husband, people write about me and I’ve always been so frustrated that they don’t know anything about me. Like every time they write about me, they’re like, well, she, was in like Strangers with Candy for 10 seconds. I was like, well, I just happened to do that on one afternoon. That is not who I am and what I do, you know? It’s just weird.

Janette (01:06)
Mm-hmm.

Rachel (01:07)
Yeah.

Janette (01:17)
Well

Rachel (01:17)
That is

funny that that’s what it picks up because I read that as well and I was like, huh, well now I want to ask her about her acting but like I know that you do so many things and yeah.

Janette (01:22)
Mm-hmm.

Evie Colbert (01:29)
Yeah, yeah.

And so, yeah, let’s the record straight.

Janette (01:32)
Let’s

Rachel (01:32)
Yeah, this

Janette (01:33)
do it.

Rachel (01:34)
is this episode. We’re setting the record straight. Yes.

Evie Colbert (01:36)
Thank you.

Janette (01:37)
We’re gonna

we’re gonna get to the bottom of who you are.

when when I moved here one of the first things was is that you lived here? And we always wondered like why New Jersey, you know?

Evie Colbert (01:44)
Bye!

Rachel (01:47)
Yeah,

why? Why? But that’s great. And why?

Evie Colbert (01:49)
Well, well, well,

it was kind of almost almost an accident. So Steven and I are both from Charleston, South Carolina. ⁓ We met and got married long after we’d left there. you know, those were our roots. So it was not like we were New Yorkers or New Jerseyans or either one. We didn’t have a stake in that fight. well, our oldest was born in Chicago, then we moved to the city and we had a rent stabilized apartment, which was, you know, unbelievable.

Rachel (02:03)
Right.

⁓

Evie Colbert (02:13)
And we had this kind of pipe dream that we could live in the city. Well, as soon as that apartment was over and we couldn’t stay there, we went to look for other apartments. went, we cannot afford New York City. No way, no how. Second Baby was on the way. So we moved ⁓ for a short time up near Bronxville, New York, right outside of Bronxville and essentially the Bronx. We rented a house there and we just started looking and we were looking for what we could afford, frankly.

Rachel (02:23)
no.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Evie Colbert (02:41)
And at the time, Montclair did not yet have the ⁓ train, the direct train into Penn Station. It was about to come. And we had friends from Montclair who turned us onto a house someone was selling without a broker. So was kind of affordable and we just snatched it up and we got really lucky because this was in 2000. And right then is when the train came and the property values went up and Montclair kind of changed.

Rachel (02:48)
⁓

Mm-hmm.

Evie Colbert (03:08)
So we got in kind of down at the wire when it was still slightly affordable. So the answer

it was because it was affordable. also I

say I was home with the kids then we had two at that time and then a third was born right after we moved here. And so I specifically was looking for a ⁓ place, a community that had things going on. It wasn’t just a commuting community that had things in the town that I

Rachel (03:28)
Mm. Yes. Yes.

Evie Colbert (03:33)
sink my teeth into.

Because, yeah, and I did. I, you know, grown up, my parents were very civically minded and very involved in the community I grew up with. So it seemed natural to me to get involved. We’ve loved living here. It’s been great.

Janette (03:35)
and you did and you did.

Yeah,

before we get into more about New Jersey, tell us a little bit about young Evelyn. What what were you into and how did you, pursue those dreams?

Rachel (03:54)
Yeah.

Evie Colbert (03:56)
It’s great that you ask actually because it kind of segues into what I do now in that I grew up in Charleston, South Carolina right next to theater called the Dock Street Theater. It is on the site of one of the first theaters in America and it was very old and probably out of convenience and possibly because I asked. My mother sent me to acting classes there because all I had to do was walk next door.

Janette (04:17)
Nice.

Rachel (04:18)
That is definitely

convenient. Yeah.

Evie Colbert (04:20)
Yeah, it was so convenient

for her and I loved it and I did it forever, like from, I don’t know, middle school, all through high school. And I did a lot of community theater, a lot of performing as a young person in Charleston. that was sort of always a passion of mine. And then in

I think it was, the Spoleto Festival came to Charleston, South Carolina. This is an arts and music festival that was founded by Giancarlo Manotti in Spoleto, Italy. And then they brought ⁓

Rachel (04:46)
⁓

Evie Colbert (04:46)
the festival

to America and they picked Charleston as the American home.

The festival is still going on actually all these years later. again, because my family lived next to this theater, my ⁓ parents got very involved because my mother hosted a daily wine and cheese party at our house for all the musicians that were performing at the theater next door. For the entire, it was really awesome and it was for ⁓ the festival’s 21 days. ⁓

Janette (05:06)
Wow.

Rachel (05:07)
That’s awesome.

Mmm.

Evie Colbert (05:14)
She just kind of said yes, and that lasted for my parents 20 years. And they would do this for these days of the festival. It starts Memorial Day, goes to mid to early June. And we made lifelong friends. Yo-Yo Ma and his wife came there when they just were married. And they’re still dear, dear friends of ours. And ⁓ Paula Robeson, a flutist, and they’re all really close friends of ours. But also for me as a young, you know, young teenager.

Janette (05:19)
That’s incredible.

Rachel (05:34)
Wow.

Janette (05:42)
Mm-hmm.

Evie Colbert (05:44)
I met professional artists. met not just musicians. It was really chamber musicians that my mother got to know because that was, our house became their green room. But I mean, Tennessee Williams was there and I mean, there were just ballet dancers and actors. And I, as the young girl who’d been taking acting classes all her life, thought, these are people who actually do this as a living. And it changed my whole perspective because I had never met people who were professional artists.

Rachel (05:53)
Hmm.

my gosh.

Janette (05:56)
my gosh.

Mm-hmm. ⁓

Rachel (06:06)
Yeah!

Evie Colbert (06:13)
I got the bug, I guess you could say. So that was, well, right. I mean, it was actually

Rachel (06:17)
For sure. How could you not?

Janette (06:18)
That’s, but I’m.

Evie Colbert (06:21)
real eye-opening experience because there weren’t a lot of professional artists in Charleston in 1977, 78, 79, and they certainly were different, these people that I met. Different perspectives, different way of living. ⁓ And to my parents’ credit, they were welcoming to all these people.

Rachel (06:33)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Evie Colbert (06:41)
non-judgmental, which I learned a lot from my parents at that time. mean, South Carolina is a conservative place now and it still was then. But you know, my parents welcomed all kinds of people into their home with a very warm and Southern, you know, so nice to meet you kind of thing. ⁓ So that’s kind of what started me on the idea of being, first I worked as an actor, I tried to work as an actress, but also being involved

the arts always. I’ve always been involved in the arts.

Rachel (07:09)
That makes a lot of sense. That’s like the through line for you then. ⁓

Evie Colbert (07:13)
Yeah, yeah. Well, and the funny thing

is Stephen was doing the same thing, although we didn’t know each other, right? So he lived just down the street from me and he and his mother actually were very involved in the festival. He performed at the festival. So we, we had these kinds of

Janette (07:18)
Mm-hmm.

Evie Colbert (07:28)
experiences without really knowing each other. Yeah. Yeah. It was really funny.

Rachel (07:28)
without knowing each other, but just, that’s crazy.

Janette (07:31)
Yeah,

I have heard this story.

he has told the story several times. Yeah.

Evie Colbert (07:35)
He likes to talk and talk about how we

met. He goes on and on about it. I like to say, we just met at a party and he’s like 30 minutes.

Janette (07:39)
the theater you met.

Rachel (07:41)
Hahaha

Janette (07:43)
Hahaha!

Rachel (07:44)
There’s always someone in

a couple that’s gonna give the extra. I think that’s me. No, no. No. Yes.

Janette (07:48)
Bye.

Evie Colbert (07:48)
Well, it’s not surprising that it’s him, right? He’s a talker and he likes to make tell a story and he’s also

a huge romantic. So, you know, all of this fits right in. makes it, I mean, it’s all true. It’s not like he’s making it up, but he spends a lovely story.

Rachel (08:01)
Right. It

is a lovely story.

Janette (08:04)
Hey,

There’s just such an endearing connection between the two of you. It is really quite a beautiful love story.

Rachel (08:12)
Yes.

Evie Colbert (08:12)
That’s

so sweet. Well, we feel really lucky. We really do.

what’s sort

fun about the stage of life where we are now, we’re empty nesters, our kids are grown, and we have kind of found a way to work together that we never thought we would really. was determined to have my own life, even though I stayed home with the kids for a long time, I was doing a lot of my own things. But then when COVID hit, we had to produce this TV show out of the house.

Rachel (08:36)
Right.

Evie Colbert (08:36)
So suddenly I was way up in his business, you know? And it was hard. It was hard

Rachel (08:39)
Yeah. Was that hard at first?

Evie Colbert (08:45)
because

it was just a weird time, right? We were all, first of of anxiety that we all had, but then in addition to that, he didn’t know how to translate. Stephen.

Rachel (08:48)
Yeah, of course!

Janette (08:48)
Yeah, we’re

Yeah.

Evie Colbert (08:54)
to

his core as a performer and loves a live audience. There was no live audience over Zoom. And you’re doing your show there and it’s going out across the airwaves. You don’t know how it’s being received.

Janette (08:59)
Mm-hmm.

Rachel (09:04)
And you’re holding the camera,

so is he trying to make you laugh? Like is that what he was trying to do?

Evie Colbert (09:09)
Well, this is kind

of what I realized when I say he was anxious. I realized

it’s like when your child is up on stage and you’re like, I just needed to be like, this is, you’re going to be okay. We got this. this. And so it was two things. Most of what I feel like I needed to do was just laugh and tell him that he was at least making one person laugh. But I also needed to,

Janette (09:18)
I love that.

Rachel (09:22)
You got this!

Janette (09:22)
Yeah, yeah,

Hahaha

Evie Colbert (09:33)
pretend like I knew what I was doing, which was totally impossible because all I would do is put on headphones and listen to his crew and they would tell me what to do. But if something went wrong, I had no idea. You know, like I can remember interviews where there was no audio and Steven couldn’t hear the guests and he’d look at me and I’d go, I don’t, I don’t know. don’t know. I’ll unplug it and plug it back in, which most of the time actually worked, but yeah.

Janette (09:46)
you

Yeah.

Rachel (09:56)
a very good idea. It usually works.

Janette (09:58)
⁓

always. Yeah, that’s it. I actually did that right before my mic wasn’t working.

Rachel (09:59)
Yeah, we’re very good at that. Yeah.

Evie Colbert (10:01)
Right.

so all of that created this kind

camaraderie that was a new stage of our relationship that sort of happened simultaneously with also our children growing and leaving the house and having more free time and me as a person looking for something else to do. I’ve been, I know we’re gonna talk about it later, but I’ve been working with the Montclair Film for a long, time,

Rachel (10:10)
Mm.

Yes, yes.

Evie Colbert (10:30)
I was ready for something else as

created a production company and now we produce together and we have a first look deal with CBS. So we’re really working together now, which is actually

of lovely. And we never thought it would happen ever.

Rachel (10:40)
Yeah.

Yeah. my parents worked, they didn’t at first work together and then they ended up being in the same company and working together as partners for most of my life. And do you feel like you had to transition to be able to have conversations at home that weren’t about work?

that was a hard thing for them to

you know, my parents would always bring work home to the dinner table and we were like, okay, you guys, like I felt like I knew their whole portfolio of companies, like, you know, which company is gonna go under, who are they, what tech they’re working on and then,

Evie Colbert (11:08)
That’s interesting.

I will say it’s very early on would say to Stephen, like, your job stops at the door. You’re not the boss when you come in this house. And that, you know, there’s a little switch there when you’ve been, when you are, you know, the leader of an organization, and yet I also was always eager to hear about how things were going and always sort of, ⁓ we would share a lot of that. So, I mean, our kids might say we did do a lot of talking at the table.

Rachel (11:22)
Yeah.

Mmm.

you

Evie Colbert (11:39)
But now, since they’re not around, ⁓ we probably do too much of it. It is sometimes hard

to turn it off, you know? Yeah.

Rachel (11:47)
Yeah, yeah.

Janette (11:48)
What else is

there to talk about, Rachel?

Rachel (11:52)
you know

what, Janette, that’s so true. I told Bill to stop talking about work a while ago too, like come in the door and let’s just, I don’t know if I wanna hear about that all day, but then we just talk about our kids. So then you’re right, I don’t know. I don’t have the answer, I was just asking.

Evie Colbert (12:03)
Yeah.

Right.

Janette (12:09)
Bye.

Evie Colbert (12:10)
Well, and there are

just so many things right now in particular that are just so hard to talk about.

Rachel (12:16)
⁓ that’s very valid.

Janette (12:16)
Exactly.

Rachel (12:18)
talk about the news, your work or the kids. We got nothing.

Evie Colbert (12:19)
Right, Yes.

Janette (12:22)
Well, you guys are the news right now. That must be

hard to not. I mean, I’m sure that living in the world that you live in, you always are somewhat a news topic. But right now, it’s probably hard to live through all of this, you know, that’s happening.

Evie Colbert (12:36)
This is very strange.

Rachel (12:36)
Yeah.

Evie Colbert (12:38)
We’ve never really sort of lived through a moment like this. I mean, we were sort of laughing think you could kind of think of the bookends of Stevens, at least his, his career in late night is bookended in 2006, I think it was he, he gave the White House correspondence dinner and it went crazy viral and like YouTube was just starting and it was, it was a huge moment.

Rachel (12:48)
Mm-hmm.

Ha ha. ⁓ Yes.

Janette (12:55)
Yeah, yeah.

Evie Colbert (13:01)
but nowhere near what’s happening now. But they’re sort of like the beginning and the end kind of, and now it’s because of social media is just so much bigger. And so we’ve never lived through anything quite like this. And I think, I actually think for our kids, it’s kind of weird because they said, our youngest son said, dad, it feels like you died. Everything I read is like, he was so great and you’re so great. And he’s like, but you’re still around and this is weird.

Rachel (13:02)
I remember that.

Mm-hmm.

Janette (13:29)
⁓ yeah.

Rachel (13:29)
That’s true. It does have that that tinge to it when you’re reading the the headlines

Evie Colbert (13:35)
and obviously it’s not over. I mean, that is over, decidedly over, but you know, there’ll be a lot more that we’ll do. We just don’t know what it’ll be. I think for, for, for even for Steven and for me and for the kids, when you read these things, it’s lovely. It’s like, again, being able to read what people say about you often after you’re gone, you don’t have this chance. So I suppose that’s nice, but it also feels emotional. It feels really emotional. Like I’m over here, guys. I’m okay.

Janette (13:38)
yeah.

Rachel (13:40)
It’s… of course.

Janette (13:53)
my god.

Rachel (13:58)
Yeah.

Evie Colbert (14:00)
You know?

Janette (14:01)
I’m okay, I’m okay.

Rachel (14:03)
Hey!

Janette (14:03)
That is interesting because maybe it’s because I’ve been kind of diving into your, being a producer and things that you have cooking, you did a cookbook and you guys have been working together. I feel like I was like, what’s next? What are they gonna do?

Evie Colbert (14:10)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Rachel (14:16)
Yeah, I think

Evie Colbert (14:16)
Yeah. Yeah.

Rachel (14:16)
that’s true too. I have also had the same feeling like, well, maybe it’s liberating in a,

Janette (14:22)
Yeah.

Evie Colbert (14:23)
think it’s kind of, feels a little bit like the future arrived sooner than I expected it. it’s very sad in the way it’s happening. You know, Steven has worked with a lot of these people for 20 years and we’ve known them and we’re really close to them. And

Rachel (14:28)
sad. Yeah.

Evie Colbert (14:34)
just the end of something really magical. And I think

what no one will really ever truly understand is how beautiful ⁓ the team is there. And I give Stephen a lot of credit because it comes from the top down. are, there’s just a wonderful atmosphere there of support and fun and humor and openness. And they all work together beautifully. And

Rachel (14:49)
Mm-hmm.

Evie Colbert (14:58)
It’s group of people working together to create something that they love doing. And so a real work family, a real work family, and that is what is tearing everybody

Rachel (15:02)
real work family.

Janette (15:08)
such a moment of change for media in general. mean, it’s just fascinating what is going to happen to this landscape of like interviewing people, the format in which he has been working and all of the people on the set have been working. Where do they go?

Evie Colbert (15:11)
Yeah.

know. I mean, it was funny.

to our youngest who’s 24,

I said, I feel like you guys are the problem. I know you don’t have television. Not one of our three kids have television. They watch everything on their laptop and they watch a lot of things over YouTube, but they watch a lot of podcasts. So I was like, explain to me

Janette (15:35)
Mm-hmm.

Rachel (15:36)
Right.

Evie Colbert (15:45)
no offense, a podcast.

Rachel (15:47)
No offense taken!

Janette (15:48)
That’s

fine, bye.

Rachel (15:48)
We’re-

Evie Colbert (15:49)
But

I said to my son, like, a

show? And he said, well, it feels more real. And I think that kind of the realness of like the conversation we’re having right now is hard to duplicate when you’ve got cameras and lights and all of the things that provides that kind

Rachel (15:53)
Mm-hmm.

Janette (15:53)
Mm-hmm.

Evie Colbert (16:05)
glitz and glamour, which is what

Janette (16:06)
Mm-hmm.

Evie Colbert (16:07)
I think my generation was drawn to back in the day of

I think for whatever now, think particularly younger people, don’t care about that.

Rachel (16:16)
You’re totally

right. that generation feels like all of that is inauthentic and they want something real and they feel like this long form conversation where people say ⁓ and ⁓ and are thinking about what they’re wanna say is real. ⁓ They don’t want any glitz, glamor or pretense.

Evie Colbert (16:20)
Yes.

Right.

Yeah.

Rachel (16:35)
We also wonder, you know, is it because, well, for us, is it because we don’t make any money? We’re like two middle-aged women doing this for fun, that it’s authentic? But like, if we were making money?

Janette (16:42)
Hahaha!

Evie Colbert (16:46)
Nothing would still be authentic if you made money. If you made money, it’d still

be authentic.

Janette (16:50)
Yeah,

I think money would make it even more authentic.

Rachel (16:55)
That’s that’ll be our ad if if

Evie Colbert (16:57)
There you go.

Rachel (16:58)
you want us to be more authentic, please donate to the go fund me page

Evie Colbert (17:01)
Exactly.

Janette (17:02)
my God, you guys,

but you know, the thing that’s great though is that everybody’s learning this new medium and some people are learning it faster than others. And for us, we’re having to get rid of some of our old ideas. know, yeah, I mean, as in, being more polished or being professional you’re like, the way you’re supposed to do, and they’re like, actually, no, that isn’t the way you do it anymore. You’re supposed to just.

Rachel (17:07)
Mm-hmm.

Evie Colbert (17:13)
really?

Rachel (17:13)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Janette (17:25)
throw it out there It’s an interesting thing.

Rachel (17:28)
We’ve

learned a lot in this process. mean, we’re going, we’ll be doing this for almost three years coming up in, when is it? January, February? ⁓ Thanks. And it’s been such a great journey because not only have we met so many amazing people, ⁓ but we’ve also, yes, like learned, okay, we were so from that generation of it has to be perfect. It has to look like this. And we didn’t want to even do video at first. And we didn’t because

Evie Colbert (17:33)
Well.

Janette (17:36)
in February, we’re in about two and half years, yeah.

Evie Colbert (17:38)
Congrats.

Right, right,

Rachel (17:56)
It shouldn’t be about looks. It should be just about

Evie Colbert (17:58)
right, right.

Rachel (17:59)
the quality. then, well, no, no, you can get more people if you have a YouTube channel as well.

Evie Colbert (18:04)
That’s also I find

so interesting is the video aspect. I’m still like podcasts or what I do when I walk or, or exercise or do, or like it’s in my ear. don’t need, I don’t plan to look at it. So now I feel like every, or even this is happening with like sub stacks things I want to read or suddenly now they’re all video. like, wait a minute. I just want to read that or listen to it. Why do I to look at it?

Rachel (18:10)
Yes! Same.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Janette (18:20)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Video.

Rachel (18:27)
Yes,

it’s so true, but I think that’s totally our generation.

Evie Colbert (18:32)
isn’t it interesting? I mean, certainly people are still fascinated with celebrity and all of that, but this kind of, they don’t want the, the here’s so-and-so coming out of the red velvet curtain, that kind of Broadway-esque, I don’t

Rachel (18:37)
Mm-hmm.

Janette (18:44)
Yeah.

I think it’s probably layered on to the society of people wanting truth,

want to know behind the curtain of everything, you know? And it’s like everything has been so manipulated, I guess they feel, that they want to just hear from regular people. They also seem, I was talking to Rachel, it seems like…

Evie Colbert (18:53)
Yep, yep, yep.

Janette (19:04)
everything that you learn about like marketing in this industry is it’s, it has to help people. It has to give, you have to give people something. Yeah, it’s like you’re either gonna tell them how to be healthier know, how to do this, how to do that, or go behind the scenes and learn what really happened.

Evie Colbert (19:11)
interesting.

Janette (19:23)
like,

Rachel (19:23)
Yes,

it’s like self-help to the Nth degree, like, give me the five things, like those are the podcasts or the things that go viral, the five things that will make you happy or the five things that, you know, help your morning or it’s always like how this can help you or that you’re seeing a, like a CEO or a fabulously wealthy person, how did they get there? And how can I do that? It’s all self-improvement, which is kind of,

Evie Colbert (19:32)
Yeah. that’s so interesting. Yeah.

⁓

Rachel (19:51)
Intense and very very American, you know, it’s like uniquely American of like you don’t like what you have let’s fix it and

Evie Colbert (19:52)
Yeah.

Right, is, it is.

Rachel (20:00)
fix fix fix fix Yeah

Evie Colbert (20:01)
Yeah, I mean, that’s interesting. I mean, the other thing

Janette (20:03)
Yeah.

Evie Colbert (20:04)
that’s kind of interesting about this moment that we’re in, Stephen and I, and sort of everyone writing about us is it’s being on the inside of it. I am realizing how many mistakes

people always make. era of disinformation is so rampant that I don’t know how anybody gets accurate information anymore because everybody says they’re an expert.

Janette (20:21)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Rachel (20:22)
I

Evie Colbert (20:24)
Everybody

says, have the inside facts and I read these things and think you’re wrong. That is not true. And what you just espoused is saying, these are the facts about, you know, what they’re talking about the late show and they’re talking about late night and they’re talking about the economics of it, which is all what they’re saying is wrong. And what I find fascinating is that then how do you know where to go? Because everybody’s got a little bit of a mistake. It seems

Rachel (20:31)
Yes.

Janette (20:46)
Yeah.

Rachel (20:49)
Yeah.

Janette (20:49)
You have

to just decide to live in your reality. Rachel and I, we’re having this conversation. of course, you know, we all know about our bubbles, but it’s almost like you now have this, multiple gods, like we’re gonna go with this one and you guys are going with this one. you just decide to believe it sounds like it fits within your theory about where you should be in life. And that person’s talking in your language. So I’ll believe them.

Evie Colbert (21:02)
Yeah.

then have

we ever as a country, how are we ever gonna come together, right?

Rachel (21:14)
I don’t know.

Janette (21:16)
we’re.

Rachel (21:16)
I feel like it has to all blow apart. mean, mean, it sort of is blowing apart,

we’re not listening to each other, obviously. but the way people are speaking to each other is terrible. So why would you want to listen if you’re being spoken to like that? So I don’t know. I don’t know.

Evie Colbert (21:23)
No,

Totally.

I don’t know. Yeah.

Janette (21:35)
Well,

you’re definitely in the very center of something right now, but as we all have learned about this society, it will just be forgotten soon. It will just be over and on to the next thing. And you’re just right now kind of in the eye of a storm. we want to know more about what you’ve been doing in Montclair since you’ve been here. You are the kind of

Evie Colbert (21:45)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Rachel (21:47)
Yeah.

Evie Colbert (21:51)
100%. Yeah, yeah.

Janette (22:00)
the first lady of New Jersey film in my mind. Yeah, yeah, Well, I mean, you have been the head of the Montclair Film Festival and the president of the board and you’ve been there since the beginning.

Rachel (22:04)
Yes. Yeah, right. It’s a good one.

Evie Colbert (22:05)
I’ll take that title.

the founder of Montclair film is a guy named Bob Feinberg who had the idea of bringing a festival to Montclair. And he sat down with me about 16 years ago now or something and said, I have this idea.

like, let’s do it, I’ll help you. So he and I together, the first thing we did was.

Rachel (22:30)
Mm-hmm.

Evie Colbert (22:33)
We recruited other board members. established it as a nonprofit, 501C3. We raised some

we started with just a four day festival in May. And now we’re about to have our 15th festival. so, you know, for all those years, we have grown now into a five and a half million dollar organization. I’m now the president of the board. I’ve been an officer of the board since we started.

Janette (22:45)
Wow.

Rachel (22:46)
Yeah.

Evie Colbert (22:55)
Bob moved to New York and he’s still on the board, but he’s no longer in a leadership position. And so, yeah, it’s been a long time I’ve been working on this and it’s been joyful for me. I love it. I think it’s a fabulous organization

Rachel (23:04)
Mm-hmm.

Evie Colbert (23:10)
nobody, not one of us expected we’d be where we are in, in 2025, all those years ago. You know, I mean, it’s, it’s amazing.

Rachel (23:18)
Is it beyond

your wildest dreams? Like what were your initial hopes and dreams for the Montclair Film Festival?

Evie Colbert (23:22)
Well, so we really, was,

was after the recession of 2008. And part of the idea was to give an economic boon the, to the, not just Montclair, but the Montclair and the surrounding areas. And again, I went back to my experience growing up with the Spoleto Festival and I saw how restaurants had come and, artists had moved to Charleston and it had really changed Charleston in a significant way. And not that I thought we would change Montclair, but

Rachel (23:33)
Yeah.

⁓

Evie Colbert (23:46)
The thing that’s different from a festival than a year round thing is the sort of excitement, right? So what we wanted was kind of that just excitement of a festival. But what we immediately did, even at the very first idea was that we also wanted an education component. And that has been something that has expanded way beyond our wildest dreams. we’re now a year round organization. We have a very robust film education program and we’re running all kinds of

Rachel (23:52)
Yes.

Evie Colbert (24:13)
production assistant programs as well to give people real hands-on experience in film. But now we operate a movie theater. And as we’re going to talk about, we’re taking over a second movie theater. So we do so much more than have just a small festival. Right. So I don’t know, to answer your question, I don’t know that we ever thought we’d be that big, but we always thought it’d be more than just a festival because we wanted it to be, we wanted education to be a part of it. We started a kid’s short competition.

Rachel (24:20)
Yes.

Than just the festival. Yeah, yeah.

Evie Colbert (24:39)
The very first thing we did was having kids submit short films for a contest. So it’s always been part of the idea was to grow into something that would be meaningful in lots of ways. And here we are, you know?

Rachel (24:40)
Mm-hmm.

Janette (24:42)
Yeah.

Rachel (24:51)
And here

you are. And it’s such good timing too that you have learned so much and the education program has grown so much because it sort of coincides nicely with Governor Murphy’s tax credits and bringing so much film and TV production to New Jersey with the Netflix and all of that. You’ll have educated people on how to participate in crew.

Evie Colbert (25:01)
Yes. Yes.

That’s what we want. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’ve done a little bit of it we’re hoping to expand it more. They sort of what you call below the line jobs, jobs that aren’t the director, the screenwriter or the actor. ⁓ They’re all really good union jobs. They’re all the kind of people like we were saying that work on Stephen Show. All those people, the script operators, the editors, the camera operators, all of those people in film have great jobs and usually,

Rachel (25:20)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yes.

Evie Colbert (25:39)
They can be steady work and you can join a union and have security. we are, we think about it sort of in Montclair film about meeting this moment, this moment you’re talking about in New Jersey, where New Jersey is seeking to really

Rachel (25:47)
Mm-hmm.

Evie Colbert (25:52)
become.

Rachel (25:53)
Hollywood or yes.

Janette (25:54)
Yeah. Or, yeah.

Evie Colbert (25:54)
Hollywood of the East or at least a second

or third place where film is happening, know, and film and television production. you can see it happening even though

Janette (25:58)
Yeah. Yeah.

Rachel (25:59)
Yes.

everywhere.

Janette (26:04)
yeah.

Evie Colbert (26:05)
working very consciously to kind of become the preeminent film organization. I mean, we think we are, there are not a lot of nonprofit film organizations in New Jersey. And we really think of ourselves as a preeminent one that is basically working with studios, partnering with

with Netflix and the other studios to really be a presence here for people in New Jersey who want to work and want to work in this business, you know?

Rachel (26:29)
Right,

Janette (26:29)
you have this festival to highlight some of the films

worldwide. I know that a lot of the films that come here are from

Evie Colbert (26:33)
Yes.

Janette (26:37)
impressive directors and films that are at Cannes Film Festival that have won, here and they open up, along with local films that are done by people in town, also New Jersey

Evie Colbert (26:41)
Yep. Yep.

Janette (26:49)
But you also have

theater

that you have one downtown, the Claridge, that was remodeled recently and is lovely and beautiful. And now you have moved to take over a

Evie Colbert (26:53)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Rachel (26:53)
The Clare edge.

Yes.

Evie Colbert (26:58)
Yeah, thank you.

Janette (27:04)
theater

Evie Colbert (27:04)
Right.

Janette (27:05)
everyone that lives in this town has wondered

it will come back. And it finally did this last month.

Evie Colbert (27:08)
Yeah, yeah, we finally

did. Well, we’ve been trying for a long time. So the theater closed in 2017, think it was, Bowtie moved out, broke their lease from the gentleman who owns the building. And it has been dark since then. And so after a lot of negotiation, we have signed a five-year lease to start operating the movie theater. We will probably

what you call like a soft opening right before the festival in October, but we’ll officially

start showing films during the festival and then after the festival right around the first of November, we will full-time be operating that as a full-time theater like the Claridge. So it’s really exciting for us because there’s

synergy between the two, know, operating two theaters in the same town allow you to have some flexibility, but it also gives us an opportunity to have slightly, well, a presence in Upper Montclair where we used to rent that during the festival all the time. We want to bring film back to there. I mean, the families that live in Upper Montclair,

Janette (27:49)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Evie Colbert (28:02)
I mean, when my kids were little, I would drop them off at the Bellevue and it was a great little reprieve because they could, you know, they could go to get pizza and ice cream and a movie and you got like hours before you need to come get them. Yes. And you can watch in the theater. Right. So we’re excited too. We’re really excited. It’s risky, you know, and we’re really hoping that the community will help us. We’re going to be launching a capital campaign for some support because it is,

Janette (28:05)
Yeah.

Rachel (28:06)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

It’s, and we could walk to the theater. So we’re very excited. Yeah.

Janette (28:12)
Yeah.

Rachel (28:21)
Yeah.

Evie Colbert (28:28)
it’s hard. People aren’t going to the movies the way they did before COVID.

Hopefully we’ll reach new people. We won’t just take the same people who are going to the Claridge and have them come to the Bellevue. The goal is that.

more people will start coming and that’s what we hope. we’re really hopeful that the community turns out. I know they’ve been eager for it to come back and now is the chance to make it happen, you know.

Janette (28:46)
Yeah, yeah.

I think everybody is aware that movie theaters are, you know, not getting the kind of patronage that they used to get. And everybody I think is simultaneously like, not going and also worried that they’re gonna lose the movie theater. Like you’re like, you’re not doing your part, but you also don’t want it to go away. It’s like, we’re like a little confused.

Rachel (28:49)
Yes.

Evie Colbert (28:55)
Yep.

Right. It’s like I said to my

son about you’re part of the problem since you don’t watch the television show. Right? But I think, I actually think people will come back because the Bellevue theater is in this great location. Like we just said, it’s in the heart of Upper Montclair. It’s so community focused. There are so many neighborhood organizations that people want to go to that it just kind of, can walk by it in a way that

Janette (29:13)
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Rachel (29:13)
Yeah.

It’s amazing.

Evie Colbert (29:33)
just open up for people as a chance to say, let’s pop in and see what’s happening.

Rachel (29:37)
Will the

Janette (29:37)
Yeah.

Rachel (29:37)
programming be more like indie or is it gonna be a range like the Claridge?

Evie Colbert (29:43)
think it’ll be a range. We’re

probably gonna do slightly bigger, sort of more studio films, more family-focused films there at the Bellevue, which is the way it used to be. Just because they’re bigger theaters, and ⁓ it now has three, it used to have four. There’ll only be three screens now because the ⁓ landlord took one of the downstairs screens to make it into a separate retail space. So we’ll have three screens, but they are bigger.

Rachel (29:51)
Okay.

Janette (29:52)
Makes sense.

Rachel (29:56)
Mm, right. right.

Evie Colbert (30:08)
Tom Hall, our artistic director, does all the programming himself of the Claridge and he will program the Bellevue. And he’s a genius. He’s absolutely a genius. He’s so good at this and he has figured out what makes a Montclair audience show up, you know? And I always like to tell people, particularly when I’m looking for sponsorship or support, that Montclair has a very unique

Rachel (30:15)
He is. is. I know.

Janette (30:15)
Yeah, he is. Yeah. Yeah.

Rachel (30:23)
Mm-hmm.

Janette (30:23)
Yeah.

Evie Colbert (30:30)
audience. It’s a very discerning population. know, half of the New York Times lives here, half of the people who live here work in… Yeah, you would, you would. But you know, like certain movies that don’t play well nationally play really well in Montclair. And then, you know, there might be some movies that play well nationally that don’t do as well for us. So I think what Tom has done is figure out what really draws people here.

Janette (30:36)
It does.

Rachel (30:37)
You would

have too many reviewers coming to that opening. ⁓

Janette (30:42)
you

Mm-hmm.

Evie Colbert (30:56)
So it’s working for the Claridge, we’re doing well and I think and hope it will work with the Bellevue, fingers crossed.

Rachel (30:59)
Good.

Janette (31:01)
Is the theater been renovated or the screens new? the sound? How is that?

Evie Colbert (31:05)
It has

been partially renovated. The landlord has done some

probably not going to do the kind of work we did at the Claridge. So it’ll look a little different because he did the work, but ⁓ the equipment is working and the screens are working and all of that. There’s just a little cosmetic differences that we might go in and judge it up a little bit, make it look a little bit more like Montclair film. Depends, frankly, on how much that would cost. We’re still getting quotes, but… ⁓

Janette (31:26)
Yeah.

Hahaha

Evie Colbert (31:31)
It’s functioning and it looks great and there’ll be popcorn and there’ll be Diet Coke and there’ll be eventually maybe alcohol. We have to apply for a nonprofit liquor license. It took us three years to get that at the Claridge. Hopefully it won’t take three years to get it at the Bellevue, but we’re gonna start that process as well because who doesn’t wanna take a glass of wine in for a movie, right? That’s kind of fun. Yeah, yeah.

Janette (31:43)
Crazy.

Rachel (31:50)
It’s a great idea. It is fun.

Janette (31:53)
Well,

what I’ll say is that I have complete faith that it’s going to be successful because you have carried the festival through strikes, COVID, all these things, and you did go through the closure of the Bellevue as well. had to, you know, reconfigure people in the festival. So you you you’ve handled many different challenges. And yeah, mean, things are different. But think how

Rachel (32:02)
my

Evie Colbert (32:06)
Yeah.

Well, thank you for that.

Janette (32:16)
the idea that you don’t have right now that’s going to make people get back to theaters or whatever it is, you know?

Evie Colbert (32:21)
That’s true. That’s true. You just

don’t know. You really don’t know what it is. Well, it might be candy. We’ll see. We’ll just keep trying.

Rachel (32:23)
Mm-mm.

Janette (32:24)
I know I come up with these. Yeah, the little trail

Rachel (32:28)
Yeah,

Janette (32:29)
of candy to the thing.

Rachel (32:30)
sugar helps, always.

Evie Colbert (32:31)
Sugar helps, popcorn helps. We have

really good popcorn. I love our popcorn.

Janette (32:35)
Yeah.

Rachel (32:36)
could I buy a Montclair film t-shirt there too? Okay.

Evie Colbert (32:38)
Absolutely, absolutely. We love our

Janette (32:40)
that’s good.

we’re excited and we’re just so happy that you chose Montclair, chose New Jersey to move to way back when and one of the questions I’m going to throw this in is that what is it like living, you’re kind of a big fish in a small pond. What has that been like living here? ⁓

Rachel (32:47)
Yes.

Evie Colbert (32:49)
that’s nice of you. Thank you. We are

You know,

I think Montclair is lovely that way. Most people just let us be ourselves. you know, I think it was nice for our kids that we were already here and Stephen’s kind of ⁓ celebrityism happened over a period of time so that most of their friends already knew him as their dad, you know? And so, you know, Stephen became more famous and it was just like, well, that’s what his dad does or her dad does, but.

Janette (33:07)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah.

Rachel (33:18)
Yeah.

Evie Colbert (33:26)
You know, it’s not, Montclarians are a little bit like New York City folks. They kind of give you the like, they’re not demonstrative, you know. Although, Stephen did say after, after the recent unpleasantness, he went to Whole Foods and he was like, he had like a crowd of people following him around Whole Foods with sad expressions on their face. Like, Tiffany like, ⁓ how are you?

Janette (33:29)
Yeah. They’re not gonna wait. Yeah, definitely.

Rachel (33:32)
You

Yes.

Janette (33:40)
⁓ really?

Rachel (33:43)
With- with sympathy like he’s dying. Yeah.

Janette (33:47)
Okay,

you know, I’m so glad you brought up the grocery store because both Rachel and I can attest to being the calm, locals because Rachel recently had a whole entire event at King’s with you.

Rachel (34:03)
⁓

it was Kiggs. It wasn’t an event. No, with Steven, he was, avocados and I was, right.

Evie Colbert (34:05)
With me?

which I’m always looking for by the way. It’s really hard to find them.

Rachel (34:12)
hard to find them and when you get them, it’s hard to eat them on time. It’s just the worst thing. It is, it is. So I think I was out because my daughters were like adamant that I was gonna make this taco, whatever, with that.

Evie Colbert (34:12)
Good. Try to find the good one. Yes, yes. It’s an avocado saga. Yes.

Janette (34:15)
Yes, yeah.

Evie Colbert (34:26)
Yep, yep.

Rachel (34:27)
So I’m looking at avocados and I guess I don’t have a poker face. I must have looked extremely disappointed. And then I hear a voice behind me say, ⁓ yeah, no, it’s hard to find good avocados. I actually got too many. Do you want my avocados? I didn’t even know who it was. Then I turn and I’m looking at Steven’s face and I was

yeah, I do want them. That’d be great.

Evie Colbert (34:52)
So funny. Well, just yesterday I was at King’s and ⁓ the produce manager came up to me who I don’t, I don’t remember. think it was named, I think he said his name was Tony. I can’t remember. He couldn’t have been sweeter. And again, he’s like, I’m so sorry. I know it was really sweet. Yeah. Yeah.

Rachel (35:09)
That’s so nice. Oh, that’s great.

Janette (35:12)
That’s, that is

it’s kind of nice that everybody, you know, they left you alone, but now they know that you’re going through something they’re they’re gonna just say a little something. That’s pretty sweet. Yeah, that’s pretty nice.

Evie Colbert (35:18)
Right. Yes. That’s true. These are our people. Yeah. It’s nice. Yeah.

Rachel (35:22)
Yeah, these are your people. Wait, speaking

of groceries though, I love the title of your cookbook. It’s phenomenal. ⁓

Janette (35:27)
Yes. Yeah. Yeah,

Evie Colbert (35:28)
⁓ do you? Thank you.

Janette (35:31)
because we all say it. We’re like, does this taste funny?

Rachel (35:33)
Does this

Evie Colbert (35:33)
I

Rachel (35:34)
taste funny? It has so many good meanings.

Evie Colbert (35:34)
know exactly. Stephen threw that out early and then we kind of forgot about it and then,

Janette (35:37)
you

Evie Colbert (35:40)
came back to it. But it was, that was such a fun project. We had so much fun doing that. It was really great.

Rachel (35:44)
Yeah. Did you

Janette (35:44)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Rachel (35:47)
like think of things

include? You’re like, yeah, that recipe can’t be in it.

Evie Colbert (35:52)
Yeah, well, we cut some

for sure because we were too long. And then we did have a little bit of a rule because we had a lot of family recipes in it. And we did say nothing that is a recipe off a box or includes ⁓ an ingredient that comes in a box. You know what I mean? Like no Lipton soup things.

Rachel (35:58)
Yeah.

Janette (36:06)
Yeah.

Rachel (36:09)
Yes ⁓

Janette (36:13)
Take the Lipton onion soup.

Evie Colbert (36:14)
No onion dip and all that stuff. So that

actually cut out a lot of family stuff because both my family and his family, know, raising your kids in the sixties, seventies, eighties, like there was a lot of that. Yeah, it was a lot. ⁓ But then, you know, there were definitely things

Rachel (36:23)
that was a lot. Yeah. Yeah.

Evie Colbert (36:29)
I’m a creature of habit and I have all the things I fed my kids over the years. And some of them I would look at and think that is just dated. You don’t want to bet lemon bump cake.

Rachel (36:37)
Yeah, yeah.

Evie Colbert (36:40)
you know, that I’ve made them with, I can make with my eyes closed really feels like it’s 1980 something and I don’t think we need it, but so.

Rachel (36:47)
So did you put in any southern like ambrosia? I didn’t see it.

Evie Colbert (36:50)
You know, it’s funny you

say ambrosia. I thought about it. My grandmother would bring ambrosia every Christmas day. And she would put sliced coconut in it, which I guess you have to, and I hated the coconut, so I wouldn’t eat it. But we thought about ambrosia. I found my other grandma, that was my mother’s mother, but my father’s mother was a really great cook, and I found her recipe box. She died when I was very, very little. But I found it with my mom.

Rachel (37:00)
Mm-hmm.

Evie Colbert (37:16)
And we went through and found some of her old recipes, which we did put in. We put in like a chest pie and a huganaut torte, some really old classic Southern recipes, which are really fun. And then, of course, my children cried fraud. They’re like, you never made that.

Rachel (37:17)
wow.

That’s so great.

Janette (37:33)
Yeah.

Rachel (37:35)
could,

you know what you could, because you could read my book.

Evie Colbert (37:36)
I could, exactly. Now we know how to

do it. And I did when I made the cookbook, I made it several times. You just didn’t happen to live here then, but.

Rachel (37:44)
Yes, ⁓ God.

Janette (37:46)
Well,

I’d say that if people want to help support, go get the cookbook and make recipes and post them online in support of the Colbert’s. That’s right.

Evie Colbert (37:51)
Yes.

That’s so nice of you. And also support Montclair Film. If you want to

Rachel (37:55)
Yeah

Yes!

Evie Colbert (37:59)
support the Bellevue, please help us. Any financial contribution. Well, we have our website is montclairfilm.org and there’s information there on how to donate, but we will be launching an official Bellevue campaign, but you could just right now say it’s in support of the Bellevue theater and it will go to helping us. You know, it’s all one pot, essentially, one nonprofit pot. ⁓

Rachel (38:02)
How can we tell people to do it?

Okay.

Awesome. Okay. Okay.

Evie Colbert (38:21)
We would love any help. And please come to the movies, come to the Claridge, come to the Bellevue, yeah? Right, right.

Rachel (38:24)
Of course, we’re ready. We’re ready.

Janette (38:26)
We’re

ready. We’ll be there. Well, thank you so much for joining us and sharing a look into your life and also to how the Film Festival and how you got to New Jersey.

Rachel (38:32)
Yeah.

Evie Colbert (38:35)
I appreciate it. I appreciate the

time and your interest so much. was a lot of fun.