You might know JoAnna Garcia Swisher as an actress. But the she’s also a businesswoman. Garcia Swisher runs Rolling Clover, a multimedia production banner and lifestyle brand. And outside of the roles she plays and will continue playing onscreen, she’s all about building community and sharing experiences.
Fangirlish talked to Garcia Swisher about her lifestyle brand, her partnership with Bob Evans in this Back-to-School season, Sweet Magnolias, and even what her upcoming Netflix Christmas movie will be like.
“I think it was something that has always sort of been ingrained in me: finding joy and savoring the smaller moments and looking to the brighter side. And even in the midst of hard times, Rolling Clover has been… It’s saved me at times, in my deepest moments of grief.” And it’s all been because Garcia Swisher has found “the indescribable joy of, you know, connecting and being real and being human.”
The actress lost both her mother and father close together a few years ago, and she shared with us that “it was like a moment where I’m like, okay, I’ve committed to this journey and sharing this journey. And many times, it has saved me.” But not just that, “now that time has passed, it’s evolved. And I found the gratitude and the love that I had.”
And that’s translated into things like her partnership with Bob Evans. “I should say to the Bob Evans of it all is that it’s not only is it just a product that I have in my home and my kids love, but it’s so very real to me because it reminds me so much of my mom. So, the partnership felt so joyful in a way, because it was like a way to honor her and a wonderful little part of us. And, you know, she would always heat up the mashed potatoes and serve them as her own.”
“But also, just having, especially like the single serving, you know, my kids come home absolutely ravenous as much as I’d like to say: I’m the mom that serves dinner at like four o’clock. But that’s not our season of life because my kids have two totally different schedules at the moment. But it’s really just about taking small things off your plate that can make your life a little bit easier. “
The Sweet Magnolias star also shared with us that, as a mom, she tends to “put a lot of pressure on herself,” so it’s great to “be able to offer something that your kids love, and that’s easy to do and take something off your plate.”
But Garcia Swisher was also clear on the importance of “romanticizing the simplicity of things,” telling us it’s important to make that “something to celebrate instead of another way of feeling like you’ve come up short.”
“At Rolling Clover, something that we focus so heavily on is not overcomplicating things. And there is a time and a place for extremely like well thought out morning routines and a deeply curated, a supplement program and all of that kind of stuff. I get it. I want my junk drawer to be so heavily organized at all times, but it’s not. And I just, I just am trying to keep it real.”
More than that, she wants us all to be able to stop holding ourselves to impossible standards. “There’s beauty in that [keeping it real], that should be celebrated. The simplicity and being good to ourselves and being proud of ourselves for showing up every single day for the people that we love and showing up for ourselves. And part of that is, is giving ourselves tricks and tips.”
Garcia Swisher also shared with us some of her memories of Dolly Parton. “I cried a lot when Dolly died. It felt so crazy. But honestly, I felt like a level of grief for our world. Melissa Peterman actually said: the world felt like a better, like a safer place with Dolly in it. And I know that sounds so crazy, but it’s like she just stood for what was good always. And she didn’t take herself too seriously. And she was wildly successful and incredibly philanthropic.”
“When Dolly came and did Reba, I was like: I felt like I needed to be cool. I felt like I couldn’t breathe because, first of all, at that point, Reba had become like a family member to me. She was like a mom to me. And so, I wasn’t afraid to be around her because she was like a family member to me at that point. And then when Dolly comes in, you see these two giants and two women that to this day were relevant.”
“They weren’t just legendary, and they didn’t just blaze a trail for every female country artist that came after them because there were there was, you know, a few of them like Wynonna, and like there were so many great artists. But like these women are still relevant. They’re still starring on television shows and singing in the Super Bowl Halftime Show.”
We can’t even imagine.
“So, part of my grief of her loss was just knowing that, like those two women had each other, they could look each other in the eye, and they were sort of like a witness to what life was really like for each of them. They knew how hard it was to make it. They knew how hard it was to continue to be good and be good to their fans and good to their family and be good people. And then they knew what it meant to still be so like, you know, relevant. And I just so it hurt me for her, too.”
Garcia Swisher also shared some memories from Parton on set. “Dolly was such a great woman. And she was so funny. I remember she flubbed her line one time. She’s like, ‘I’m sorry, I am. I got to get around these lips’. It was so funny. She was beautiful and was just an icon in every way, but still took herself… like she was able to make light of things, and didn’t take herself too seriously. She just was the ultimate girl’s girl.”
Now that we know Sweet Magnolias is ending with Season 5, we’re looking back at what Garcia Swisher told us about the show, as well. “I think just as a whole, the relationships that I’ve built, the friendships with Heather and Brooke and our showrunner, Cheryl,” were the most important things to her.
“We have this deep experience that we shared together for the better part of this decade. And we’ve all been through so much together. I mean, I lost both of my parents during the time that Sweet Magnolias was filming. Our lives changed a lot from the show. And so, I think just the shared experience, the friendship…it’s rare that you get to like spend that much time in that many years in this like intimate sort of creative space where you’re creating something that is not only meaningful to you, but it’s resonating with people all over the world. And there is something really powerful and profound about that.”
“I remember this past season of Sweet Magnolias, I was in New York City, and it was the last scene we were shooting while we were there. The sun was about to rise, so we were chasing the night, and the daylight was chasing us. And I was walking alone right in front of Radio City and the music. I sort of had this music. I knew what music was going to play. And I was having this emotional walk. And I just remember standing there and looking at our crew that we had brought from Georgia and our producers and our writer and Patrick, our executive from Netflix, and all these people that, like… blood, sweat, tears. I loved this show.”
“And I just thought this is a moment I never want to forget. This is something I want to feel deeply grateful for. I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I don’t want to think about the future. I just want to be so deeply grateful for the experience and the people I’ve experienced this sort of thing with.”
Garcia Swisher also has an upcoming Christmas movie on Netflix, A Christmas Kind of Love. And yes, she will be singing. “I actually wear a pair of Reba’s boots every single day in that movie,” she said. “I texted her on day one, and I was like, this is such a dream come true. I never thought this was going to be possible for me. I’m surrounded by so much love and belief in me.”
“I was like, I can’t do this without you, like you in particular. I’m zoning you. I’m thinking of you. And it was just like very important to have a piece of her with me throughout that,” she shared.
A new side of Garcia Swisher? Count is in. “Yes, you get to see a whole different side of me for better or for worse. But it was really a beautiful experience. And I got to see some of it last week. And it’s really special.”
We can’t wait to see the movie, and whatever is coming next for Garcia Swisher. We’ll be here for it.
