A dream came true for Brenda Song on Saturday inside SoFi Stadium.
The veteran star is such a diehard Los Angeles Rams fan that the team not only invited Song (and longtime partner Macaulay Culkin) to a preseason matchup with the New Orleans Saints, they welcomed her into a broadcast booth to offer color commentary on CBS L.A. Song happened to be on the air during the third quarter for one of the game’s most thrilling moments when Alex Cook returned an interception 100 yards to the end zone as the Rams dropped an exclamation point on the Saints with a 34-0 victory.
It was a coup for Song, who is as passionate about defense as she is about rattling off the names and stats of some of her favorite players. Even those close to her are surprised by how knowledgeable and passionate she is about the hometown team. “For our opening game last season against the Colts, I actually brought Dave Stassen and Scott MacArthur, our showrunner and one of the stars of Running Point, and they said they saw a different side of me from the opening kick-off,’” Song told The Hollywood Reporter immediately after Saturday’s game. “They said, ‘You were a different person. You didn’t speak to us. You were on the edge of your seat from the first play.’ I said, ‘Yes because every play matters. Every inch matters. There’s no other game like it.’ That’s why I love it so much.”
The team loves her back. “Brenda is one of our most loved and invested fans,” said Rams chief marketing officer Kathryn Kai-ling Frederick. “Between her deep knowledge of the game, her on-camera presence and the enthusiasm she brings to everything she does, we knew she would add a fresh perspective and fun energy to the broadcast.”
THR got to quiz Song on the the roots of that love, her predictions for the coming season and why she and Culkin regularly decline VIP suites in favor of sitting in the stands.
Brenda Song, we are sitting in a golf cart in the bowels of SoFi Stadium moments after you made your broadcast debut. How did that feel?
I’m on a high. I’m not joking when I say it was my dream. I grew up loving sports but I’m 5’2” — my feet barely touch the ground when I’m sitting in a chair — so I just love watching from the sidelines as a couch analyst. I’m just so grateful to the Ramily for letting me go up there and live out my dream and call the game. Sitting next to Rob Havenstein, an incredible right tackle, was insane.
Viewers got to hear how passionate you are about defense, which I think people might be surprised by because offense is always seen as such a sexy part of the sport. Why defense?
I’ve always loved defense. Before Kobe Bryant was in the league, my parents, my dad and my brother always watched the Chicago Bulls. Dennis Rodman was my favorite player. Watching defense is so fun because the smallest hand movement or slide can create such a big moment. When I started watching football, I got to see Aaron Donald play — Aaron Donald is my GOAT, the GOAT — and seeing him do the chop to get around someone was incredible.
Yes, offense is sexy and sparkly but I love a shutdown defense. When I’m watching a game, I really enjoy when our defense is out there because there’s something spectacular about it, especially when you’re playing a team known for its offense and you can just shut them down. It’s amazing. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching [Matthew Stafford], [Puka Nacua] and our receivers — they’re amazing. But our defense is really special, and I’m very, very excited to see Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson play this season.
You’ve said in multiple interviews that your dream was also to be a defensive coordinator …
Yes, truly. As a defensive coordinator, you’re watching the offense line up at the line of scrimmage it’s your job to say, “What can I do to stop this?” You have to be three steps ahead to spoil someone’s fun. I love watching a game at the stadium because you get to see a lot of plays off the ball. One of my favorite things is watching the defensive coordinator swap out players and put people in if it’s a run play versus passing. I won’t say which game this was because it still hurts, but we’ve watched games when we’re giving our A-guys a break and other teams take advantage of that. They see the weak spots. There’s so much more to football than a crazy 60-yard throw and a fun touchdown. I love defense so much. I could talk about it all day. It’s my favorite thing.
You mentioned Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson. Who else on the roster are you excited about?
When you have a shutdown corner like Trent, you can’t help but be excited, because you look at the numbers and realize that no one is even throwing in his direction. He’s also so versatile. Of course how could you not be excited about Myles Garrett, the reigning defensive player of the year? He’s the only person aside from Aaron Donald that would make you say, “I don’t want to line up across from him.” And he’s now a Ram! I feel so very lucky to have a Hall of Famer on our team. I feel very spoiled.
What’s the history of your Rams fandom?
It all started because I’m a huge Lakers fan. I grew up watching basketball and the Chicago Bulls, but when Kobe got traded to the Lakers in 1996, I became a Kobe fan. I can genuinely say that I’ve seen almost every game Kobe Bryant ever played. When he retired in 2016, I couldn’t watch basketball anymore. It was too devastating. Kobe Bryant was basketball to me, so I took a break from sports.
Then when I started dating Mac — we were about a year into dating — I came out to the living room one Sunday morning and he was watching a Rams-Seahawks game during the Russell Wilson days. I jokingly said, “Let’s football.” He started walking me through the downs and explaining things to me. We’d watched the Super Bowl but L.A. hadn’t had a staple team. Once he started explaining it all to me, I became obsessed. Very fortunately, we also went to the Super Bowl that year.
When they played the Patriots?
Yeah, that was in 2019, after the 2018 season. I was locked in. I kept asking myself, “How have I spent so many years not watching football?” Now, anytime between August and February, you won’t find me doing anything on Sundays, Mondays or Thursdays aside from reading books. We literally have a TV just for sports. We have two young boys, and when they’re home, they get the big TV. But on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays …
That’s where Mom and Dad are?
Yes.
It’s nice that you can do this as a couple, and get so into it. I mean, he’s wearing a Rams jersey with Culkin on the back.
A thousand percent. We come here a lot. I like being in the stands with the fans because I come here to watch a game. I love meeting everyone, but I’m here to watch the game. Mac knows we are only talking ball for the whole time that we’re here. I’ve been able to reconnect with a lot of people that I haven’t seen in a long time just because of the games. Dylan Sprouse texted me that he saw me on the big screen. It’s also been really fun to bring friends to games and show them my love. This is my passion.
It’s also nice that it’s so organic and the fans have really responded to you becoming so invested.
I was just saying to Mac as we were driving here that I couldn’t believe I was getting to sit in the booth and do color. I truly am just a huge fan. Anytime they ask me to come, I’m in. “Just tickets, please, I’ll sit anywhere.” There’s no bad seat in SoFi, so I’ll sit anywhere. I’ll be anywhere. It feels really surreal because I genuinely love this game so much. Mac will tell you, the only time I ever really get starstruck is when I’m around these players.
It’s nice to see you both lean into the attention in a way as well because I know you’re pretty private about your lives.
To be honest, it’s just really organic. We show up at places that we love. We love sports, so we want to come and watch a game. We want to enjoy these things, and we don’t want anything to hold us back. We love our lives, and we’re so proud of the life that we’ve built. One of the things that I love so much about our relationship is that he is the first significant other in my life who has allowed me to truly be me. People always ask, “What is one of the first things you connected on?” It wasn’t about us being child actors. It was sports.
I never would have thought Macaulay Culkin liked sports, and I don’t think he ever thought I would like sports. But once we started talking, we both realized how important it was to one another. Then we started testing each other about how much the other knew. Even today, we were talking about Ty Simpson’s last game and I said he went 21 of 25 but Mac said, “No, he was 22 of 24.” He looked it up, and I was like, “Why would you even question me?” That’s what we were kind of doing when we first met, but about basketball. We realized that we had so much in common, and sports was a huge part of that. We love football, we love basketball, we love boxing. These are things that I feel like I never got to really enjoy with a significant other.
I don’t want to speak for him, obviously, but it’s something that we very much enjoy. And it’s important for our relationship to find things outside of work and family that we like to do together. For us, it’s coming to Rams games, which is an absolute buzz. I feel really proud that even though he’s a native New Yorker, he always says the Rams are our team. Now he roots harder for the Rams than any other team.
Let’s talk about your career for a second. Running Point has been renewed for a third season, and you’re continuing to show a diversity of performances from TV to film, like with the recent The Last Showgirl. I read how you were apprehensive about fans seeing that performance with you swearing up a storm, but it landed really well for you. How are you feeling about these last couple of years?
I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop. I feel so incredibly grateful. Truly, I have been doing this since I was 3 years old, and I must be a crazy person because I love it so much. And I still love it so much. I’m always just so grateful that I get to wake up every day and do the thing that I’ve dreamed of doing my entire life with people who I love, respect and admire, and want to continuously work with. There was a shift after having two kids. It was really hard, and I was such a different person in the way that I looked at my career. My priorities were so different. It was really scary because it felt unknown for the first time. Instead of being scared of that, I tried to embrace it by realizing that I was in a new phase of my life, and I was ready. I feel like a big ball of clay, and I’m scared in the best way possible.
We’re about to start filming season 3 of Running Point, and it’s like my family there. I love showing up to set every single day. We’re making a show that we’re so proud of and having the best time doing it. I just wrapped a Netflix film [The Fifth Wheel] with Nikki Glaser, Fortune Feimster and Kim Kardashian, directed by Eva Longoria and written by Paula Pell and Janine Brito. We had the best time making it. I just feel so lucky that I continuously get to work with people I love so much, doing something that I’ve always wanted to do. I wake up every day like, “Is this real life?” I think about that all the time. I feel really grateful, and I hope that I just continuously move in the right direction and challenge myself.
Back to the Rams. Expectations are sky-high for next season. What are your predictions?
The best thing that can happen is that we have confetti blowing everywhere on Valentine’s Day here at SoFi. We’ll have the best off season next year because we’ll be celebrating for months. That is my expectation, and also my prediction is that we’ll be celebrating with #99 on the field with us. We can continue this conversation.
I’m going to meet you in this golf cart here at SoFi.
Let’s do it.
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