Kathie Lee Gifford has graced our television screens for four decades, but when asked if she missed being on TV every day-she had a surprising answer.

“I didn’t miss it after I left Regis,” she told Sam Rubin on the KTLA 5 Morning News. “I miss Regis, but not doing the show on a daily basis because I always commuted. I’m not a city girl. I thought I’d stay one year with Hoda, and it was 11. 15 with Regis. Add it up to about 35 years of commuting to New York City every single day.”

While Gifford’s career as a talk show host was a dream job, growing up her dream was to be an actress in Disney movies like Annette Funicello or a singer like Barbra Streisand.

“I’m grateful for all those years. They were terrific years,” she explained. “I’ve always wanted to be in films, doing music and touching people’s hearts and transforming them with art.”

Gifford now lives in Tennessee and has become fond of that famous southern hospitality.

“People let you be who you are,” Gifford explained. “They don’t cancel you here.”

She’s also changing mediums for her latest endeavor, which she called her “dream project.” She wrote and directed the biblical film “The Way.” She shot the movie in Utah, Israel, Texas and Tennessee. Not only that, but she also wrote the companion book called “The God of The Way.”

“I’m trying to tell ancient stories that are as relevant today as they’ll ever be in life,” she said. “People are hungry. People are scared, they’re feeling hopeless, they don’t recognize the world they grew up in. I just want to give people a respite from that.”

Gifford’s book “The God of the Way” is available now, and you can see her new film “The Way” in select theaters for one day only on Sept. 1.

Tickets and information are available here.