This content is a transcript of a live event featuring an author and actress discussing her career, books, and personal experiences, interspersed with audience interaction and anecdotes.
Mind Map
点击展开
点击探索完整互动思维导图
tonight the beautiful historic Lincoln
Theater um welcome DC welcome Virginia
West Virginia Maryland Pennsylvania all
our friends here um we're so happy to be
with you um first of all I would like if
you will to join me on a trip back in
time to the year 2000 it was the it was
the autum of the year and I was going
out that night to a place that many of
us went nearly every weekend in those
times um in in LA and that was to a wild
big drunken house party at Melissa McCarthy's
McCarthy's
place like we did and um on this one
particular or night at this one
particular party I looked across the
room and I saw this beautiful young
woman and I i' had seen her before in in
photos and on TV and in a movie or two
but I had never seen her in real life
and I know she was on this new show with
my friend Melissa and some other friends
of mine but in person I was just dazzled
by her not romantically sadly sexually
but I mean
wink but as just as amazing human being
and I went over and introduced myself
and we started talking and I was even
more Charmed and delighted and dazzled
by her humor and her her you know her
wit and her intelligence and then as we
realized we were separated at Birth and
were dear friends I became more and more
dazzled by her true be Beauty inside and
out and her true generosity of spirit
and heart so when I tell you guys I
speak from experience when I tell you
that prepare to be dazzled when I bring
out Washington DC girl Langley High School's
School's [Applause]
nice to meet you thank you for saying
such great things about me you like
these green chairs like your green chair
yes the first thing we do in any city is
review the chairs that's going to be a great
great
show upright it's not too far back
they're comfortable but not too
orange we did we if we had known we
would have dressed
differently colors hi Lauren how are you
hi I'm so happy to be here I um am giddy
I have never I have not performed in my
hometown since I forgot my lines at the
folder Theater which now is called the
Shakespeare Theater um in a high school
something and and I'm just so thrilled
to um to see everybody here in the place
illegally I drank here legally but I'm
older than
you so let's talk about some books shall
we okay all righty um uh we are so
excited that you are bringing out your
the paperback version of this book have
I told you this already as you guys know
and now this is your fourth book right
um why uh well first of all your first
was the 2013 novel someday someday [Applause]
[Applause]
maybe and next came the book of essays
talking as fast as I can
colon from Gilmore Girls to Gilmore
Girls and everything in between in 2016
which was your uh year in the Life
Diaries and other industry Stuff Etc and
in 2018 you brought us in conclusion
don't worry about it which was an
expansion of the commencement speech you
gave at your hometown High School
yes which I gave after my sister had
graduated and that long after obviously
I had graduated so I was speaking to no
one I
knew at high
school so now we have I told you this
already why uh which is a collection of
essays and um why are we are you touring
with this book now why
now I came out wrong I'm [Music]
[Music]
adorable well strangely even though
though I am the author of those books
I've never been able to do a book tour
before partially um because of work and
partially because when the hard cover of
this came out I after having avoided it
for what I thought was a really Valiant
amount of time I got Co um possibly due
to having taught my three-year-old niece
a game called lickies
which where you sneak up on someone try
licked their whole
face and um I I had played that game
with her and um then I had the co so I
couldn't what a
surprise um and so I I had to cancel
that and so when the paperback was
coming out it I thought it would be
really fun and this has become this I
don't know we can't the book came out
like a year ago so it can't really be a
book tour anymore but hey we're all here
and it's become this like beautiful
reason to get together and to uh meet
people and um to hang with you so it's
been really fun so thank you we're
having a great time yeah um so first of
all um what brought you to writing we'll
start with the novel someday Sunday
maybe and then we'll go to the books of
the collection of essays and tell us
about how you first got uh started on that
that
novel well I think I think part of it
was I had time for the first time in
since almost since I had started trying
to work as an actor and then and then
working as an actor it was so much
hustle and so many jobs and so much um
work that 14-hour days of non-stop work
well GM more girls if you
familiar part of the magic of the show
and part of the reason I think it
endures is it it had such an unusual um
language to it and and was shot in in a
way where we do these very long Walkin
talks my cousins used to call me and be
like why are you circling the Gazebo
again but um and so we' have these long
tracking shots sometimes with a steady
cam which is basically One camera person
walking backwards and um a lot of things
can happen in a 10-page scene with a
person walking backwards um if a bird
flies you know airplane noise is comes
if somebody forgets a line um you do it
again so we would have these long days
to get these long takes that um were
very exhilarating once you got them but
I was in my dressing room at Parenthood
any um and uh I was done with work at
like 3:00 in the afternoon
and that was so unusual and that it
might have been I'm sure it wasn't
exactly but it felt like one of the
first moments where I thought how did I
get here kind of and they you know one
of the things like if you're on a press
line or something people always ask you
like how' you know when you made it no
one ever knows that like you don't I
don't think that's a feeling anybody has
um for a very long time as an actor used
to a very nomadic life and thinking of
what's next and it's very hard to be in
the moment and recognize where you are
and it seemed insane to me in in that on
that day I thought what was I even
thinking I mean yes I was Dolly Hello
Dolly like in high school
school
but as somebody said to me when I moved
to LA and I said I was Dolly and Hello
Dolly and they were like everybody here
was Dolly and Hello Dolly I
wasn't
sorry person's here I'll get there um
the Langley High School casting she's still
still
scouting um so I just thought it was
such a crazy thing it literally was I
was in a couple of plays and I just
wanted to be an actor and I went to New
York and I started sort of in in these
small ways and and then I got something
that led to something and anyway I was
in at work that day and I connected to
whatever that kind of um ambition had
been and I didn't want to write at that
point anything autobiographical I didn't
want to write non-fiction although
that's become the thing I really enjoy
writing um and so I began it as as
fiction and um and and then it was
really fun it sort of like sparked the
young child reader in me where I I I I
got to play all the characters I'm the
you know I can invent all the dialogue
and it was just really fun so then how
what then LED you to doing the
essays in the first book or this one um
well by that time when we came back to
do the Netflix um movies which was such
a an incredible
experience just the thought of it it
would be like whatever your biggest
experience is of high school or college
or um some job that you look back and
think gosh if I only knew now would I
didn't know then you know how would it
have been different wouldn't it be fun
to go back and and kind of be appreciate
something that is is happening in the
moment that it's happening and that to
me gave bookends of of uh like a sort of
a memoir that could make sense which is
here I got to to do this thing and this
is what it was like at the time and then
I got to come back and do it and here's
all of what happened kind of between
those two times and here's a little bit
of you know what led up to getting to do
it in the first place and I found that I
really like the essay form
because the way it comes to me is is
almost a title like an idea and then I
think on it for a while and I think is
that something kind of big enough that
would be relatable to you that I can
share something um in in a way that
makes it a beginning middle and end
right yes and we still come up with
titles constantly all the time is that
an essay books yet to be written a lot
of them could be I think they could be
oh we'll write about you next don't wor
um so when you in terms of your writing
process do you have [Music]
[Music]
one um I and let me help you out
is it different between the novel and
the essay the non-fiction work well I
wish it were different I wish
that when I first got the opportunity to
publish the novel I sat down with my
editor Jennifer esmith who is a
fantastic writer herself of ya and now
some adult novels and I said look Jen I
was an English major in college I wrote
my thesis on the word process well on
the I say computer CU nobody knows what
the word
processor on the thing that was in my
room but and and I turned it in like at
the last second you know under the
professor's door and so that's me as a
procrastinator and as a potentially as a
writer and she said oh okay um well just
so you know I was also an English major
in college and I finished my thesis two
weeks early and I lied about it because
I didn't want people to think I was
nerd and I was like well this is either
going to be fantastic or and it turned
out to be very fantastic but um I think
I do better when I'm most busy that same
gen came when we were doing a year in
was I'm just going to keep saying it so
I can redo it as a
blow and I'd be between she'd never
really come to set before and she
thought it was all kind of you know
fascinating and
I'd be writing on my laptop at this
point I had a laptop and um and they'd
be like and we are rolling and I'd be
like you know and they'd be like an
action and I'd be like Rory why don't
you that's such a bad that's such a line
that would never be in G
Girls Rory that's like the bad half hour
but look at what she's doing again she's
so smart
she loves to read so Jen and I went out
after and she was like had tears in her
eyes practically she was like are you
going to get this done cuz the book was
due the book had to come out when the
show came out otherwise it made no sense
like why am I doing a show about g girls
like months after Gilmore Girls came out
also we you and we shot that like in the
spring and it came out in the fall
That's crazy dude it's what they call in
publishing a crash schedule doesn't that sound
sound
soothing sound relaxing for everyone at
the Publishers um yes well they can and
and the special um panic at the time was
I think Michelle Obama's first book was
coming out and they were they it was
something something to do with paper
like they were literally running out of paper
paper
because yes she had so many like so many
copies come out I mean maybe that that
doesn't sound [Music]
[Music]
true they were running out what were
Publishers in house they were running
out of some thing that you use to make books
books
and out of
words Panic of like you know is there
going to be enough paper and and um but
I got it done I just think I'm better I
never knew that story see every show is
different y'all you're loving so I just
get it done but it's not pretty I wish
it was better and I feel so I spoke to
college the other night it was just like
people were like what advice do you have
and I was like don't do it like I do
it it's not what the kids want to hear
but um lady I got to tell you I've said
this to you before in manyi context you
make everything look good no what's going
on fin Grace and style and wit about you
just I'm always like how does she do it
well thank you I don't know why I pick
things that are public and leave you up
for criticism I'm like why don't I just
go sailing or something people do that
it doesn't like you know get a review of
The New York Times or whatever I don't
know but I don't know well you've
touched on this a little bit but let's
jump back to acting how did you any
stories you want to share about when you
first started out or what led you on
your way to New York
City and Southern methis
University it I went to well in in order
yes sorry I think that um the writing
and the acting at all is a form of
obviously of story telling and I always
loved books as a kid my dad would read
to me every night and I would in my head
picture the story and all the characters
and what they were doing and that just
led me cuz I wasn't and still am not
particularly it it there was no sense of
like I wanted to be in front of people
like it wasn't a
um like it wasn't exhibitionism it
wasn't like I don't know I I just wanted
to tell stories and but I do remember
there was like a a talent show maybe
second grade or third grade and there
was a a commercial at the time for fake
butter like for qu or something and the
and the commercial gosh I've told the
story 50 times and it doesn't get
shorter I'm
sorry there was a commercial for fake
butter and mother nature finds out that
the butter is fake and that it's
margarine and she says it's not nice to
fool mother nature and I I know it's
remembers thank you thank you c um
having nothing to do with butter I was
given that line in a show and I got a
laugh and I just the the fun of like
saying something in a way I would never
say it and the communication with the
audience and just the kind of live
experience was so intoxicating and it
encompassed everything I love which was
pretending and reading and writing and I
don't know it just made sense and then I
became one of those kids who was like in
summer theater and you know Hello Dolly
and guys don't make me keep talking about
about it
interesting they I had standing ovations
every night don't worry about it
FY well but then you were saying you got
to SMU and then I totally said that
already no but then like the park oh oh
yeah St prompting me on my life
story why I'm here darling no that I
went to grad school and I was like my
parts are smaller now I'm not Dolly
anymore and like I was I had like I was
fifth banana in grad school because
everyone was Dolly so then you had to
start over again which I had found is
endless and maybe this applies to you in
your career it's
never well I think it's probably unique
to the Arts which is you're always
trying get to the next level and then
you think you've gotten there and no no
there's more and you have to keep kind
of like proving yourself and keep
redefining who you are and what you do
and and both of us have been lucky
enough to last a pretty long time but
thousands of years thousands thousands
of years feels like um we're going to
jump now to directing because I was
particularly fascinated by your essay
Red Hat blue hat in which you write
about gearing up to direct an episode of
what I like to call Mighty Ducks 2 what the
the [Music]
[Music]
puck Mighty Ducks 2 still
quacking she hates these she I will
never stop saying these are
not and you and you the sage advice in
this chapter given to you by your friend
the the director John turtl and can you
talk about uh or share any vital aspects
of directing you learned about being an
actor well I think in the way I'm
talking about when you spend a long time
in this profession in
particular you begin to see how
important everybody is and you begin to
have a greater understanding of the
whole and not just your piece in it so
on the one hand when you hear actors or
whoever being like what I really want to
do is direct it can kind of be like oh
boy but it is I think kind of a natural
progression to where where you feel like
well I now I really I've been here
longer than anybody like watching how
people do their jobs and understanding
what a really good day is for all of us
and so I would like to be the person who
helps facilitate that and um and who
kind of gets to set the tone and so
that's where the desire to direct came
from not from Mad ambition but just from
like I understand understand what this
is and you know sometimes I've worked
with young filmmakers who have gone to
film school but they don't have the
experience and um so I really love
getting to work with the kids and I also
know the language of actors which if if
I'm on a TV show again I probably know
the character better than somebody said
to me that being a director in
television is like being invited to
somebody else's house and having to cook
dinner with only the ingredient they
have and what the meal is that they want
and so you're kind of there to
facilitate and um I really loved it it
was really fun I hope you'll do more of
it because I think you're really good at
it and you have a really you know what I
don't I want you to direct some more
that I think you should do it and and
you're working with some screenwriting
stuff too right well with this same
editor Jen um who's become a writing
partner yeah I think it's it's all to me
part of the same thing you know it's
just how how do you tell the story and I
really feel like I went to the school of
as close to Amy Sherman Paladino will
ever teach
at because you just if you live with
first of all the fact that we had the
connection we had in order to end up
working together at all was something I
don't know that I'll ever have again the
experience I had when I got that script was
was
like was like falling in love across a
crowded room like I was like oh I know
you I know you and I I am this and I
don't want anybody else to get out of my
way and but it was like hearing a song
but you feel like you've heard it before
like it was so familiar even though it
was brand new and then I lived with that
language in my body performing it but
reading it and memorizing it and and
hearing that music and I will never be
half the writer she is but it it gave me
an ear or it helped hone my ear
for what feels funny to me or what feels
authentic and so I'm just lucky to have
had that
experience it's an incredible
um okay jumping right along back to this
book there's a chapter about a dear
friend of ours her name is old lady
Jackson I don't know if you've ready yes
and I'm well acquainted with old lady
Jack and and her pal Uncle peaw
pancake and they really love early
dinner time now it it's earlier every
year we did Sam and I did go to dinner
one day at
4 it was 6 and then it got to 5: and one
day you text them you're like can would
you go for
3:30 call it late we called it at 4:
because we went to dinner at 4: and in
La especially the sun is beating down on
I was like I was like we still have to
be up for like seven more hours go to a
respectable bedtime so we were like okay
five five so to talk a little about the
origin story of old lady Jackson I uh
for those of you who don't know this is
it's so silly but old lady Jackson is a
character in some of my books and and and
and
she um she was born uh on Parenthood
where I was suddenly working with
because Alexis and I were close enough
in age that we at least understood you
know I was like James Taylor and she was
like I guess I don't know like we at
least sort of understood the same
references and then I'm on Parenthood
with younger kids and they were so cool
especially my kids May and miles are
friends we really had a bond and I
really wanted their approval and and but
like I was sort of which is by the way
the least cool mom thing you could
possibly know but so I'd start saying
something to them that I you know giving
them advice or whatever but I didn't
want to lose my obvious cool so I'd be
like I mean I don't care if you get
another tattoo but old lady Jackson over
here thinks you one two to many and they
saw through it right
away and and they'd be like oh does old
lady Jackson think we shouldn't stay out
late and I was like no no so it just
became and then now may like Signs her
notes like OJ Jr like it's just become
one birthday May brought the cookie cake
it just said happy birthday old lady
Jack so it's just she's become this like
person in our lives and so in this book
which is just ridiculous but I I just
wrote her a little
Mar I love
her I want to read a little bit from
this um which if I could find it I swear
that I here it is now they were giggling
at Charlotte this is the serious part
okay I think this is a beautiful like
passage and I just it really touched me
and I really love it a lot I went to
read it it's very useful to always have
a friend who is much older and one who
is much younger the older friend will
remind you what there is to look forward
to and the younger friend will keep you
telling your stories over again so
you'll remember not to forget them an
older friend will tell you you have
plenty of time yet and a younger friend
will make you forget time alog together
because when you're with them you'll
feel even for a moment you're the exact
same age I just think that's so
true and I get older I know no one else
is getting older but I am getting older
and just kids home even harder well it's
truly one of the benefits of being part
of these pretend families in addition to
the benefit of of your real family is
I'm I keep being exposed to younger and
older people of different experiences
and and these friendships take on
they're the family that you're
pretending to be but also like Kelly
on
is such an important person in my life
and it's it feels to call her my friend
almost I'm like but you know I just was
at her 80th birthday and I know and
she's so fantastic and she's so she was
like leaving the next day to go do an
episode of shrinking I'm like what like
she won't stop and and I and she was
just such an important person in my life
she was so supportive of me and so
um flattering to me and and uh and and
gave you advice and gave me a lot of
advice then i' tell her like a story of
some guy or whatever and she'd be like
well he sounds horrible don't call him
back like all right but she I mean she
you know she started as a dancer she was
in the original cast of a course line on
Broadway for which yes for which she won
the Tony and um playing Sheila which is
uh everything was beautiful at the
ballet Kelly by the way who has a book coming
out called the third Gilmore Girl which
indeed she is and um I'm scared of
it because she has no filter
and I was like Kelly you realize people
were going to read I mean I don't know I
don't know why I'm scared but I I don't
know I don't know but so I would I'd buy
it I yeah um
but she oh you did oh but she she you
know she was incredibly disciplined she
always knew every line she was never
tired she never complained and then if
we were there till like 2:00 in the
morning you know sometimes she'd be
like do you want to split a bag of Cheetos
really split dainty with her like
nails of Cheetos so she's just good fun
get my one my yeah yeah but the first
time out or maybe not the first I think
we were unique's House in La and we were
smoking cigarettes when we used to do
that and drinking martinis when I used
to do that and I feel something on my
leg like on my ankle I think I had
shorts on and I looked down and Kelly
Bishop had slipped her pump off and was
King she
exting she's fun she's she's Sheila from a
a
um I I wish I had had when I was a young
actor your essay in this book the essay
actory Factory to read when I was just
starting out because you lay out
everything so beautifully about what
it's like to be an actor what advice
would you give like Lauren gram and
starting out of 95 or 96
96
um well leaving her aside for the minute
what I say to people now what I said at
the college the other night is I I think
no matter what you're doing someone has
done it before you and it's just a fun
and also useful project to become a
student of whatever that is there's so
much Memoir out there and so much um
documentary or whatever but just like to
like when I came up I was interested in
actresses of the 20s and 30s and old
movies not just by way of what what did
this used to look like and I have felt
over the years that it's one of those
things nobody tells you nobody tells you
how to navigate pretty much anything and
nobody tells you um and I'm not sure why
I guess there's really no apprenticeship
for this if you're not coming up in the
theater and I did to some degree come up
in the theater as an U Apprentice at
Summer Stock but what they had us do
there was paint the fences and clean the
bathrooms and I like I'm happy to do
well not happy but I mean I do this but
I'm not learning how to be a better you
know Korean in the back of Oklahoma or
whatever but I guess you just learn by
doing it by just being around and um but
so that that essay I just thought I I
have a couple of friends who are writers
who then became
showrunners who would come to me and say
like why why does simple things like why
does the day take so long and what what
should I tell the director and and you
know just basic film making because
people come at this from so many
different plenty of people don't come up
in the theater come through film school
or or whatever and so I was just trying
to break it down in terms of like if we
were filming this audience you would
have shot where you could see everybody
and then you might zero in on two people
having a conversation you'd have to do
this person's side and this person's
side you have to light differently for
both of those things and it all has to
fit together and we all know more than
we used to about how things are made um
but still not everybody knows what that
kind of what those pieces are and I
found it I'm sure you did too on TV and in
in
movies you just learned as you did it
like all the terms and everything and it
was kind of well I remember in theater
School they'd be like when you when
you're in a movie or a TV show you have
to be quieter I was like that's not it's
it's not about being quieter it's about
scaling down for the for the medium but
yes well speaking of your early movie
roles you had my dream come true when
you got to work with D Merl Street on
one true thing and I it's one of the
first questions I's here tonight you guys
guys
thanks um what was that experience like
well I was out of my mind this is the
other thing that no you can't this okay
so now I'll go back to what I would have
told Lauren what's her name at uh
yeah early which is you have to find a
way to be have your feet on the ground
in these situations that are inherently
very weird and like doing a movie with
Merill Street where you playing Renee
zigger's best friend and it's like your
that's your second movie that was my
second movie I'm talking about
me um I was just so nervous the whole
time just to be around her and to I
didn't want to make a mistake and and
Renee had just done Jerry McGuire and
people were like stopping on the street
everywhere being like and like it's just
a lot and you have to both as the person
even to the side find a way to stay
rooted and and real and not take in some
of that kind
of chatter even though of course it's
really nice everybody wants their work
to be appreciated but so then at the
premiere of the movie I kind of made my
way through and um and Merill came up to
me and she said you know I want to tell
you I want to give you a compliment
which is as an actor you're a very good
what because I was still so nervous to
be around her that like I was like she's
giving me a which is not what good
listeners say when good listener so
stuff like that I just going have [Music]
never I'm here to help if it was like
Jimmy Fallon can you imagine and like
he'd be like hey um Brad Pit you forgot
part about
the so okay on this movie I came to work
one morning and it was it was a
wintertime shoot in New Jersey and it
was we were in an actual house it was
very drafty and the movie is about
Merl's character getting sick and it had
a very heavy kind of the atmosphere on
you know was was Heavy because of the
subject matter and we're there 5 o'clock
in the morning and usually the first
thing you do in the day is you just read
the lines um um for the director for the
crew so they know what's happening and
so they can start to light and block it
and everything and Merill starts
reading and she sounds terrible and like
like can barely you know and I thought
there' been like a cold going around and
I was like this is going to make this
day so crazy and I feel so bad for her
and you know she's obviously really sick
and she's N Street so she's like going
to work through it and so we finished
the rehearsal and she's like hey can
anybody grab a coffee and I was like oh
acting she's pling as a person so she is
acting but it was so real and you don't
you know it's like just the readr like
she didn't have to she didn't have to
bring her aame but she's
now so ear shift um my friends on the
Instagram now me I
you know guys I like to really make sure
stick I don't know why it took me so
long but I there were so many fake mes
that I was like well I'll just be me and
um so yeah but I'm still I'm not I'm
getting I'm getting good at it like
tonight we took a picture of our french
fries huh what about that for Content
we're going to do a tutorial we're going
to sit down one of these show and we're
going to do a tutorial um I I'm I'm sure
I'm not alone here but I love it when
sing which huny which brings us to Zoe's extraordinary
