Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
[The Women's Room] was the first thing I read that explained a lot of the feelings I was having and a lot of the rage and the feeling uncomfortable in my body and knowing that I was feeling a certain way in the world, but I didn't have the language for it.
I'm not a dermatologist, but I had someone explain it to me, and I've seen the effect on my own skin over the years. So I feel like we need to protect our faces, especially those of us who live in Southern California, from this goddamn sun that's on us all day.
I remember in second grade, everybody in the class had to come up with adjectives for each other, and I got shy. In a way, I force myself to perform, because if I didn't, I'd stay home rolled up in a ball watching 'The Real Housewives of Orange County' all day.
I had several moms who knew and didn't bring gifts for the baby and instead brought me food, candles, journals - the women who were like, "Actually, I know this is a tough time for you, and it's much more important that I show up here instead of to the baby shower."
It's very hard, I think especially for women, to not take it in and to not be super conscious of the way that you're being seen, which is of course completely antithetical to the work you want to do, which is completely free and bold and truthful and honest and brave.
I remember watching 21 Jump Street and thinking I'm attracted to Johnny Depp - "What are these feelings?" I remember all of this, the first time you feel things. I mean, yes, boys in class, whatever, but to specifically go back to those experiences, it's kind of amazing.
There was that moment of, "Oh, my parents are watching Columbo and I hate it" to "No, I love this show, too." And I feel like, for me, that was around 11 or 12, where I could actually join my parents in their viewing and wasn't so irritated that they were always watching Columbo.
I never sleep in. By the way, when we're like, "We alternate waking up for the kids," the other person's waking up at 7 a.m. It's not like you're waking up at 10. It's like, "I'm really going to give you a treat and you're gonna get your ass up at 7 instead of 5:59." Which is when our son wakes up.
I took a couple of classes in clowning, but that was more like Lucille Ball kind of slapstick, not Ringling Brothers. But we had to do things silently, and the teacher would do this running commentary. 'Does this make Clown sad? Oh, Clown doesn't like that, does Clown?' Always 'Clown.' Never a name.
There were a lot of different things [in The Women's Room ]. I don't really want to summarize it in this way. It's about a woman's awakening, a woman who came of age in the '50s and is a teenager - actually, she's a little bit older - in the '60s and part of the women's movement and how she ends up there.
Another thing I also recommend is washing your face with white towels, little white towels instead of your hands. Other towels have dye in them and, with water on them, I just don't mess around with that. This way you're not getting your hands back on your dirty face as you're washing it. You're going to see what's coming off.
I feel like there's so much focus on the woman when you're pregnant, and it's amazing and beautiful and everybody's taking care of you, and then you have the baby and nobody's interested. And yet you are the most vulnerable you've been - I mean, I'm speaking on my own experience. Other women may have very different experiences.
I'm not referring to an up-and-coming comedian. I am referring to the host of The Profit. He invests his own money into small businesses that need to be turned around. He becomes partners in them. And I love the way he does business, and I love his integrity, and I love where his head's at, and I love what he has to say, and I learn from him.
I'll keep this as nonpartisan and diplomatic as possible - but for those of us whose heads are kind of spinning off and are really engaged in what's happening right now and trying to effect change where we can, when we can, I think we also need to express ourselves and express our anger and also find joy in things like The Golden Girls right now.
I got very self-conscious about the way I look. So I, especially with young people coming into the industry and young actors, I feel it's really terrible to start with their looks. Right? Because especially for women, it just puts you in your head at a time when you should really be focused on your work and what you're saying and doing and not how you look.
I remember watching that show [Golden Girls] with my parents and not totally understanding it. Like, a lot of comedy flew over my head, a lot of the sexual stuff I didn't know. But because there was a laugh track, I'd laugh really hard, and I'm now remembering the look on my parents' faces - I had no idea why it was funny. I was sort of, like, laughing along.
I was under the misconception that I have oily skin, I'm prone to breakouts, I shouldn't moisturize or put anything on my face. And then realizing, "Oh, no, my skin is incredibly dry - that's why I'm breaking out. I need to wear moisturizer." Some of these steps could be anti-"I'm serious," but that's the one thing I feel I know the way on. I'm not snobby about anything else.
It's a very hard line to walk, and I certainly am nowhere near having cracked how to do that, but I try to focus on being a brave performer and not worrying about my lighting or whatever, even though, then, sometimes I see myself on screen, and I'm like, "Why did you wear that, look like that, whatever," but I'm also more accepting that is what it is. There's this battle always.
I think the worst professional advice I've received... I feel I've been lucky in that I've gotten a lot of wonderful guidance, but I remember - and I would never do this to someone - I remember going into a manager's office, the manager I had in New York, and this was way back when. And she said to me, immediately, "You should never wear striped T-shirts. You look much bigger than you are."
The sexual revolution... it was the first time I had read anything that came close to describing those feelings of being outside of my body, feeling the shame, all of it, that I really was able to connect to in that book. So it sort of blew my mind. I was also listening to Tori Amos at the same time, so I was like, "Wait, what's happening?!" It was all a part of that, probably when I was, like, 13.
I like the way [Marcus Lemonis] thinks. He's made me think about things in a different way. He's made me want to support small businesses in a very real way, seeing what these small-business owners go through and the struggle it is and the courage it takes to put your heart and money behind things at a 24-hour job. I think I relate to that as an actress and a writer and someone who works freelance, in many ways. It never ends, you never clock out. You've always got to keep things moving.
I'm on Grace And Frankie, which is also about that time in life, I'm realizing. But I would - so I guess I am sort of in that show. But there's something about The Golden Girls and the sort of multicam set and Bea Arthur that I just want to be around those ladies all day long, and I want to be on those comfy couches and want to sit in that kitchen in those chairs in those pastels, and I want to wear Blanche's outfits and it's just really... and I want to sit outside in that weird little courtyard.
Unfortunately, this past birthday, my son was up the entire night before, very sick with that horrible - I think it was called the Norovirus or whatever the hell that was that was going around. So I got it. And then my husband [Paul Scheer] got it. We were both fighting it because he had planned this whole day for me, and we were both pretending it wasn't happening. We were literally driving ourselves to a massage and facial that he had planned and at one point, I was like, "I can't drive anymore. I need to get in the passenger's seat."
[Paul Scheer] was kind of pretending to not be as sick as he was. And then we almost pulled into this spa when I finally called it and said, "I'm very ill. We need to go home." And he said, "I am, too." He said that he wasn't going to do his treatments, he was going to - by the way, these are great problems to have - he was going to lie in the men's relaxation room in between throwing up. I was like, "This is insane. We're sick, and we need to just acknowledge it. And it sucks that it happened on my birthday, but let's get back into bed."