(2005) Graham is blessed, but there remains one void
By LUAINE LEE
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - Actress Lauren Graham learned early on that you can't have everything you want.
The star of the WB's "Gilmore Girls" was a senior in high school who'd sparkled as the star of most of the school plays. But when they were casting "Once Upon a Mattress," she didn't get the lead. "I kind of took it a little bit for granted that I would get the next lead," she says, seated at a small, round table in an empty room of a hotel here.
"I didn't do a bad job. I just had senior-itis. I remember my teacher saying, 'You need to tell me now if I give you a smaller part, will you not do it?' And I did it."
That taught her a valuable lesson, she thinks. "That became the way I disciplined myself. If something didn't happen the way I wanted it to, I really did learn how to stick with it and try harder and to challenge myself in a bigger way," she says.
After six years of struggling, Graham landed "Gilmore Girls," which aired its 100th episode on Feb. 8, a status that most television shows never reach.
But starring in a popular and consistent show is not everything.
She would like to have an equally enduring relationship, she says. "I was with somebody for a long time, off and on, but we broke up not too long ago," she smiles, a half-shy shake of her head.
"I want to have a family. I really love being in a relationship, and my dad is such a great man, and my relationships have been very positive. I really think I grew up with a good experience of what a good man is and have a lot of respect for that. It's been tough, this job, because it's all-involving," she says.
Graham's mother left the family when Lauren was 5. Her father raised her alone until he remarried when she was in high school. A lawyer who became proficient in Vietnamese, her father worked for a year in Vietnam with a government agency connected to the CIA.
"What he would do is fly around to these small towns that had been devastated and help them rebuild. So that's what he did for about a year.... Understandably he found it really distressing work," she says.
"I think there are hundreds of people that perceive part of that group could've been spy cover, but my dad can't keep secrets," she laughs.
Being reared by her father made her different, she confesses. "I think that changed how I viewed myself in the world of my peers. And I knew that in order to learn to be a girl I was going to have to do it myself...There were people who guided me. But I learned how to put on makeup from books and magazines, nobody helped me do that. So I thought that's one of the things that's different about my life."
Her mother settled in London and eventually had a child, her father had two more. She's still on cordial terms with her mother, though they only met annually when she was growing up.
Being a latchkey kid with a string of baby-sitters made her independent, Graham thinks. After high school she enrolled in a performing-conservatory school. But, coming from an academic background, she felt out of place there.
"I thought, 'You know, I should read more. I should study more before I roll around on the floor pretending I'm a lion.' So I transferred to Barnard and I was an English major and was still thinking about being an actor and took classes outside of school."
Things were difficult there. Graham, 37, endured a series of jobs. She waitressed, worked at Barney's, toiled in a library. "I remember counting pennies in the subway because I lived off-campus and had to get to school that day. I didn't have enough money to get in the subway. I remember standing at the turnstile. And I would eat out of the vending machine and would eat cheese and crackers.... I just had no money all through college, and it just adds to your frustration and depression, and it was really tough."
Things weren't much better in L.A. She slept on her aunt's couch in Long Beach (20 miles south of Los Angeles) while she looked for work. A commercial for Cascade dishwashing powder had sustained her for nearly two years, but that was running out.
When she graduated from her aunt's couch she moved in with a newly divorced friend whose house contained no furniture except two beds and a chair. "And we just ate Rice Krispy treats. That's when I started working in 'Caroline in the City' and that's when it kind of started."
Except for missing someone to share her life, she's content, she says. "I have a sense of faith, look at all the blessings I have. I don't have everything I want right now, but there are plenty of people out there in a great relationship, but they're not in the job they want. You just don't get everything you want when you want it."
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/entertainment/10860811.htm
- Submitted by (Trishia) pippi virgin - Regular Collector
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - Actress Lauren Graham learned early on that you can't have everything you want.
The star of the WB's "Gilmore Girls" was a senior in high school who'd sparkled as the star of most of the school plays. But when they were casting "Once Upon a Mattress," she didn't get the lead. "I kind of took it a little bit for granted that I would get the next lead," she says, seated at a small, round table in an empty room of a hotel here.
"I didn't do a bad job. I just had senior-itis. I remember my teacher saying, 'You need to tell me now if I give you a smaller part, will you not do it?' And I did it."
That taught her a valuable lesson, she thinks. "That became the way I disciplined myself. If something didn't happen the way I wanted it to, I really did learn how to stick with it and try harder and to challenge myself in a bigger way," she says.
After six years of struggling, Graham landed "Gilmore Girls," which aired its 100th episode on Feb. 8, a status that most television shows never reach.
But starring in a popular and consistent show is not everything.
She would like to have an equally enduring relationship, she says. "I was with somebody for a long time, off and on, but we broke up not too long ago," she smiles, a half-shy shake of her head.
"I want to have a family. I really love being in a relationship, and my dad is such a great man, and my relationships have been very positive. I really think I grew up with a good experience of what a good man is and have a lot of respect for that. It's been tough, this job, because it's all-involving," she says.
Graham's mother left the family when Lauren was 5. Her father raised her alone until he remarried when she was in high school. A lawyer who became proficient in Vietnamese, her father worked for a year in Vietnam with a government agency connected to the CIA.
"What he would do is fly around to these small towns that had been devastated and help them rebuild. So that's what he did for about a year.... Understandably he found it really distressing work," she says.
"I think there are hundreds of people that perceive part of that group could've been spy cover, but my dad can't keep secrets," she laughs.
Being reared by her father made her different, she confesses. "I think that changed how I viewed myself in the world of my peers. And I knew that in order to learn to be a girl I was going to have to do it myself...There were people who guided me. But I learned how to put on makeup from books and magazines, nobody helped me do that. So I thought that's one of the things that's different about my life."
Her mother settled in London and eventually had a child, her father had two more. She's still on cordial terms with her mother, though they only met annually when she was growing up.
Being a latchkey kid with a string of baby-sitters made her independent, Graham thinks. After high school she enrolled in a performing-conservatory school. But, coming from an academic background, she felt out of place there.
"I thought, 'You know, I should read more. I should study more before I roll around on the floor pretending I'm a lion.' So I transferred to Barnard and I was an English major and was still thinking about being an actor and took classes outside of school."
Things were difficult there. Graham, 37, endured a series of jobs. She waitressed, worked at Barney's, toiled in a library. "I remember counting pennies in the subway because I lived off-campus and had to get to school that day. I didn't have enough money to get in the subway. I remember standing at the turnstile. And I would eat out of the vending machine and would eat cheese and crackers.... I just had no money all through college, and it just adds to your frustration and depression, and it was really tough."
Things weren't much better in L.A. She slept on her aunt's couch in Long Beach (20 miles south of Los Angeles) while she looked for work. A commercial for Cascade dishwashing powder had sustained her for nearly two years, but that was running out.
When she graduated from her aunt's couch she moved in with a newly divorced friend whose house contained no furniture except two beds and a chair. "And we just ate Rice Krispy treats. That's when I started working in 'Caroline in the City' and that's when it kind of started."
Except for missing someone to share her life, she's content, she says. "I have a sense of faith, look at all the blessings I have. I don't have everything I want right now, but there are plenty of people out there in a great relationship, but they're not in the job they want. You just don't get everything you want when you want it."
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/entertainment/10860811.htm
- Submitted by (Trishia) pippi virgin - Regular Collector
posted by MissCoffee @ 5:08 p.m.
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