Lisa - Ses articles de presse

We missed the first minute. Please be aware: there is some coarse language contained in this transcript, so do not read if you’re offended by that sort of thing, or if you’re like 10 years old.

Also, some names have been bleeped out to protect Lisa because she’s awesome, even if the people she’s talking about may not be.

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MODERATOR: House is a show that I don’t think has ever had a bad season.

LISA EDELSTEIN: Thank you.

MODERATOR: And, I hope you don’t mind – of course we’ll talk about House – but I actually wanted to go back to the beginning of your career. You grew up on the east coast?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yeah.

MODERATOR: When did you know you wanted to be an actor?

LISA EDELSTEIN: When I could speak. (laughter) I think that’s true for a lot of actors. I don’t think you could really go into this industry without thinking it’s the only thing you ever wanted to do. If you can think of something else to do, you probably should go do that other thing. But for most actors, whether or not their successful, it’s really a very myopic experience.

MODERATOR: So you never had a backup plan? You never thought, maybe, law school?

LISA EDELSTEIN: No. It’s funny you say that. My parents were trying to get me to do it. I can’t think of anything worse than being a lawyer. I don’t even want to play a lawyer on TV. It’s the most boring scenes to shoot. It’s so tedious.

MODERATOR: Nobody in your family was involved in the industry. How did you get your start?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Um, I – since it was always what I wanted to do, I would be on stage whenever anybody gave me the opportunity. Even if it meant just like carrying a sign, I found that to be exhilarating. And I danced and did gymnastics – anything that got me out in front of an audience. I choreographed to every album I ever had and made my parents watch, every 20 minutes a new dance – you know, I was just that kind of kid.

But, um, when I was a teenager, I had somebody, I mean - I thought - managers. Who the hell knows who these people really were? We took photos and I bought the Roush (?) reports and made a list of every agent and manager in New York according to what block they were on, and I was maybe 14 and I was going around Manhattan with this pile of pictures and checking in with my Roush reports list. Eventually I stopped checking the list and if it said agent or manager on the door I knocked and got myself in a little bit of trouble because you meet a lot of really sleazy people when that’s your approach. So, uh, basically that’s how it started and then it got weirder after that. (laughter)

MODERATOR: How did you get your first manager? Was it from a knock on a door?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Well, I mean, that depends on what you consider my first manager. There were a lot of people who called themselves my manager but I don’t know what they were doing. I really, um, I really did it myself. I mean, there were agents and mangers that I was “working with”, but knowing now, as an experienced actor, what that actually means, that wasn’t really what was going on. I got a little bit well known in New York for being this club kid. Just going out all the time and being really involved with this very interesting scene and this very interesting group of people. But ultimately it’s a vacuous experience and at the height of that experience, at the height of the attention, I was really disillusioned and I disappeared for a year and there were a lot of things going on in the world during that point in time and in that time period I wrote a play – an AIDS awareness musical – and I put that on. Um, and that was a really remarkable beginning as an artist.

And then, I ended up with a very stupid job on MTV because somebody knew me as Lisa E the club kid and somebody knew me as Lisa Edelstein the playwright and somebody knew me as this girl that had sent in a video tape trying to audition for an MTV show and they were all talking about the same person in some meeting – this is what they told me later – and they realized they were talking about the same person so they gave me this job. As stupid as this job was, it got me my first real agent and my first real manager. So I really scraped it together on my own at first and then legitimate people followed. Which is what, I think, you still have to do nowadays with YouTube videos and theater, too, but YouTube has really become a showcase.

MODERATOR: Now, going back to the club kid thing, is this like a precursor to today’s Paris Hilton?

LISA EDELSTEIN: I’ve heard that comparison, except that Paris Hilton comes from a lot of money, and this had nothing to do with money. Nobody had any money. And the world was filled with little microcosms. What was happening in downtown Manhattan wasn’t even happening in uptown Manhattan. It was a very different community. And when you traveled to different cities you could experience that city in a unique way. So, it was different from the way it is now, and it was cool to make your clothes, not to have name brands - in a way, a better youth, in that sense, because you could use your creativity as opposed to the power of your wallet. So I wouldn’t compare it to her for that reason. But, I mean, I was very enthusiastic. That’s the only reason I can give for the attention that I got. I was so excited to be there. I was the least interesting person in the room, really, when you consider what was in the room, but maybe the most palatable to an outsider’s eye. But now it’s like a mythology, it’s really funny, but I loved that experience. A lot of those people are still in my life – those who survived – and they’re just as interesting today as they were back then.

MODERATOR: Was this before or after you went to college?

LISA EDELSTEIN: During. It started before and was during and then I dropped out of college to write this musical. I was at NYU in the theater department. I hated it. I thought it was – having just walked around New York with my pictures and resume and dealt with what I dealt with in these crazy offices, I felt like I wasn’t getting the truth and nothing but the truth in these rooms. And I feel that acting schools – especially in universities – don’t do enough to teach you about the world you’re entering and they keep you in this kind of fantasy place which I wasn’t already in when I arrived - my innocence had been snatched away (laughs). So I was disillusioned with that. Although I took one class with this playwright called ********* ****** and our assignment was to write a politically satirical song and I wrote one about the sodomy laws called “Government A’okay’d Sex,” and she was really impressed and she was the one that encouraged me to continue to write. Then I wrote the first song of what would become my musical and she said, “You need to turn this into a show,” and that was when I basically just said, “I need to not be in school,” and then I wrote this show and it was the best thing I ever did. It was a better teacher than anything else.

MODERATOR: And the show was called “Positive Me”?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yeah.

MODERATOR: I believe you show you wrote, composed, produced, and starred in?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yeah.

MODERATOR: Did you do craft services, or anything?

LISA EDELSTEIN: No, but I paid people! I did pay them.

MODERATOR: This was a rarity. People were paid?

LISA EDELSTEIN: People were actually paid. I raised money for that show by literally singing and dancing in people’s living rooms. Um, I would do excerpts from the play. They knew they were coming to a fundraiser so it wasn’t like I’d pass a hat by surprise. But I’d literally raise money that way and then the theater, MAMA, matched my funds so, you know, it was a whopping $13,000 altogether but that was a lot of money. And, they gave me a month of a big loft rehearsal space. They really made it possible. They really facilitated me as a young creative person. I’m incredibly grateful to that place.

MODERATOR: Was it a one-woman show, or…?

LISA EDELSTEIN: No, it was eight actors and we each played like five characters. There were elaborate costumes and it was choreographed by a friend of mine who was a principal dancer at New York City Ballet and it was really a love project. It was an important thing to talk about at the time because people weren’t really talking about HIV and AIDS and how it was destroying our whole community.

MODERATOR: What, at such a young age, drew you to that topic?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Well, a lot of my friends were dying. A lot of people were dropping dead, really fast. There was no treatment. It was a plague. There was – I started off by volunteering with a group called Gay Men’s Health Crisis and I volunteered to be a hospital visitor because when you had AIDS, even the nurses were afraid to come into your room at that point, there was so little information out there. And so in order to become a hospital visitor, you had to take a 27 hour, 3 day workshop to learn everything they knew about this virus, to learn how to accept people, just in case, so they didn’t send somebody in who told them they were going to hell. Um, and, they tried to weed through people and sift out any problems and take the volunteers that were left and put them in the hospital.

But in that time period, having learned about all this, and – you know, not just that, but life suddenly changed. If you were born in the sixties or before, you know, you were raised with the understanding that ‘free love’ was the generation before you, and the wild seventies, and suddenly you could die from acting that way, and having to change your habits and take responsibility and still feel like you were living a full life. That really interested me. What gets in a person’s way when they don’t want to ask the other person to use a condom? What are those things that are in between you and taking care of yourself? And so it was really about our own neurosis and our own prejudice and of course, our fear.

MODERATOR: And it was funny? Satirical?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yeah.

MODERATOR: Were you worried about that at all? That people would be willing to laugh?

LISA EDELSTEIN: No, I didn’t worry about that. I was more worried – like, one time I did excerpts – I did excerpts all the time – and one of the places I did excerpts was in East Harlem – and this was in the 80s – Spanish Harlem, and one of the songs is an intentionally bad rap song meant to be sung by a guy about how he’s too cool for AIDS and too cool for condoms and I’m a white woman, I’m singing an intentionally bad rap song to really cheesy music and I was like, they’re going to kill me. Um, and, uh, in 1987, in Spanish Harlem. But, actually, teenagers just want to hear you talk about fucking, and if you’re willing to do that, you’re like so cool it doesn’t matter what you talk about.

MODERATOR: So it was a big hit, there?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yeah. It was a huge hit in Spanish Harlem. That’s right.

MODERATOR: And a big hit elsewhere, too? I mean, didn’t you do it for a couple years?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yeah, we did it – well, you know, at MAMA you’d have short runs, so we did a weekend workshop and we did a five week run, which is actually an extended run at the MAMA, and then I did excerpts for several years at benefits and fundraisers and stuff like that.

MODERATOR: Not fundraisers for yourself…

LISA EDELSTEIN: No, no, no. School systems, AIDS benefits, stuff like that.

MODERATOR: And did it open any doors for you? I mean, did it lead directly to the MTV job?

LISA EDELSTEIN: It was direct, yeah. I was poor when I finished that show. Everyone got paid but me. In fact, I thought I’d reserved $300 for myself, but actually I’d apparently gone over budget and my budgets were, y’know, written out on pieces of paper like – there was not really a computerized system and I think the tears just kind of fell down my face when they’d told me I’d actually gone $500 over budget. They handed me $400. They felt bad. They took it out of their theater fund. Uh, but then MTV came and that was $300 a show, that was really exciting.

MODERATOR: And what was the experience like on the show? I know you didn’t’ like the show itself.

LISA EDELSTEIN: I hated it. I mean, it was great to be professional, but I’m not a host. I don’t wanna be a host, especially when I was that age because – lord knows – I didn’t know a thing about myself and how I wanted to present myself as me. Because you’re really choosing a very small percentage of who you are and putting it on camera, and when you don’t know who you are that’s a really hard thing to do. So I looked like an idiot. Basically, I called it five days a week, four hours a day of national humiliation. Um, where, my makeup was – I looked Puerto Rican. I had so much makeup on. My body was – I was bigger. I had these boobs out to here and this ass out to here and my clothes were too tight and everything was shoved in and sometimes they would snap open and the guy I was – my co-host – I didn’t think he was funny at all. So we would have these things where I would say something and then he would make a joke and I’d be like, “HA-HA,” (fakely) and I would watch and I finally learned a few months in that if something’s not funny and you laugh at it, you look like an idiot. Whereas if you don’t laugh at it, it’s funny. Because then it becomes funny in a different way. By the end, by seven months of all that torture, I went out to a meeting after the show ended with somebody – I can’t remember what studio – and she was like, “Oh, yeah, you’re on that show. I loved that show. I’ve never seen two people hate each other more.” It was really funny.

MODERATOR: Do you know where your co-host ended up?

LISA EDELSTEIN: I don’t know what happened to him. He’s a standup comedian. He was not a bad guy, just a – he wasn’t the greatest at socializing. I had a birthday party – I’d been working with him for five months – and at the birthday party he was just – he was doing like shtick. I mean, we’re sitting across the table, we work together 12 hours a day and I realized, ooh, he actually can’t have a conversation. This is not – this is a problem. Then you have to become empathetic and you realize it’s not about you, really, it’s just about someone’s particular social skill set.

MODERATOR: When you started wanting to be an actor, did you have a plan for yourself? Like you wanted to do theater, or you only wanted to movies?

LISA EDELSTEIN: I didn’t care. I mean, I remember the day my mother walked in on me imitating a toothpaste commercial. I was probably six. And I was in the mirror and I was like (she mimes brushing her teeth) – and in the middle of it when she walked in and I tried to cover. I really didn’t care. I was fascinated with the tape that lifted off on the floor cleaner commercials that you can make – I reenacted that in the shower all the time. Really, just put me in front of a camera and push – say go – I was thrilled. You know, as you go along, you kind of figure out what it is you actually like. Ultimately, I never got cast in commercials because somehow I made copy sound psychotic, no matter what. Probably, it was – I’m not a good sales person, so, y’know, the right career comes to you as long as you keep suiting up and showing up.

MODERATOR: Speaking of your parents, what did they make of your desire to be an actor?

LISA EDELSTEIN: I think they really thought I was just gonna grow out of it, but I really never intended on growing out of it. It just was – that was it. I’m fortunate enough where that was it and it worked. I know people where that was it and it doesn’t work. And I really empathize because I don’t know what I would do otherwise. No idea. That’s what makes our careers so fantastically terrifying. But, uh, yeah. They support me, they worry, they still worry, they’re constantly worried.

MODERATOR: Really? Even now?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Even now. It never ends. They’re happy, they’re excited, but they’re – what’s gonna happen next. It’s literally, if I tell them I got in an argument with somebody they lose sleep. They’re – my particular parents are just living so vicariously through me that I have to be careful what I tell them. Basically I would tell them – when I came out to LA – that, you know, you audition a lot and you’re going out and you don’t get most of the stuff you audition for, but maybe you get good feedback, maybe you get three callbacks, maybe – you know, whatever it is, you have to find a way to make that a livable experience for you. Where your job is successful based on how you did in the room. And those are really important things to know, just for survival skills. So just to explain that to my parents was impossible. So I was like please – there’s no reason for you to ask about any of this unless I’m on location and I can’t call you back. That’s the only reason to talk about it because it was very stressful for them. But I think – those skills are deeply, deeply important for all of us to have.

MODERATOR: Do you think they would have been that stressed out if you had become a lawyer? Is it just them, or…?

LISA EDELSTEIN: I think – well, they like to stress out, for sure, but I think that, when you become a lawyer, there’s a degree, there’s a path, then you get a job. There’s a pathway. For creative people, we make our own pathways, there are no pathways. You cannot tell somebody how it is that they become an actor. There’s no way to answer that question. Because, first of all, it changes. The playground changes all the time so you just have to be creative in every way you possibly can.

MODERATOR: So after the MTV show, it helped get you legitimate representation?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yes, MTV got me great representation. It was actually very good. Um, my managers at the time – I got managers because the guy who directed the play, his wife, was a big agent – she left to became a manager and she became my manager and while I was on MTV she and this other woman, who was also an agent who became a manager – they were partners – and they were my team of management. But they got in a fight and they stopped speaking to each other. So whenever I went to my managers’ office, I literally would come up the elevator and would have to figure out whose side I was gonna pick that day. Because they weren’t speaking to each other, in this little office in New York. And meanwhile, they sent me to this acting class with ***** ******. And, you know, ***** ******., she’s pretty interesting. And I thought, great. So I was going to this Meisner-style acting class – this is why I hate acting class – and, um, ****** was going through a difficult time in her life. Has anybody here studied Meisner? Okay, well, there’s an exercise called a Repetition Exercise, which is I think supposed to last for five minutes? We would do it for three and a half hours. And we weren’t allowed to stop, nor were we allowed to pee. And the repetition exercise, basically, you started by saying something by saying something to your partner and they say the same thing back and it changes as you’re – you’re trying to repeat it in the way that you received it from the person. Um, and then that changes, and eventually the phrase changes and it has a whole life of its own. Whatever. Anyway, um, she decided that – first of all, we had to do it for three hours. And she also decided that we were not capable of allowing it to change naturally, so she would have to tell us when to change. Except that she had something wrong with her vocal chords, so we would be doing this Meisner exercise and she’d be going (croaking) “Change. Change. Change. Change.” And then she got resentful because she was hurting her throat to tell us to change, so she brought a gun – she brought a fake gun. And instead of saying change, she would shoot the gun.

Uh, anyway, eventually – because I was on a show, I had the privilege of being her favorite student for that period of time. Which meant that she called me every day, for hours, and I heard about a lot of things, and, um, and then in class I got extra attention. Which meant, you know, abused. And finally I got an audition for this theater company and – I was the only person allowed to do a monologue in this class so she just had me memorize the monologue. It was all she wanted. Just memorize the monologue. Just know the words; just know the words – and then one day, during a three and a half hour repetition exercise – the monologue was from NUTS, so – which couldn’t have been more appropriate. So I’m in the middle of this horrible long endless repetition exercise, she’d just said some hideous things to me, and then she cues this monologue out of nowhere. I didn’t expect it. And I turn around and I - if you were an outsider, you’d say I gave the most brilliant performance you could ever possibly imagine me doing a monologue, but what was actually happening was I was having a nervous breakdown. There was no repeating that performance. There was no way you could say, okay and, cut! And, action! There was no way it was happening a second time. And I was basically, like, out for two weeks after this experience. So this was what was happening with these crazy women in my life at the time. And, anyway, I decided to move to Los Angeles. (laughter)

MODERATOR: Why’d you move here?

LISA EDELSTEIN: I came to LA and I started auditioning, I had good agents, but it was a very different experience in Los Angeles. This agency that was a small agency in New York had a much bigger office in LA, and it was a lot of having to schmooze your own agents and keep the relationship alive, audition for your own agents, in a way, over and over again. And, um, my first pilot season, I tested for so many things and that experience – if you’ve never experienced it before – it’s frightening and it’s traumatizing and shit happened like, I tested for a sitcom – really dumb – and I’d come up with this funny idea – I was a waitress and, I can’t remember - all the names of all the dishes were named after famous singers. And I was – Dolly Parton was two sunny sides up and so I did something funny like sunny side up or some boob reference. Which, they laughed! And I being brand new, I thought I should do that every time, so, and then they decided – at the test, they couldn’t make up their mind, so they wanted to re-test me, and they brought somebody else out from Chicago, and now she’s going in for the first time and I’m going in for the second time and I do everything I did that made them laugh so hard and, of course, now it’s silence because they’ve seen me do this before. And then she goes in and I literally hear laughter rolling down the hallway, so I knew she was gonna get the job. It was at the old ABC, and there’s this massive lobby, and when you get down the elevator, there’s a phone here and then there’s a big lobby and then a phone at the other end. So, I went to the first phone and she went to the second phone, and I called my agent and was like, “I’m not gonna get it. They really loved that other girl, they really didn’t love me.” And I was really disappointed, and my agents were saying, “You don’t really know that”, and, “You’re reading into it.” But I know. I’ve always been able to tell, when I walked into a room, what the experience was, what would come out of that room. And just as I was having this conversation, she was walking past to go the other phone – the other actress – and the producers were coming down and, not seeing me there, they congratulated her. One after another, after another, after another. And I was literally – the only way for me to then exit the situation was to also go past all these producers, so it was really a tragic moment. Because not only was I humiliated by having to see that, but I also knew they were about to be humiliated and they were going to have to find a way to save face, even though we all knew there was no way to save face. So, you know, tragedy.

MODERATOR: Did they save face?

LISA EDELSTEIN: You know, they did. They apologized, and it was a whole thing, but that was my first pilot season. So it was a good foray into our industry.

MODERATOR: And how long did it take, would you say, before you booked your first role?

LISA EDELSTEIN: I booked a series that pilot season, but we shot four episodes, and during the fifth, at the beginning of the fifth episode, the executive producer called the head of the studio a fucking moron in our script read-through, so they shut us down and it never aired.

MODERATOR: What was it called?

LISA EDELSTEIN: It was called Circus, and it was on Fox, but like in the old days, when Married with Children was, like, the only show that Fox had, and um, it was about a really sleazy traveling circus, and I played, like, a fake tarot card reader, and my mother – who was like six years older than me – we were gypsy tarot card readers. And there was a pedophile clown and an alcoholic clown and – it was a really good idea! I liked it and wish it went. And then I did another pilot for $1000, and it was one of those presentation pilots, and then I got an episode of Seinfeld. I did Seinfeld, Mad About You, Wings, and LA Law like all happened in a matter of two months, and it was just around that time that my agency disbanded. And so I was on the hunt for new representation. And interestingly, it was a great moment because I’d just started to work and I felt really great about where I was at and great about my story and my life and so I interviewed many different agencies and many different managers and I really felt like I was interviewing them and I really approached it like I’m hiring these people, so I want them to tell me what they do. I’ll tell them who I am, but I want them to tell me what they do. And, um, and it was a really empowering experience. And actually the people that I ended up signing with, I’m still with. I’ve been with them both for 18 years. My agent then left that particular agency and formed a smaller agency and it’s been great. It’s been a really wonderful relationship.

MODERATOR: And what was it about the people that you ended up choosing that appealed to you?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Well, I – for me, I’m not an ingénue, I was never really an ingénue, I was never really in that game. Uh, I watch Olivia [Wilde], who is in that game, and it’s pretty fascinating. It’s a machine that propels people forward, and even when you’re in it, there’s 20 other women being propelled forward in that machine and I never really looked at it that way because I’ve never observed it from so close up. But for me – I’m not interested in being with the greatest snakes in the industry; the really aggressive snake-oil salesmen. And I really want to be with somebody that I like as a human being, that I think has my back, that really likes me and is excited about my work and that I don’t feel like I ever have to schmooze ever again for the rest of my life. I mean, we’re a team, we’re a unit, we’re in it together, it’s for the long term. This is my career. I ‘m not trying to be anything but what I’m doing and I just wanted to meet other like minded people.

MODERATOR: And since this is the SAG Foundation, how did you get your SAG card?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Um, I got my SAG card in the movie called The Doors, which is an Oliver Stone movie, which is a story in itself. When Oliver Stone was casting The Doors, everybody was very excited. Everybody wanted to be in this movie. And he took advantage of that situation by – there were only two different characters that you could read for, even though, obviously, there only two people who were gonna get those parts and there were many more roles in the film. But the two characters that you could read for were either Jim Morrison’s girlfriend or the witch woman that he – and the only scenes that he gave you to read were fuck scenes.

MODERATOR: I’ve never heard it be called that before.

LISA EDELSTEIN: Sex scenes. So, really, once you hear the description, you’ll understand why I call them ‘fuck scenes’. In one scene, the girlfriend of Jim Morrison – the actual scene is, Jim Morrison, you’re there talking, and then he tells her – can I say? I’m just gonna – then he tells her, “Go into the corner, bend over, spread your ass cheeks, and tell me your cunt is mine.” And so she does. And that’s the scene! Aaand, scene. I don’t remember the dialogue, other than the action. So, I got these sides and I’m like, “What am I going to do? I really want to be in this movie, but what am I going to do?” and, meanwhile, they were videotaping these auditions and girls were so desperate to be in this film that there were women showing up with no underwear on and they were doing the scene. And these video tapes were going around town. I didn’t know that until afterwards, so I’m like, I have no idea what I’m going to do. I just know that I’m going to go to this meeting and I’m going to figure it out when I get there. And so I walk into the door and he looks at me and goes, “You know what? I want you to read another character.” And I was like, “Whew” (dramatically wipes brow). He hands me these sides of three other scenes. In one scene, I’m having sex in a bathroom stall. In another scene, I’m having sex on a couch, and in the third scene, I’m having sex with Jim Morrison, and he reaches inside me and pulls out my diaphragm and he says, “You won’t be needing this,” with lines like (deadpan), “Fuck me, you rock god, fuck me.” And he gave us a reader, this very sweet, kind of effeminate guy, and so I said to the guy, “What do we do? How do we get through this?” and he’s like, “Listen. Let’s just pretend you already have the job and this is rehearsal,” which I thought was fantastic advice. I was like, “You know what? I can go with that.”

So, he and I go in the room, Oliver’s sitting behind this desk, me and this poor guy who I don’t think is interested in women, and we’re rolling around the floor. I’m losing pages, “Oh, uh, fuck me you rock god, fuck me…” and did the diaphragm thing and by the end of this first scene, Oliver is literally like leaning over his desk because we’d rolled under, and so, he says, “Wow, that was great, thank you so much.” And I said, “You don’t want to see the other scenes?” He goes, “No, that was really great.” And I said, “Okay. So you only need to see me fuck on the floor? You don’t need to see me fuck on the couch or in the bathroom?” and he said, “Will this be your first film?” and that’s when I got the job. (Applause)

But I only had one line. I kept getting written out, cuz he was writing it. He would change scenes, and I kept losing my part and finally he put me in a scene playing the makeup artist for the Doors at the backstage of the Ed Sullivan show and in order to get my SAG card, I needed to say a line. So he said, “Say a line. Just make one up.” So, I made one up. And then as soon as I made it up I said to myself, “Why’d I give myself such a short line?” (laughter) So every take I just made my line longer. Until he literally screamed at me from across the room on a megaphone, “Lise, you’re stopping the fucking scene!” Seriously, I was like, “No, what are you kidding? Whaddya think, whaddya think?” Whatever I could do to extend the moment. Anyway, there ya go.

MODERATOR: It seems like right about the same time, you started popping up in a lot of successful sitcoms like Mad About You and Seinfeld.

LISA EDELSTEIN: Well The Doors was before all of that. The Doors was - I was still in New York. I had my SAG card by the time I got to LA and did all that stuff, but, yeah. I had a nice beginning. It was lovely. I mean, my career, as the business of acting, has been pretty steady, normal, like any regular business. Every year it gets a little better, then you have a little dip, then it gets a little better, and a little better, and that’s – I’m very fortunate that that’s been the case for me.

MODERATOR: I’d heard from so many actors that it’s difficult going into an existing show and be a guest star? That it’s actually harder than being a regular on a show.

LISA EDELSTEIN: Um, depends on the show. Um, I worked on one show – it’s no fun to tell you this story without mentioning names – and I probably shouldn’t mention names. It’s like, everybody ignored me, basically, except for one guy, who was really nice to me, who then ended up stalking me. And then I had to go back to the show and do another episode.

MODERATOR: Does his name rhyme with Barry Feinfeld?

LISA EDELSTEIN: No, but his name rhymes with ******* ********. (laughter)

MODERATOR: You dodged a bullet on that one.

LISA EDELSTEIN: Oh, God. I hope nobody sees that. I don’t want him getting mad.

MODERATOR: What’s that like, when you have to go back to the show with a stalker on the set?

LISA EDELSTEIN: It was weird. Cuz he was literally the only one that spoke to me the whole time. Years later I did the show with Julia Louis Dreyfus – not the Christine show, the one that had the timeline–

MODERATOR: Watching Ellie.

LISA EDELSTEIN: - Yeah, yeah. And she was a doll. I don’t know what was happening on that show, something must have been going on. It was the first episode back, it was a huge hit, they must have been under a lot of pressure. You know, I think - I don’t really know. On our show, we’re particularly careful of taking care of the guest stars. Everyone makes sure they feel part of, but maybe – I don’t understand why that would happen or not happen on different shows. But, you know, the dynamic changes depending on many things.

MODERATOR: Looking at your resume, I think it’s a really - if I’m right – a really good example of work leading to more work?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yes.

MODERATOR: I just noticed, you worked with Tommy Schlamme –

LISA EDELSTEIN: Tommy Schlamme’s a great example. Tommy Schlamme – I was a recurring character on a sitcom with Nancy Travis – I can’t remember what it was called – and Tommy Schlamme directed an episode. Cut to, he’s working on ER, they’re doing the live episode, I go in to audition for it, I know Tommy Schlamme. He gives me a direction within the audition that I take well and I’m hired for that role. Cut to Tommy Schalmme’s working on Sports Night with Aaron Sorkin. It’s 9:30 on a weekday, I get a phone call, they haven’t cast this role, can you be there by 10? So I’m there by 10 because now I’ve worked for Tommy Schlamme twice. I meet Aaron Sorkin, I do a rehearsal, we really like each other, and so now I have a relationship with Aaron Sorkin. Then they’re about to do West Wing and they offer me the role as the hooker on West Wing because now I’ve worked with them twice on Sports Night and with Tommy three times before that. You know, so it’s a wonderful thing about what we do. If you show up, and you suit up and you do your job well and are good to work with, it actually does mean something. What’s incredible to me is that some people are assholes and they keep working. I don’t really know how that happens; I don’t know what that is.

MODERATOR: How do you deal with that, as an actor, when you find yourself in a situation with someone who’s not acting appropriately?

LISA EDELSTEIN: What can you do except, you know, live through it? And it’s such a shame because we’re so gifted to be at a job to begin with. And for someone to make it into a miserable experience – people are just fucked up, you know? Everybody’s got their shit. I worked with one person who literally made me cry several times because she was just not nice. And not nice in a really underhanded way.
And, by the way, now really nice to me. What are you gonna do? You just have to find your way, find your people.

MODERATOR: This time that you’re doing these great guest appearances. I know Ally McBeal was really wonderful.

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yeah, that was great.

MODERATOR: We actually had a Relativity question here, wanting to know – a question from Wednesday – wanting to know if they’ll ever release Relativity on DVD?

LISA EDELSTEIN: I don’t know. It’d be nice. It’s such a beautiful series. I should ask them, but I haven’t heard anything. I heard rumors once a long time ago but nothing ever became of it.

MODERATOR: I remember that series very vividly. It was a good show.

LISA EDELSTEIN: It was a really good show, and I loved my part and, y’know, I didn’t even know what it was gonna be, I had two lines in the pilot. It was a really special experience.

MODERATOR: Now you’ve been through many pilot seasons.

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yeah.

MODERATOR: And you’re pretty good at it. Leap of Faith was a great show. I mean, House, obviously. What is it that you look for when you get a script? How do you know to pick the winner?

LISA EDELSTEIN: You can’t, really. Because even if you know the show is a winner, it doesn’t necessarily stay on the air. Um, I think you have to judge for yourself, but the good news about pilot scripts, is that there’s very little time between when they shoot the pilot and when they have to present the pilot, so you really do see it on the page. As opposed to a film script, which can change drastically from the script you were handed to what it looks like after editing and post production. So, I think you can develop a skill for seeing on the page what you think it’ll look like on the screen. And then you have to assume the show’s gonna last – first off. You have to say, If this show’s going to last for seven years, am I going to be interested in playing this character? Do I see good writing in this one episode? Do I think these people know how to write dialogue? Do I think they’re smart? And – whatever – you have to really judge those things and take yourself seriously enough to assume it’s going to last and see what you can glean out of it.

MODERATOR: So when you go the House script, which, I guess, was just Untitled David Shore Project, what was…

LISA EDELSTEIN: Untitled Medical Show, or something like that.

MODERATOR: See? It sounds awful.

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yeah, but it was smart. It was really smart. And my character – some of the stuff that I had in the script was not in the pilot when they edited it for time, but I had some really sassy things to do and I liked her, I liked the writing, I thought they were smart people, it was a show I was interested in, and then it had cool people involved. Brian Singer was directing – that was really interesting. Paul Attanasio was the name you knew although Katie has really been the hands on executive producer, but still, they had a good track record. So, yeah, it was a great show to get, definitely.

MODERATOR: And you must have really good taste, because the other pilot you were testing for was Desperate Housewives.

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yeah, Desperate Housewives. And I didn’t get Desperate Housewives and then I got House a few days later.

MODERATOR: You were going out for the Felicity Huffman role, I believe.

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yeah, I was going out for the Felicity Huffman role, and it was one of those weird – I know David Edelstein was one of the producers, and –

MODERATOR: No relation?

LISA EDELSTEIN: No relation. But we thought it was funny so a couple times we would go to parties together (laughter), so we were friends. And I really liked Mark Cherry and I thought the script was really funny and I was really excited about it but, um, a couple things that happened funny – the first thing that happened funny at that audition was that, um, I forgot her name all of a sudden – Jessalyn Gilsig – and I were waiting in the waiting room – I think we were up for the same role. Though I’m not really sure, she might have been up for the Marcia Cross - that character. So we’re sitting around, talking, and we’re having a really personal conversation – she’s on Glee now, if you don’t know who she is - we’re having a very personal conversation and about 10 minutes into this very personal conversation, I mean, completely silently, we both realize that we’ve never met each other. That we’d both done so much guest starring and jumping around from show to show that we recognized each other from TV and it was a simultaneous, “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” but without either of us realizing it and in the middle of this very personal conversation, we both had to silently adjust the conversation to realize we were talking to a stranger. We didn’t talk about it again for months; when we met each other again we both had a good laugh. But then I went into my test. When I walked into the room to do my final test, they were on the phone and they were negotiating. And apparently they were negotiating with Felicity’s agent and for her it was an offer. And they didn’t realize that I’d walked in. Michael Edelstein and I – I can’t believe I almost tripped over his name – because we were friendly, I think he dealt with it by thinking, Oh, I’m – he’s going to let me live out my audition. And I was like, ‘Don’t fucking let me live out my audition! If you‘re giving this role to somebody, just give it to them!’ But anyway, I did my audition and then I found out what actually happened in the room they were embarrassed.


MODERATOR: and then a week later, you got House.

LISA EDELSTEIN: a week later I got House.

MODERATOR: So it does have a happy ending.

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yeah, listen. This is our business. This is what we go through. I never really talk about – I only talk about it here because it’s all actors and I think it’s important to talk about the difficulties of the process that we go through and how you pull through hat process and what keeps you moving forward instead of just collapsing. Those are important things to share. More so than anything else, really.

MODERATOR: How do you – I don’t know if you’ve you always been well adjusted about these situations, but how did you learn to cope with them? ‘Cause I could just imagine people having a total deserved meltdown.

LISA EDELSTEIN: I think you go through periods of meltdown and I think you just have your – everyone’s got their weak link, it certainly wasn’t easy for me, either. But in terms of that regard, what happens in the room, I learned – I think because when I did my play and produced my play, I had people audition, sitting on the other side of that experience was so educational for me. More so than anything else at that point, more so than any class I’d had. Just watching what people do in a room, how they behave, what their auditions are like, what their anxiety comes from, what you hope for them when you come in. I mean, you want them to do well. What else would you want? So, maybe that helped a lot.

But, I really got the message early on that if you walk in and you show them what you have to offer and what your creative ideas are, and if you successfully do what you intended on doing in that regard, then you have had a great meeting. And no one in the world can do what you do. Only you have to offer your special little mixture of spices. No one else has that, and so being a unique human being, walking in and giving your artistry, is – that is a successful moment, and if they want to hire you – fantastic. And if they don’t want to hire you, but you successfully did what you wanted to do, they will hire you for something else. Doing well in a room makes casting directors look good, makes producers feel comfortable; um, it makes people want to have you back again; it makes them think of you for other roles. Like, there are many things that go on in an audition, beyond just getting that part. And they’re all equally important, because this is a long term business. Unless you’re in it for, I want like one job and then I’m gonna go open a hotel (laughter), yeah – I just want one job and then I just want to waitress for the rest of my life (laughter). But, you know, you have to think in the long term, you have to think you’re always creating your future, everything’s important, how you present yourself is important, all that stuff.

MODERATOR: What was the house audition like? Did you know that you had nailed it? Did you feel good about it?

LISA EDELSTEIN: I felt really good about it. I felt really good about it for the same reason. I felt really connected to this role. What I would like to do with this role, I feel great about. If that’s what you want, this is it. And it turned out – I didn’t know – Brian Singer was a huge West Wing fan. So, he had actually had me in mind the whole time. I thought I was fighting the good fight, but actually I was like, the person he wanted for the part. So, I didn’t know that. Um –

MODERATOR: When did you learn that?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Like two months ago. (laughter).

MODERATOR: He just told you that, or…?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yeah. I ran into him in customs on the way to London and we were like, “Hey!” and then we ended up having dinner with a bunch of people and he told me that.

MODERATOR: So, all you had to do was basically not screw it up.

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yeah, but what did I know? I mean, the first time I met Bryan, I was so excited to meet Bryan, it was my third call back, and I think I did everything at like triple the speed that it should be. I mean, I talked so fast, he was like, “Great. Now let’s do it at a human pace.” (laughter) Right. I was on so much adrenaline.

MODERATOR: Well, he’d seen you on West Wing, so he was probably expecting that… They’re very verbose there.

LISA EDELSTEIN: No, my hooker talked slow (laughter).

MODERATOR: And wasn’t your role on West Wing supposed to be one episode, originally?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Yeah, and that turned into a season of episodes. Not every episode, but yeah, it was a really nice story arc.

MODERATOR: And I know actors are dying to know, what’s the secret to getting asked back, to being kept around. But, is there one?

LISA EDELSTEIN: I don’t know if there is one. There were plenty of times where I wasn’t asked back, but, um, you know, you keep working. But I certainly think doing good work leads to more work. If you can show up and do work that makes people happy, that has an enormous value. But, you know, them not calling you back doesn’t mean you didn’t do good work. That’s the danger of thinking that way. There – I see it on our show. I mean, we have incredible guest stars. They do some amazing work. Those are hard parts, to walk in and have some horrible disease. It’s always life threatening. Or, you have to be like the worried mom or the worried dad, which is almost as bad as being a lawyer (laughter). All your dialogue is just servicing the other story, like, “I hope she’s okay.” Or, “Doctor, what’s happening?” It’s so hard to do those parts and sound like a human being and feel good about it and be interesting. So, you know, I’d hate to think that, because people don’t come back that they didn’t do a good job.

MODERATOR: Now, it’s interesting to go back and watch the early episodes of House, like the first season, and see how the character has changed in some obvious ways – I mean, she’s a mother now, which I wouldn’t have predicted. - and very subtle ways. What was your take on the character from the beginning, and her evolution?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Um, I don’t think characters change because – and David Shore will say this – because then you change the dynamics of the show. But they become more revealed. So, certainly, what happens is, you get – when you get a pilot and you do a series, you’re trying to service the vision of the writers. And after a while, when they’re looking at post production, and they’re seeing the episodes, however you’ve enhanced the character with your own personality – that becomes how they think of the character. So, it becomes a kind of merging of imaginations. But they don’t change, they just deepen. Layers get thrown on and it becomes more fun.

MODERATOR: And sort of along those lines, we have a question: How much can you affect your character’s development and what if you think it’s going the wrong way?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Um, in terms of character development, it’s a very delicate matter, because you never want to have the producers or the writers feel like you’re trying to push your own agenda on the show. And I went through this on House because in the first season, I wasn’t being written for all that much, and I was worried that they would just get bored with her and she would disappear. Now, there were a lot of things going on – they had a new series. Our first six episodes were not doing well, ratings wise. We did not get good ratings until American Idol started that season. So, by the time American Idol started that season, we were airing episode seven but we were shooting episode fifteen. So, that’s fifteen episodes of them trying to figure out how to make the show good enough for the network to keep. And fifteen episodes of the network giving them a lot of heartache and they were trying to create the environment, set up the structure, the basic procedural aspect of it, and character development wasn’t on the forefront of anybody’s mind. So, I was lucky that I work with a guy like David Shore because I really thought hard about how do I improve my situation without actually getting thrown off the show (laughter)? So, I managed to come up with ideas about who my character was in terms of back story, because even my job title kept changing from episode to episode.

I finally just asked David if I could have a meeting and I said, “Look. I just wanted to tell you. Dr. Cuddy is Dean of Medicine. Here’s what a Dean of Medicine actually does. Here’s how you become Dean of Medicine. If she’s Dean of Medicine, she’s the youngest female Dean of Medicine ever, and one of probably very few. And here’s why House works for her. Here’s why I think they knew each other.” I just laid out a lot of thoughts I had to present back story so that they wouldn’t have to think about it. Rather than, like, “I would like more lines in an episode.” And actually, I was really fortunate because he liked my ideas and used all my ideas. In could have gone a very different way. I could have been considered very annoying and I’m really grateful that’s not what happened. So I wouldn’t know if I’d advise other people to do that, but at the same time, to me, it was desperate times desperate measures.

At the same time, I’ve asked him, and he said, “That’s not what was going on at all, they were never bored with my character, there was a lot happening and they always loved Cuddy,” But, you know, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. But in terms of storyline and where a story’s going, do I have control of that? No, I would never get in the way. It’s almost like you live in a world where the producer is the god of that world. They’re creating it, they’re moving the pieces. It’s like the original Clash of the Titans where they’re actually moving the pieces around and you have to deal with it. Like, “Oh, I have a magic wand!” And, uh, yeah.

MODERATOR: But I feel like even in those early scenes, there was obvious chemistry with you and Hugh Laurie. And yet – I don’t know if it took the writers a while to realize it, or they just were very slowly working towards getting you two together.

LISA EDELSTEIN: I’m not sure what the truth is. David had said he saw the chemistry from the beginning and he just didn’t want to act on it right away. It was something that he felt like had to wait until much later in the life of the series. So, I guess having chemistry from the get-go was actually a curse. They couldn’t tell that story. But I’m happy they’re telling it now.

MODERATOR: How did they tell you that? Did they come and say, “You guys are gonna get together finally,” or… it was probably worded nicer that that…

LISA EDELSTEIN: You’re gonna do it! But not! It’s a fantasy! But now for real! (laughter) They told me – they don’t really tell you anything. You’ll hear whispers here and there, but ultimately they keep us out of future storylines because it can change. And they don’t want anybody saying, “But I thought the storyline was blah-blah-blah?” And I even think the ending of this particular season, there were two different ways they were gonna go, they didn’t know which way they were gonna go. And when we shot it, the last scene of the finale episode was not in the script. So, I don’t even know if the other actors know about that scene if they haven’t watched the episode. So, I’ll know who watches the show when I get back (laughter)! Um, no, cuz there’s a lot of people that work on the show – not in the acting part, I don’t know from where – but they like to leak storylines and it ruins it for a lot of people. So they were really careful about keeping this under wraps. Nobody saw the scene. Nobody knew we were doing the scene. I said goodbye to the crew and left and came back 3 hours later to shoot the scene, and not even the whole crew was there when I got back. Just, like, the absolutely necessary people were there when we shot the last scene.

MODERATOR: Have you always been good at keeping secrets, or…?

LISA EDELSTEIN: I’m really good at keeping secrets, mostly because I can’t remember anything (laughter). So, you can tell me anything.

MODERATOR: Question: What’s your favorite part of working with Hugh Laurie?

LISA EDELSTEIN: His work ethic. He’s a really extraordinary worker. He pays such close attention to detail. He is very disciplined. And I really admire that. He’s so smart and funny and all of those things, but his work ethic is really extraordinary.

MODERATOR: What was it like having him as a director in the “Lockdown” episode?

LISA EDELSTEIN: It was great. You know, he’s under a lot of pressure as the lead of the show. And, to top it off – first of all he’s the lead. Then he’s got tomes of dialogue, half of it is medical. And then he’s speaking in a foreign accent. And he has to have a limp, and act like he’s in severe pain all the time. So, those are – that’s like juggling eight things simultaneously. When he was directing, when I saw him – the scenes he was in himself I wasn’t there for those scenes, so – what I saw, when he was on set with everybody he’s known for seven years, speaking in an English accent, wearing comfortable clothes, walking normally. Having so much fun. Was super inspired to be doing another aspect of what we do. The only thing that worried me was that Hugh loves all the actors that he works with. I was worried that he loved me so much that he thought I was brilliant even when I wasn’t. “Oh kay. You like that one? Okay…” (hesitant). But, all in all, it was a beautiful episode and it was great to see him have so much fun. Also, as an actor, he’s so good at picking up fine details, the little moments, the little nuances, so being directed by him I felt like I had more of a chance of not missing those myself.

MODERATOR: Question from London, speaking of, the final episode ended with a resolution of the emotional tension between House and Cuddy. Where do you go from here? Can you give us a hint?

LISA EDELSTEIN: I haven’t the faintest idea. They don’t tell me, I haven’t seen a script. And if I did tell you, they’d have to kill me (laughter). All I know is that I’m going to have (air quotes) “a lot of fun”. You don’t know me. You don’t know what fun is to me. It could be something completely psychopathic (laughter).

MODERATOR: At what point did you realize that – House became a pop culture phenomenon in a lot of ways, with terms like, “It’s not lupus,” entering the vernacular. At one point did you realize that you were gonna be around for a while?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Uh, I guess, maybe season four, I felt like maybe we could make it to season six? But, uh, you know, I’m worried about my next job. I mean, I’m in this industry, just like everybody else. I love my job, now we’re going into season seven. How long is this going to last? I have no idea. How long can Hugh stay alive working as many hours? If I just shoot him up with adrenalin and push him forward can we keep it going a bit longer? (laughter) it’s a never ending cycle, what we do.

MODERATOR: What was it like to have an episode that was told from your point of view? The one we saw tonight, “5 to 9”?

LISA EDELSTEIN: That was really exciting for a lot of reasons. First of all, I got the script two weeks early. Normally we get the script the day before we start shooting. In handing me the script, they said, “If you have any notes…” I’ve never heard those words in years. “If I… what?” (laughter). And so I did. I had notes. But I had so much fun because – since the story was Cuddycentric, they really did want my notes. It’s just that other times I’m one of how ever many characters servicing the story line. But in this case, I was the storyline, so when they asked me for notes, I felt so respected and appreciated and able to use my brain in a way that I don’t normally get to. And mostly what I would talk about was, uh, character stuff. Some dialogue stuff, some Lucas stuff, but everything I said was taken into consideration and it was a really fun experience working for them in that way. And additionally, what was great about it was that I was essentially number one on the call sheet. Of course, Hugh is always that person, but I was the one that was gonna be there for more hours than anyone else during these ten days of shooting and that meant that I could set the tone and the pace of what it was like to work that week. Which is a big responsibility. Which Hugh does remarkably well. Which, when you end up on a show where people are assholes, it’s usually because number one is an asshole. Trickle down theory. And since we have a great guy at the helm, we have a really wonderful set. It was my opportunity to be that person and I really loved that. I really was excited to come with a lot of energy and make the crew happy to be there and make the guest stars happy to be there and I had a lot of fun being that person.

MODERATOR: What was the hardest scene for you?

LISA EDELSTEIN: On House? One of the hardest scenes I had to shoot was with a baby. I had to scream at the baby. It was the episode where Cuddy – now she’s a mother and she realizes that she sucks at it. And the baby is just crying, crying, crying and she’s so over stimulated from everything that’s going on that she literally starts screaming at the baby. And, you know, the baby’s not acting! It’s a crying baby! It’s a real crying five week old baby in your hands. And you gotta scream at it. And that’s a very hard thing to do. I don’t really know if I achieved it in terms of how you would visualize somebody really yelling at a baby in the way that it would upset – because I – but maybe that is achieving it. The struggle of wanting to yell at something but at the same time caring about the fact that you’re, you know, damaging it for the rest of its life (laughter). Yeah. I mean, it’s not like you pinch the baby to make it cry, either. It’s not like that. It’s twins. One baby cries a lot, one baby doesn’t cry a lot, so that’s how they pick what baby to use. So it’s not like, “Cry, dammit!” and then be like, “Aw, the baby’s crying.” (laughter) The baby was a crier, but still, all I saw was, “Abandonment!” and I had to yell at her.

MODERATOR: No matter how great the role, it’s hard doing a series, playing the same character week in and week out. How do keep the role fresh for yourself?

LISA EDELSTEIN: I love it. I’ve never been in character for this long. I love it. I think it’s so interesting. Especially cuz I have good writers! I think if there were not good writers on the show, I’d be in hell. But really, great dialogue is so much easier even to memorize that bad dialogue. The writing is everything. I’m interested in the story, I’m interested in this love affair, I’m interested in the medical stuff, I would watch the show if I weren’t on it. As it is, I watch it like (cringing, hiding behind hands) that. (laughter) But I’m very happy that this is the job that I’ve had that’s lasted this long. It’s such a great group of people and so talented.

MODERATOR: Since I asked about the most difficult scene, could you maybe pinpoint your favorite scene, or your favorite moment on the show?

LISA EDELSTEIN: I can’t remember. I mean, it’s like, the things that stand out usually are your struggles, aren’t they? Um… I really, I – yeah. It’s hard to answer that question because, y’know, sometimes you could have an audition that was the greatest moment of acting you’ve had in your life and you don’t even get the job. You know what I mean? And then the next one comes along. They’re very in the moment experience. So, I don’t know how to answer that question.

MODERATOR: Well, personally, I love any scenes with you and Robert Sean Leonard. Those are always great to see.

LISA EDELSTEIN: He’s an awesome actor. He’s so funny.

MODERATOR: Yeah, he’s not bad (laughter).

MODERATOR: Question: what were the best actions you would take as an aspiring actor to succeed? Getting auditions, being considered for roles?

LISA EDELSTEIN: If you’re just starting out? Or whenever. I think you have to demand a creative life from yourself. It’s very hard when no one’s paying you to do it. But there is no path, so the only thing you can do is be in student films, be in theater, always be creative. Never let you’re the creative part of you die or get abandoned. And the more you do that, the more you meet other people who are doing that and it feeds on itself and sometimes can lead to a career and other times it just leads to you doing more creative things. What’s wrong with that?

MODERATOR: Question: when you got your breakthrough role, was it through an agent, or did you get it on your own?

LISA EDELSTEIN: I didn’t have a breakthrough role. I don’t really know what a breakthrough is. There’s no big break. There are moments where I thought I was going to. It was between me and Marisa Tomei for My Cousin Vinny. That would have changed my life! But it didn’t! (laughter) Y’know, I had a bunch of those. Where my life was about to change tomorrow! And then doesn’t. So, y’know, for me, it’s just been a really slow build. Work begetting work begetting work.
MODERATOR: Question: is there anything you don’t like about the business of acting?

LISA EDELSTEIN: Well, the business of acting is an interesting business, but I think all businesses have their thing. I love my job. I absolutely love my job. Sometimes I feel like this is the dumbest job on earth. I mean, we get credit for saving lives when we save them on television. They’re not actually real, living people. So I think that’s why a lot of actors get involved in activism. And sometimes it’s really embarrassing, because like who cares what you think? Really, if so-and-so decides to save the children, and she’s an idiot but she’s saving the children, why is her word more important than the people who are actually working in the gutter trying to get people’s lives better and improve situations? But ultimately, what it is is that you have a microphone shoved in your face all the time and it is an opportunity to bring some meaning to the type of attention you get. It’s a weird thing, too, because the more successful you get, the more credit you get for just being regular. So, if you say, “Oh, thanks!” you get, “Oh, you didn’t have to say that.”

MODERATOR: They’re just like us!

LISA EDELSTEIN: They’re just like us! I think that’s a little weird. But that’s not really about the business, that’s just about this experience. I don’t know. I would hate to complain about this business because I don’t think there’s any business you can’t complain about.

MODERATOR: I have to imagine so many actors ask you for advice for making it in the business or staying in the business. What do you usually tell them?

LISA EDELSTEIN: It’s really more specific than that. There’s no general… There are people who, by all rights, should be working nonstop and aren’t. There are people who’ve had great careers and then don’t. There are people who work all the time and shouldn’t. You know what I mean? There’s no rhyme or reason. If it’s what you love to do, then you find a way to do it. And if that means doing it without getting paid to do it, then you do that anyway. If you’re an artist, be an artist. Whatever that means, whether or not you get paid. I think the most important thing is to express yourself and find a way to do that and – by the way – not all parts of our creative selves are for sale. And it might just be that you shouldn’t be acting as a business, you should be acting as a joy and do something else as a business. That’s absolutely valid. I mean, for example, I once made these necklaces and a store was going to sell them. This was a long time ago. I was living in New York. It was about an 8 block walk from my apartment to the store and about 4 blocks into the walk, I literally had to go home and give them all away. Because the idea of being rejected for these little things that I made was so terrifying and nauseating and painful that I couldn’t do it. But I could give them away. And so, that part of me, I can use for expression but it’s not for sale. I just don’t think it’s always meant to be your business.

MODERATOR: I just remembered, you just had a birthday a few days ago, which means we have to sing.

LISA EDELSTEIN: Oh, no.

MODERATOR: No, they’re actors, they love to perform. Someone help me out here.

(What follows is a very anemic and sad version of Happy Birthday as she blushes and says “Thank you” sheepishly. Then there’s clapping.)

LISA EDELSTEIN: One more time with enthusiasm. Have fun with it this time.

MODERATOR: Thank you so much for being here. Congratulations on another great season and a really well-deserved career.

LISA EDELSTEIN: Thank you! Thank you all.

Applause.

End. Interview lasted approximately 1 hour and 13 minutes.