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A. B. Normal · 12-02-2003, 09:31 PM

Yet another interview by phone to newspapers promoting Bad Santa. I bet she was on the phone all day for a while there doing those. This one is GOOD!

Quote:

Posted on Sun, Nov. 30, 2003

'Gilmore Girl' Graham lands good role in 'Bad Santa'
BY CHRIS HEWITT
Pioneer Press

Auditions are never a picnic, but imagine this scenario: You've been asked to pretend you're having sex with a stranger, and not only that, he's in a Santa suit, and not only that, you are supposed to be very noisy, and not only that, you're in the back of a car, and not only that, the car and the guy and the Santa suit aren't there. It's just you, a casting director and the seriously twisted script for "Bad Santa."

Lauren Graham, the 36-year-old star of "The Gilmore Girls," found herself in exactly that position when she auditioned for "Santa," which is now in theaters.

"That is what's horrifying about the audition element of acting. There wasn't even a lap to bounce up and down on," jokes Graham who, nevertheless, got the job, playing a bartender who may be the only woman in the world who would find something tender and sweet in the character played by Billy Bob Thornton, a department store Santa/robber/lush/jerk/hygiene-ophobe.

Because of the sexual freedom involved in the role, it was not an easy one to play. When I mention to Graham that an actress (OK, Meg Ryan) once told me that any time she agrees to play a part, she has 20 minutes of elation and then the elation always shifts to fear that she won't be able to pull it off, Graham can relate.

"But," she says, "Meg Ryan is dealing with a whole different situation than me. She has her pick of great parts. I'm still in the 'What? I get to have another job? I thought that last job I had was the last job I'll ever have. I thought I was lucky my part was big enough that you could hear what I was saying over the music' stage."

Still, Graham seems to spark to the idea of advice from famous actresses and turns it into Famous Actress Poker: "I'll see you Meg Ryan and raise you Meryl Streep. She said in an interview one time that if she had a script where there was some detail that she thought was wrong, that detail always ended up being a key to the character for her. The thing she is most resistant to ends up being the most helpful piece of information. So maybe that explains that scared feeling."

OWING A LETTER

Wait a minute, though. Graham has acted with Streep (in the film "One True Thing"), so surely she had a chance to ask Streep herself about that comment?

"Uh, no. I have this joke with my friends about Meryl Streep, actually" says Graham. "I am very easily intimidated and, of course, I was intimidated by Meryl Streep, so I spent the whole movie not even being able to speak with her. Then, afterwards, I'd say to my friends, 'I'm going to write a letter to tell her how much her work means to me,' which I still haven't done. So, now, whenever I say to a friend, 'When are you going to return that book?' or whatever, they say, 'I'll return it when you write your letter to Meryl Streep.' "

Who has time to write letters to Oscar-winning superstars, anyway? Graham films "Gilmore Girls" 10 months of the year and is always on the lookout for a movie that, like "Bad Santa" or next year's "Seeing Other People," will be shooting when she's "on vacation" in June and July.

Discussing these career issues by phone, Graham's sense of humor zooms through the fiber-optic lines, making it clear she's almost as glib as the woman she plays on TV. And although Graham jokes that people who meet her are disappointed she's not as quick as her scripts, the truth is that Graham, who has a master's degree in acting from Southern Methodist University, is not deficient in brains or wit.

Which is a good thing, since she says the breathless pace of "Gilmore" engages all her energies. "You could rehearse it like a play, working with it and making it better and better, but we just have to go ahead and do the best we can because there's no time," she says. "You're always playing catch-up. I mean, we shot three pages a day on 'Bad Santa,' but we shoot 12 pages a day on 'Gilmore Girls,' and I'm talking nonstop in all of them."

WINS AND LOSSES

That means Graham has to count on the writers to help make her character, Lorelai Gilmore, real. It's suggested to Graham that, in the series' fourth season, she must be the acknowledged expert on what makes Lorelai tick, but she says that's not the case.

"It's not my decision, usually," she says. "Sometimes, I have been able to say, 'This doesn't make sense for Lorelai to say,' usually on Rory-related stuff, because I have very particular ideas about what this mother would and wouldn't say to her daughter, but I don't necessarily win."

One time she lost was last season, when Lorelai's daughter, Rory, and Rory's friend, Paris, were discussing losing their virginity. In the conversation, which Lorelai overheard, Rory told Paris that she hadn't had sex yet. "So, when Lorelai hears that, she says, 'I've got the good kid.'

"And I didn't like that judgment about girls and the decisions they make. But they wanted me to say that, so I did, and the episode aired, and lots of people have come up to me and said, 'I loved it when you said that.' So, who knows? Obviously, that line reflected the way some people felt."

Another element of "Gilmore Girls" she has some trouble with? "I don't like the way Lorelai and Rory are constantly eating, because neither of us eats like that, and it sends a weird message," Graham says.

Oh, and the show cost her a pet. "I had a cat when I started this job, but he ran away because he couldn't take the hours and the stress. Or maybe a coyote ate him."

Mostly, though, she's content on the show, and that's why she looks for movie parts that won't try to duplicate the good work she does there.

"To me, 'The Gilmore Girls' is a really good version of that kind of character. I would never want to do a movie character who was a lesser version of Hip Mom or Sassy Whatever," says Graham.

In other words, you'll see her playing a sassy single mom about the time you hear she's finally written that letter to Meryl Streep.

Wow, auditioning sounds fun, huh. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] OOh, see, I hated the "I got the good kid line", and a lot of people did. I wish I could tell her, lol. Love the Meryl Streep part.

[ 12-02-2003: Message edited A. B. Normal ]