Lauren Graham
Appearances
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It is sweet and special, but I am not her actual mom. I don't have a responsibility there except to my love. Yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I don't think I have either, but I also have that to some degree. You have it with your sister. Oh, I have a great relationship with my half siblings and the sister. We had the same mom. That loss is very bonding. She was a senior in college and graduated and then came to live with me. Wow. And that is very unique.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
But I was going to say with my TV mom, Kelly Bishop, I also have one of those, you know, and especially not having my mom here, but I can still have a martini with Kelly and there's no pressure there for her or for me, really.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It just would be hilarious. I mean, Kelly is such a, gosh, I've never thought about if they are similar at all. My mom was just such a unique, sensitive, very creative.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And Kelly's so like balls to the wall, you know?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
just did it was a lot of things i hadn't done because there was no lead lead of parenthood we all had our strengths and moments it wasn't the pressure on one person it's just something has switched and i guess it's age appropriate but i am still surprised to be the person people are looking to they're looking to you to set the tone and vibe of this whole experience
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And they care about my opinion, which I'm still like, really? I don't even know what I'm doing. And they're asking my opinion. This is a show where there's a lot of young people. And for many of them, it was their first or second experience.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I remember there were issues because Parenthood was shot very kind of freestyle.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
But yeah, that was still surprising. And it was fantastic. I had a director, producer who I knew, and that ended up being this huge, big piece of it. And I didn't realize until we were in it. I was like, thank God I worked with him. I know this guy. My boss... is an incredible writer and really a great boss, much younger. It's like her second or third show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And so there was a lot of people asking my opinion and it can be lonely.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
No, and even I had some day when one of the cast had a complaint about something. I was like, oh, I know it's bad or something. And you can see them perk up.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Sure, sure, sure. And some would say proscenium. We're like, we're doing like a school play. You never knew where the cameras were. But I remember one day, this was not your request. It's just something that happened. Suddenly there's a bounce board for Dax. And I remember everyone kind of being like, why does he get a bounce board? I don't get anything.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
They felt validated. But I was like, ooh, I can't really be doing that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Because then they go say, you know, Lauren. But so that was a surprising place to be. And it's like the thing I'm talking about. I'm always a little bit behind. I don't think it's bad because the people who have a very strong sense of their place and kind of who they are, that can go in the wrong direction.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
much sense of importance, but it's a place you tend to have earned. And I need to be comfortable in those shoes. I always remember in Tina Fey's book, when she's talking about 30 Rock, she's comfortable as a writer. She'd been a performer. She hadn't been the lead of a TV show opposite Alec Baldwin.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And she said, I realized at a certain point I had to stop apologizing within my performance, which is just a phrase I think about. I had a sense of, I don't want to be like, yeah, I'm the boss, but I mean, and sort of apologize.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And still being apologetic as women more than men.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Right. This experience was positive. I balanced it pretty well. And then I watched this little thing on Instagram. Maybe you guys have heard of it. Oh, my God. Tell us.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
That actually was Mae. Mae was like, I think you've waited so long that the cooler move is to not do it at all. But I just felt pressured.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Somebody said to me, you think you're not on social media, but you are. You're just not speaking for yourself. Others are, as Gilmore Girls in particular, just continues to have this presence.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
This is a great example. Which is my agent has been saying to me for a very long time, it doesn't now ding what you're trying to do as an actor or a writer. The best one is I got this offer when this stuff was still kind of early. Sometimes when I don't know if I should do something, I'm like, what would so-and-so do? And I was like, this person would a thousand percent not do it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
We're lighting us with a flashlight and Dak's got some special... Here's what I told myself.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And I passed on it and that person ended up doing it. What is that person?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And I was like, wait, what? That was the universe giving you a gift. That's maybe so. I feel differently about it now. And I felt differently also. The whole way it was approached was very respectful. And I thought would be fun for people because that's the thing I think about, especially with Gilmore Girls fans. Is this good for them?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
One of the things I, long ago, may have been concerned about is the separation between character and person. I wanted to be able to play different characters, and ultimately, in TV, you end up using so much of yourself. That separation isn't that broad unless you're on Downton Abbey or something, and even then. But yeah, I had a different kind of sense of preciousness.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I think it was going to be positive, but I don't remember.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Did we have one for Parenthood? I was so thrilled by this. I was like, this has never happened before, which is not true. We would have Gilmore Girls on the barroom where Warner Brothers is, like a billboard. And it kind of didn't occur to me, because once again, a little bit behind, that now they're video. They're not paper anymore. They're moving pictures.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
You know, there's still like a painted billboard. So someone had sent me a photo of it. First of all, I walked there from downtown. I was so excited. I was just like a dork. And then I get there and that area is not an easy place to just stand and not be doing something.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Sure. Then I didn't realize that it's not just my billboard. It's ads for 55 other shows like Harrison Ford is a movie coming out and somebody's dropping a hot single. And like, so I'm standing there and the first time I missed it, this is the other problem. It makes me so frustrated because I don't want to be the person who's like, I don't know how to do this newfangled.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
That's insane. Remember the day that I was driving by and I thought you were Brad Pitt?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
No, there's no part of me that's like, yeah, loving light. Like it's not something I'm proud of. That's just how it is. And so recently I went to apply for something and they were like, send a recent photo. I was like, I don't have one. Like I just don't have one. I'll send the billboard.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
So I'm standing there waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, because I missed it once, waiting to cycle through all these things. And people are like kind of looking at me, which is my second worst nightmare. And then there was a guy who stands there to take people's pictures in Times Square. And he was genuinely like, oh, I got competition now. And then I found the good spot.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
But the good spot was me standing. But I'm filming behind myself.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
got to get that billboard in your face which is hard you couldn't even tell it was me in the picture it was freezing cold it was text it was freezing cold i had like weird glasses on like a hat you look very cute thank you closer to me than you are now was a hot dog man who was also kind of looking at me because as much as this is our world now people are rightly like what are you filming lady like i'm making a hot dog what more do you need to know you're pointing the camera yes yes yes and
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
So he, after a while, was kind of like, can I help you? You know, and I was like, I am so sorry. I am just, I just felt so stupid. Anyway, this is my billboard. It was harrowing, but I got it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I think this is a sign of personal growth. I walked away. I was like, I saw it. It's fine. And then I stopped halfway down the block and I was like, Lauren Graham, you've walked up here through Times Square and this is a moment.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
There's so many things I don't do because I'm too embarrassed. And so I was like, fuck, I'm going to do it. Where did that come from?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
So the embarrassing part was the popcorn? Yes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I don't think I've ever seen you be embarrassed because you have that way about you. And especially in this role, you're in charge. You know how to put the other person at ease and also be like, thank you so much. Goodbye. You're the host of this moment of somebody coming up to you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
That was a little bit of a racket, I have to say, in that my SATs were fine. I don't remember what they were.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Because I remember there was an expectation that I would score higher. Okay. That some teacher was like, I'm surprised you didn't do better. That's always great. But I was a tutor in some capacity. I scored well enough on the test you had to take to teach the test. Okay. Kind of thing, which was probably a sort of an SAT. And then you learn the test.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And that made me a teacher of other tests I'd never taken. So it was a good gig. Having that gig just led to more teaching of tests.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Not to turn this into my interview of you guys, but what has changed for you? Has it just evolved into now this is something that is better? That's a really long time to have any gig and you've spoken to so many people.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Well, I don't know what the test is now. I think there's more free form writing, which there should be, because otherwise what you learn in learning how to teach that test is how to take a multiple choice test, which is how many you should eliminate. It's not really learning vocabulary or math or anything. It's like a tactical approach. Yes. And I'm not sure it would still work.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
But I think the way you have a good vocabulary is reading and writing. And I still read and write a lot. And I play every single New York Times game that is on the phone. Is that doing anything for me? I don't know.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Every single one. There's one that's called, I forget. Strands. Strands, the one where you're doing the word. It's like a word search, but you can go all over the place. There's that one that's new. But there's the one where you have to do words. Letterbox. Letterbox, thank you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
What's Letterboxd? Letterboxd is, I find, a good challenge because you have to use up all the letters within a certain number of words. You can repeat.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
You're sort of strategically like, how am I going to work the Q in kind of thing. Oh, interesting.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
What was happening? No. At this time, I'm 22 or three. So I'm still a little closer to the 18 year olds. I remember not in any kind of way, but I remember having a student where I was like, I would go out with this guy. Yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Later, later. But I also led bike tours a couple of summers. And in those jobs, you don't really see the parents. This is more the thing where they're like, you guys good? Okay, bye. So the interaction with the parents was pretty low, I have to say.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Yeah. I had more success as a waitress. Sure. Dated the bartender.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think if I didn't have the other one, I'd be unbearable. I'm fun. I'm a good hang.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And restaurant is like a pretty good hang. But the other person who always asks, did people hit on me, is Ray Romano. Because among my many waitressing jobs, I was a cocktail waitress at the Improv in New York City, right out of college.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Thank you. I also think I maybe gave off, first of all, I'm doing these jobs. These jobs are really hard. I just want to go home and go to sleep. I was always a person who had a long-term boyfriend or no thing. I was not like a dater. But the other person who always says, did I hit on you, was Ray Romano at the comedy club.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Yeah, really. He assumes he did. And he did not.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And he's asked me more than once. I'm like, Ray, if I have to tell you one more time.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I'll take it. He's the best. But I do have a thing for, you know, comics are just real tough. But I love them so much. Well, they're challenging, which is a good thing and a bad thing. It's a rough life, but it's really fun.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And I can't imagine it now for people. My godson Clyde's buddy, they're 23. He's moving to New York. His dad is a successful businessman. screenwriter and he knows the business and he's going to New York to try his hand at stand up.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I remember from the club, people would sit in the back. They were supportive, I guess. But also there's that thing of like, maybe they'll die and then I won't die. You know, it's a really more cutthroat-y thing. There's been obviously all this stuff around the Saturday Night Live 50th. I can't get enough. I've read every book. I have watched everything to do with it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
But for my money, there was not enough time spent on people's auditions. And there's a whole series about it. But there's a thing where Bill Hader's in the elevator and one of them had props and the other one didn't have props. It was like Andy Samberg and him and they're being like, shoot, I should have brought props. The other one being like, I shouldn't have props.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
That thing of like, how do you start these careers is so fascinating to me.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
She skipped a grade. I skipped a grade when I was little, and I was one of the only kids in school whose mom was not around. So I think those two things were weird at the time. It teaches you to read a room and we all have a version of what our sensitivity is to reading the room.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I think May has a really developed reading the room from being in a lot of rooms with a lot of older people and having a sense for your own success and protection of how am I going to get through this. How to survive it. Yeah. And so I think that maybe put me on a little bit of a back foot being younger than everybody. And I could read to the degree that they skipped me out of kindergarten.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Somehow I didn't borrow from that. This is a privilege and a really cool thing. I was always sort of trying to lay low. My dad remarried. I wasn't without women, great aunts and friends and babysitters even who were fantastic. But it's not like having a mom in the house.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And it's really driven home right now because my one sister has three kids, but my other sister has one who is a four and a half year old now, which is the age my mom sort of started to go. They live in Manhattan and I see them a lot. So I'm seeing this age.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And this kid. experience is not as present for me as it was, but clinically I can look at it, especially knowing this child as I do, and see what that age is. I never really saw it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
But also, it's so successful. Doesn't that change how you start your day?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Yeah, but my father did an incredible job. There was lots of family around. I had lots of cousins. Having this unconventional for that time, now it's less...
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
By the high school, he was remarried. I was the only kid in elementary school who did not have a mom in the picture and they were curious about it. The teachers would be like, who does your hair? Because it was still a more traditional time. It would always be a thing if there was a show and costumes needed to be sewn and my dad would ask his secretary, you know, like stuff like that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
She was pursuing all kinds of things. And I think they were so young. I don't know that she had an idea of what it was going to be.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Well, who he worked for was USAID, which is recently in the news for being somewhat dismantled.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
But then she got ill and her It was a pretty stressful path, but I would go to England to visit her. And then meanwhile, my father had my sister and my brother and a much more nuclear and traditional and very warm family. I had all the experiences in a way. I don't want to say that I had no confidence. I did and do. And also, I think I didn't identify in high school.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
There were the girls who were the sanctioned hot girls. It didn't feel like a lack or anything. And like I had a high school boyfriend. Not that that's the gauge, but I mean, a little bit. Do you feel like guys are into you? And I will say my mom, people would stop on the street. She both was beautiful, but also she really owned it. She dressed the part. She had a kind of swagger.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I just was like, OK, that's not me. Like it wasn't a judgment even. It was just a different way of being and being in the world. And aging was difficult for her.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Yeah. And it was not even that I didn't want to be what my mom was. It's just so mystifying. I would go visit. And yes, she was in a band or she was in fashion and people really reacted to her. My sister carries herself like she's got such incredible sophistication and great personality.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
fashion sense and i'm in like a high top reebok you know it just was different so it wasn't even a loss obviously not having her in my life is a loss and when we talk about identity and how you both are given yours and craft it as well yes i was like i like being one of the guys i really comfortable there and that came with being fun and funny the party that you are how was the super bowl really fun i've gone twice to work there it's a little overwhelming for me totally overwhelming
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Are you kidding with all the stuff we just talked about?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I mean, especially now. And Trump was there. So on the one hand, more security. On the other hand.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I was with Joel McHale. We love each other. He makes everything fun. But this was the same group because I went to Fox Upfronts this year because Tubi's a Fox subsidiary. At the Fox Upfronts, it was me, Joel, Jon Hamm, a couple maybe other TV shows. TV now is football. Oh, 100%. It was like 10 football players. And again, girls guy, I was really happy there. Yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Everyone's like three feet taller than me. I was just like, I love being around a bunch of shocks. Yeah, I was like, don't break me. But also Ham is great. Will Arnett was there. I was very comfortable. So our box was Joel, Rob Lowe, Gordon Ramsey, who was lovely. That made it fun. And then you're just there with snacks and people stop by, but you don't really see the game from there.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
and people were like, how was the halftime show? I was like, it was this big. So what an honor to go and be asked.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It's so good. How fucking good is that biography? Even if you don't care about Cher, which I don't know how you can't, it's such a snapshot of a different time, of a different Hollywood, of a different Los Angeles.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It helped that she was wildly talented and to a certain degree, nobody was going to mess with her.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And I think as we do, she's replicating or finding familiar what was already going on in her life and her childhood, which was not a huge amount of stability. And my own version, I was out on my bicycle. I had a paper route at like 12. We didn't know the things we should be worried about as much.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
As we know today, there's so much to worry about now and so many ways to worry and so much access to things to worry about. And it just was a different time. I even think when I first came here in 96 or 97, I had a little bit of money in the bank. I had done some commercials, which I wasn't too, you know, too precious for.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
No, I had a blast. But I'm doing commercials as like, you guys should try liquid death or whatever. Which, why is it called that? A pill! That's not a good commercial when you question the name.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Liquid death. What could be more refreshing? Yeah, we know. No, I love doing them. I made money. And also, even when we did that Walmart thing, there are a couple of skills I have that do not help me in any other realm except in the realm to which they belong. Like if you tell me that something was 32 seconds and you need it to be 30 seconds, I can pretty much do that. Yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And what is the world of it now? Is it still good money?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
But it was a fun little time. As an actor starting out, it gave you a day. Here's my day. I'm going to this audition. I'm going to run into so-and-so. I'm going to have lunch at the diner.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I just joined Instagram. Congratulations. It'll be a year around my birthday.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Oh, fun. He's fantastic. I had a book that had come out the year before, but then the paperback came out. We did a live event and then we got asked to do another one. And then we were like, hold on, maybe this is what we're doing now for a while. And so were we going to Scotland? And it just was traveling with my buddy. We kind of made it into a show and he was like the moderator.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It was really fun. Cool. That's where we ran into you guys. I was at a small party. I know some people who know. I didn't know she was going to be there. I just was trying to be so cool or something. But she was lovely. And she asked about Gilmore Girls. She said, did you know it was going to be such a thing? I just walk in. I don't want to lean on this. I'm growing and maturing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
But I assume no one knows anything and no one has seen anything. Which is literally impossible.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I think it's just safer that way, but it's not a false humility. I just assume she's a very busy person.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
This was a couple of years ago, too. It's even grown since then. She just was really lovely. I'm friends with Jenny Han, who is the showrunner of The Summer I Turned Pretty, among other things. Taylor had given them a song to use. It was part of the show. And so I sort of said, you know, Jenny Han. And she knew what I was talking about. And then I just was like, anyway, so.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Were you or no? Intimidated by her. It was more like I didn't want to bother her. But we're at a small party. She had friends there. It's a version that I'm really trying to get rid of, which I've had with some actresses I have admired and worked with, Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep, of that thing where I'm like, surely you have other things to do.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
But now sometimes I'm in that position and I'm like, not really.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I had that with Candace Bergen, too, in that movie that I did with Joel. She couldn't have been nicer, and we ended up sitting next to each other. I've read all her books. I've seen everything she's ever been in, and I don't know. It's just bad. This is the day that it doesn't exist anymore. I'm going to talk your ear off. Beware the next person who works with you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Because, oh, this is what I was going to say. I've remembered the Instagram thing, which is Tubi did a thing where they interviewed, they don't love being called the kids on the show, but we've all called them the kids where they were like, what's it like to work with Lauren Graham? Which again is just a premise I would not have thought of.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
They were all super great and nice, but a couple of them said she's really professional. And I was like, I think I wasn't fun enough because I am very professional and there was a lot to consider and it's the first season of a show and I'm a producer and sort of thinking about lots of things all the time. But I wanted them to be like, she's a laugh riot.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Oh, great. I just spent a bunch of months in Toronto and it was just so nice. I'm not just saying that to pander to the Canadian fans.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Sam and I were on tour. I was in the lobby of a hotel. We've been working together for so long. He knows how to tell me something. So he was like, there's a show he was saving. It's on a network you've never heard of for
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
the very end but i actually just jumping ahead did not and do not view that as a barrier to entry having been on the wb when it was quite new and it is part of what i do think i'm starting to understand about the world of media that we're in which is you never know so this is where i ask in a non-insulting way do not try to find something negative and explain to be to me
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It is its own streaming platform. It is free. It is more like television as we knew it. It comes on some televisions. It is an app you can get on your phone. If you sign up, it still doesn't cost any money, but then you can download, you can record, you can use it as we use our apps. It has a really friendly interface. There's live, there's movies, and they are starting to do original content.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And we were their first scripted comedy show. They've been incredible to work with. They've been really collaborative. They're excited too, which you don't necessarily get with your established things.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It's a great city, but it's also a great country. And it was a relief to not be in a lot of dialogue about what's going to become of us. And just like the shopping's great. The restaurants were great. It was really fun.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
So when he calls you... He's giving me all the stuff and he's like, this is the character. It's called the disease suite. No. And I was like, wait, it's a hospital show. I was like, that is a terrible title. And we went through the rest of the conversation with me still thinking he did not correct me because he didn't understand what I was saying.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
So I was like, it doesn't sound like a comedy to me. Wait, who has a disease? Like we really had four part conversation about it. He's like, that's not what I'm saying.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
By the way, because I am so out of corporate America, I didn't know that Z-Suite is a play on C-Suite, which is your executive lounge. And of course, this is Gen Z takes over.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
No. What the show asks is who's more ridiculous? The people who have taken this corporate culture really seriously or these people who are trying to have a better time, work from home, have kooky parties involving llamas. And what I like about the show is that it really doesn't take a side. I'm as ridiculous as the kids are ridiculous. And it's fun because it's not meant to advocate for anybody.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
The thing I value more than anything, I will do the disease suite. But I've got to have a good day with people that I like and trust and believe in and laugh with. We had that and you just don't necessarily get that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
To get to a place where... I already got more than I thought I would. I feel so grateful. Oh, now I get to do this without the pressure. There's still pressure and I want the show to come back and I want people to like it. Without the neuroticism.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Selfishly, that just makes the food really good. When you're there for work, our big thing would be to have like a Saturday dinner and where are we going to go? And we just had some incredible food.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
You're like, that's not going to work. We did fuss with the last name. I had various last names because, you know, clearance.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I don't either, but I really cared about what her name was. And for a while, she was Monica, a bunch of other things. And I was like, this doesn't sound like who I want this person to be.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Because I am not Indian, and that might be an issue. Some appropriation stuff might pop up for you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
You've got to watch, you've got to be mindful. Yes, exactly. There were various Mick somebody's, Monica Mick, none of those cleared.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
But back to you. Yes. I want to tell you because right around that time, you came over and asked May and I about doing a podcast.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Is that what we call them? Executive. I run an advertising agency called Atelier.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It means nothing, but it makes you feel like it's worth the $10 you're paying for the sandwich.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I say all vibes matter. It's for vibes headphones. And this was something I cannot tell you how many conversations we had about what is believable, even in the world of comedy, that this person who's the head of this thing, who's risen up, what's a believable mistake that would get her canceled, that we think would have gotten through, yet is tone deaf.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
We don't want Monica to be like, oops, I didn't realize.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I know plenty of these stories because that was something too where I kept saying to people, is this believable? And they were like, oh yeah, I have a million examples. It's just growing up differently.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Yes, which I didn't understand. There are many things I feel partially because I wasn't on things like Instagram. I am often behind what is happening in our business. I can remember on Parenthood, May saying to me, I've just really stressed out about social media. And I said, what's that? Yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It's also parenting changes and we see it's why all these generations get named because whatever the cultural experience their parents were having, I was more latchkey kid where she's probably fine.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And then there's more of like a helicopter thing that happened. I just always remember this statistic and I don't even know what generation it applied to, but that kids had a tough time picking up a water pitcher and balancing it because so much had been done for them. Nobody was like, you pour the thing. Things like that. But I think of that as like, you wouldn't think as a parent.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
You're really at war with that. Well, it's just reminding me how much I play with my hair. Just things you wouldn't think of as a parent. Like I need to make sure my child. The child has basic motor skills at the dinner table.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
When I'm around friends, kids and stuff, I'm like, she's fine. Don't worry about it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
They really bonded with each other, which was fantastic. And that's one of the positives of being on location in a first season of a show. They had each other and they really hung out together and it seemed like had a good time. I was busy being professional, so I wouldn't.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
That same character also says he's audibly fragile when someone's too loud. Oh, my God. Yeah. It's wonderful.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
but I'm sort of awful in my own ways. And it was so many things I hadn't done or hadn't done in a while. I wanted there to be a core of what is believable and what is just heartbreaking about being replaced. Yes. And losing, it's not just the job, it's relevance and sense of self.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I know. It was a good time. And that was one time when the genuine kids on Parenthood would be like, ugh, I can't make it to yoga. And I was like, you have no idea how good you have it. And you better be thankful. And someday you're going to call me from a show and be like, I had to work 14 hours.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Well, it was just the most wonderful group of people, the most wonderful material, the most wonderful Jason Kadams, the most wonderful hours.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I did not know what she was talking about. I'm jealous of you. Yeah. Well, that's changed. I can remember a time when I thought that sitting and watching something on TV and then also having your phone was just like a cracked thing to do. And now I sort of do that. But we tried. Years later, you're doing your own talk show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Right. I don't know because they definitely didn't read anything then, but there seems to have been a mixed reaction in terms of feeling satisfied that people got what they wanted. For me, it was an incredibly satisfying, beautiful, cried-everyday experience. I could mark... some growth I felt I had in terms of that character, that time working with Amy. It felt different.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
So all the stuff that I loved about it was the same, and then it was better and different in the more grown-up version. How do you honor those people who have kept it alive? Is it giving them more? Is it doing what Reese Witherspoon's doing with Legally Blonde, Elle, the prequel? Is this a Captain Marvel multiverse where you want to follow whoever, or do you try to go back
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I always say, and it's not me trying to get out of the question, it is literally what I could picture. Given everyone's lives and schedules is Christmas movie. Oh, yeah. That's what I think the Brits do so well with their beloved shows is that you get a Christmas special. It's not episodes, but it's seeing all your friends together again.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It's one of the reasons I thought the Walmart commercial was a sweet where are they now kind of thing. Because speaking to, have you seen the most recent Bridget Jones? Not yet. I'm obsessed with the books, obsessed with the movies. I think they did an incredible job. Renee is incredible in it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It gives you what that character always was, which is a single girl trying to understand the dating world.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Which you couldn't do. You had to make her single again. Right.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I mean, also, we don't look the same. There's no way you should or could be the same. Exactly, yeah. And so I don't know. But that's TV. Well, that's aging. It's just being a person.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And I guess the way my brain works, because I love talk shows, and also we're very different people, May and I, in terms of how we approach things. She's more fluid and fun. Jazz. She's jazz and I'm Sinatra. I want segments. I want standards. I want a chorus and then I want a refrain.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Well, but the problem is where we left the characters. Not the problem, but now Lorelai and Luke got married. Now Rory's maybe having a baby. So it's not going to be necessarily the two of us circling the gazebo. You have to add that Herman, God bless, has passed. It just can't be the same, which is why I view it as best served in a holiday, in a sort of limited. I think that's right.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Because I do still get asked, is it literally just better to leave them wanting more? I know. That's kind of how I feel. This is you not doing commercials.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Thank God it isn't up to me. And what I have clearly said is if somebody calls me to do it, I'll do it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
None of that's changed. You have reminded me that I'm angry about your friendship with Larry. Okay. I knew him first.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
But can I please come play with you guys sometime when you have dinner? Yes. Maybe the reason that show went away is once you get to someone having cancer. I mean, when you're on these family shows, there's only so many stories. They don't tend to go on for 10 or 12 years. I mean, This Is Us is an example, but they didn't go that much longer. Right.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Other people say, let's have lunch. Dax says, come over and sweat your face off.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
In a bathing suit, which is like, that's not where my... That's why he does it like that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I have. I used to make a really good cinnamon bread too.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Yeah, you know, you riff within it, but it's hard.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
That's a fantastic idea. Ours was more, this is one of my best friends and we are 20 years apart. So the concept was how do we come at things differently, but on the same subject. You ran out of material. What I now think about, but there's no need in this space. I have realized I read more than a lot of people and I talk about what I'm reading.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Spoiler alert, I had read them all. Wow. You played it off like they were all novel and new to you. I was so panicked. She was like, here's this beautiful gift. And I was like... I've already given this to someone else because I read it all. But it was Jenna Bush and those are her picks. And I read them partially because she picked them. And so I am influenced as well in that space.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I don't even follow in the social media sense, but were you worried about your breath just then? Nicotine. Oh.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Well, so are yours. So we're on the nicotine still? I didn't know it came in a spray.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
That seems off-brand for her. Yeah, she has some things like that. Yeah, interesting. Pop out.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
No, we have the mugs. Is it our football team?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I said FNL. Yeah, yeah. Then I thought I was missing a Parenthood reference.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I don't know if I own anything Parenthoodie either.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Yeah, I maybe don't have this anymore. When I moved.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Which I kind of am always anyway. I feel it's an illusion, but that I will finally one day reach the point where my stuff is only what I need and nothing else. And it won't bring anything in. But then you look at the jeans collection and it's like, can't stop.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
How many do you have? Do you fold them or do they hang? Okay.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I probably have more than that. What I got rid of, which is bad, I got rid of the jeans that you would just wear to paint something. And I was like, these are all uncomfortable because they're like too fancy. Exactly.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I also realized it's okay to have the jeans because I need to stop thinking I'm ever dressing like a person with a real job. Because especially here, where am I going? Like a pantsy? Like blouses? Yeah, any of that. On this job, I finally played a character. May and I have a joke, which is defaulting to plaid, which has to do with wardrobe choices on most of the stuff. I mean, not Lorelai so much.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
She also had nice clothes for a job. But on Parenthood, May would be texting me. She'd be like, what are you wearing? I'm just gonna wear like another plaid shirt, sort of like a groovy-ish mom. So that's just kind of my life. And if you're going somewhere fancy, you're gonna do a whole thing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It really is. I still get a little thrill when she'll text me back because it's not a given. And she's a mom now and she's working and she's in Ireland.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
She's hard to pin down. If I can get her, I'll panic text her to just get as much out as I can. I'm really working with this.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
But it is a really special relationship. I feel really thankful for it. It is really flattering.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It's not as much as you think. Okay. And it really is like a Christmas. And some of them have to do with bribing her.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Yeah. I'm trying to think the last time, you know, they're in New York now.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Carlos, her baby daddy, is on Broadway in Hadestown, which I feel happy to plug because he's fantastic in it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
He's really great. And so they're in New York for the next while. Wow, with the little baby. And then she got this job in Ireland. So she's in Ireland with the baby. Oh. That's a lot. Wow, wow, wow.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It's more like equal friends, which is insane because- She's young, but she's like an old soul.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Yes, that mimics a person your own age. And also, this was sort of our concept, too, when we tried to do a podcast is we've been in show business the same amount of time.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
She's wise. There are certain things that I would go to her about because she's one of those people like you are, and I assume like you are, who... Has a very definite opinion, which I'll really weigh. A lot of people will be like, I don't know. I don't want to hurt. I get kind of Pisces-ish about it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
People-pleasing. And she'll be like, absolutely not. No, you can't do that. And I'll be like, right, right, no. Like, I know.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Early on in the show, they had us go on some reality show. What was it?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It was just me and May. It was a DreamWorks related thing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And I feel like Howie Mandel was on it. Is that Taylor?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Or one of the game shows. He did a game show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
It was just like a little cut to us. And she had these giant glasses on.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
And I remember being like, hey, are you sure about the glasses? Because they weren't glasses she needed. It was just like a fashion moment. And she wore them. And everyone was kind of like, hey. And even after her dad texted her, grandma's concerned about the glasses. Yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Poor Cookie. We saw him. Didn't we see him on TV?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
I can't believe this is the setup now. Right? It's very fancy. It's been so long since you were here. I feel like I was one of the first people.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lauren Graham Returns
Yeah, it's so healing when you have that. And I have had this in a couple very rare instances. There's something in the vast enough age difference that is not a family member that can mimic what you wish you had.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Lauren Graham
No, no, because the sort of premise of the show is what a bad job they're doing at taking over the office. And I tend to be playing irritable at them, which I hardly ever did with Rory because she was such an A student. No, it's been really fun to just do something that feels different.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Lauren Graham
There are. We consulted with actual young advertising people, and obviously it is making fun of all of us, so it's not being overly critical of anyone because it's overly critical of everyone. It's fun because of the show, I've heard even worse stories. I have a friend whose young employee called in sick because his eyes were baggy. He had under-eye bags.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Lauren Graham
And he needed more time for them to settle before he fell.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Lauren Graham
I love, I don't think so. No one, I did not make that association, and no one said, hey, that's a little Easter egg for you. I think it's just you're a very smart man.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Lauren Graham
I, I haven't. And we are, it is the 25th anniversary this year and that we are in discussions by we, I mean myself and Amy Sherman Palladino, the creator of the show to say, what can we do? What can we do to give people, um, the experience they seem to, to crave of community around the show? Um, you know, maybe getting all of us together in some way. So we're working on it.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Lauren Graham
I hope so. There will be something. What will it be at an inn in Connecticut? You know, I don't know.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Lauren Graham
Yes, and I don't think I've worked hard enough to dissuade them from believing that. I think the show, you know, as any long-running TV show, you become it and it becomes you, and sort of the reason I gravitated toward this way back when I first read the pilot was it felt like familiar somehow. It felt like the way I speak or think already, so it was kind of... meant to be in that way.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Lauren Graham
And yes, in general, it's really positive. People view me as their cool mom. And that's not bad.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Lauren Graham
Yeah, I mean, it's not even awkward so much as it's, and this is just being on TV and playing someone who's like not Walter White, you know, like if you play a friendly kind of warm person, like people just feel that they know you and, you know, People cry sometimes. And, you know, it gets awkward, like, if I'm in the bathroom and, like, coming out of a stall. Like, that's not my favorite.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: Lauren Graham
They're like, oh, my God, can I? And I'm like, let me just, let's leave this room. Yes.