Title: Talking as fast as I can
Author: Lauren Graham
Publisher: Ballantine Books
[Synopsis]
In this collection of personal essays, the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood reveals stories about life, love, and working as a woman in Hollywood—along with behind-the-scenes dispatches from the set of the new Gilmore Girls, where she plays the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore once again.
In Talking as Fast as I Can, Lauren Graham hits pause for a moment and looks back on her life, sharing laugh-out-loud stories about growing up, starting out as an actress, and, years later, sitting in her trailer on the Parenthood set and asking herself, “Did you, um, make it?” She opens up about the challenges of being single in Hollywood (“Strangers were worried about me; that’s how long I was single!”), the time she was asked to audition her butt for a role, and her experience being a judge on Project Runway (“It’s like I had a fashion-induced blackout”).
In “What It Was Like, Part One,” Graham sits down for an epic Gilmore Girls marathon and reflects on being cast as the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore. The essay “What It Was Like, Part Two” reveals how it felt to pick up the role again nine years later, and what doing so has meant to her.
Some more things you will learn about Lauren: She once tried to go vegan just to bond with Ellen DeGeneres, she’s aware that meeting guys at awards shows has its pitfalls (“If you’re meeting someone for the first time after three hours of hair, makeup, and styling, you’ve already set the bar too high”), and she’s a card-carrying REI shopper (“My bungee cords now earn points!”).
Including photos and excerpts from the diary Graham kept during the filming of the recent Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, this book is like a cozy night in, catching up with your best friend, laughing and swapping stories, and—of course—talking as fast as you can.
[My Review]
I was fairly late to the Gilmore Girls party, having only watched them all a few years ago when a friend convinced me to. However, I can still see why it was such a popular TV series, and I really wanted to read this autobiography/ memoir/ collection of essays by Lauren Graham, who played Lorelai Gilmore..
I was, of course, hoping for lots of insight into the world of Gilmore Girls and behind the scenes information about how it was filmed, how they chose who would play who, etc etc. In some ways it delivered this, but there was also mostly information about the rest of her life, career etc – this made up the majority of the book. I completely get that this book isn’t supposed to be all about Gilmore Girls, and the other information was also interesting, but I couldn’t help but find myself rushing through those parts to the parts that were about the show – and the parts in question were very interesting! I loved reading about their time filming the reunion and reminscing with her about episodes and characters (and it made me want to re-watch them), but there wasn’t a lot else to really get into in this book – even non-Gilmore Girl-related content would be great if it perhaps had a bit more substance to it – despite how charming and sweet Lauren Graham seems to be. This is a really quick and easy read, so it’s worth a go, but I just wasn’t wowed by it as a whole. However, for people who absolutely love her as an actress, writer etc – this is one for you!