Lauren Graham’s Healthy Approach to Parenthood

Posted on September 5, 2010 by Chanel

The childless actress is once again playing a single mom in a hit TV show. How does she do it?

Seems there are two kinds of parenthood: The silly drivel we find on sitcoms, where the kid messes up, mom and dad hilariously intervene, and the Big Lesson is learned as the laugh track rises and falls. Then there’s real-life parenting, which is much tougher to negotiate and leaves looser ends. In life, if there’s a lesson in sight, it’s often difficult to discern — a truism rarely reflected in television shows.

Unless, of course, you happen to be Lauren Graham. The actor, 43, has twice struck TV ratings gold with her portrayal of a single mother grappling with the opposing pulls of love and discipline, first in the critically acclaimed Gilmore Girls on the CW network, and now in the equally well-received Ron Howard-Brian Grazer production Parenthood, an NBC series inspired by the 1989 feature film of the same name.

Graham’s current hit, whose second season premieres Sept. 14, centers on the dovetailing lives of four siblings, their collection of children, plus aging (and separated) parents. “My character’s in survival mode,” says Graham. “The father of her kids is not around; he had a drug problem. She’s working as a bartender and has moved in with her parents … she’s hit rock bottom and is asking for help from her family. It’s powerful and relevant for the times, and reflects the struggles that interest me: If you’re a single woman over 40, how do you start over if you didn’t go to school, haven’t been on a career path? What do you do?”

The first season of Parenthood also examines the trickiest subset of child-rearing, one that’s fraught with tension: the mother-daughter dynamic. Graham’s character, Sarah Braverman, is confronted with the growing pains of her oldest, Amber, who’s both a rebel and a mirror image of Sarah as a teenager. After Amber has sex with her cousin’s boyfriend, an act that ignites interfamilial warfare even as she’s labeled a tramp by her schoolmates, she runs away. This forces Graham’s character to examine every decision she’s ever made, leading her to this moment — courtesy of her feisty daughter.

Graham, who relishes being given the freedom to “improvise our lines in the moment” on Parenthood, plays Sarah with a realistic world-weariness coupled with a wry, defensive humor. Chatting with Graham on the phone, however, WebMD discovers a much sunnier personality. So how, exactly, does the actress nail a struggling single mother so perfectly? Especially given that she’s not a mother herself, and spent her childhood without a mother in her home?

Lauren Covers Emmy Magazine #2

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Becca

Lauren Graham is looking lovely on the cover of Emmy magazine’s Issue No. 2, on newsstands Tuesday, April 6!

Here’s what the 43-year-old Parenthood actress had to share:

On the end of Gilmore Girls: “People still say to me that they haven’t watched the final episode because they don’t want it to be over. You have to be proud of something that captures people’s imagination like that.”

On real life parenthood: “If I met someone who had children, that would be really exciting to me. But at the same time, my sister’s my family, my grandmother’s my family, my godson is my family. I have a really full life, and I’m really happy with what I have.”

On signing on for Parenthood: “You make a list of all the things you want, but what you really want is to fall in love with somebody. You want a good partnership with a writer who is a good storyteller and can write for you. After I read the pilot, I felt this show is something I could spend years on and feel challenged and represented.”

Magazines: Emmy Magazine
Photoshoots: Emmy Magazine

‘Gilmore girl’ grows up

Posted on March 7, 2010 by Chanel

Lauren Graham plays with the adults on ‘Parenthood’

Lauren Graham may just be the good luck charm needed for the NBC series “Parenthood.”

Casting the wildly appealing star of the long-running hit “Gilmore Girls” reversed a peculiar streak of bad luck visited upon the series, originally set to bow on September 23, 2009.

The first tragedy to strike the show was the death on April 30, 2009, of 44-year-old Nora O’Brien, NBC’s executive in charge of drama, who died on the Sausalito, Calif., set of the series. She experienced a brain aneurysm while playing basketball with the cast and crew during a break in filming.

The second tragedy came a few months later when, on July 10, series star Maura Tierney was diagnosed with breast cancer. “Parenthood” was pushed back to midseason and its Wednesday night slot was filled by the middling medical drama “Mercy.” Things got worse in September, when Tierney, also 44, announced that she was leaving the show to better accommodate her treatment schedule.

“Parenthood” has a large ensemble cast of seasoned actors, everyone from familiar TV faces such Peter Krause and Craig T. Nelson to folks you haven’t seen in a while, like Bonnie Bedelia. Tierney had name recognition from her long tenure as Abby Lockhart on “ER.” She would be hard to replace. Helen Hunt, a “Mad About You” star before she won as Oscar for “As Good As It Gets,” seemed like a logical solution, but talks fell through. Graham, who had her own “Gilmore Girls” following, seemed to make more sense. She had just done a revival of “Guys and Dolls” on Broadway, and a pilot that wasn’t picked up, when she got the call.

“This kind of came up. It wasn’t anything I planned on doing,” says Graham, 43. “I told myself, I’m not playing a single mom again, that’s for sure. But I kind of fell in love with it.”

All of Tierney’s scenes had to be reshot in the pilot. “The whole situation was very unusual,” Graham says. “The cast didn’t’ know what was going to happen. It was difficult. I think they’d waited a long time and to have movement [was good]. It just had to move forward. I looked at it as: can I do this part? Mainly, do I connect to this job?

Graham plays Sarah Braverman, one of the series’ four siblings and the one whose life is in the worst shape. Sarah’s broke. She’s so broke she has to move back in with her parents (Nelson, Bedelia). Her ex is a burnt-out musician. She’s 38 and her job prospects are nil. Her two children are truculent and, in her own words, “degenerate.” In the airport of life, this is baggage you want to check.

Accustomed to Amy Sherman-Palladino’s rapid-fire dialogue on “Gilmore Girls,” Graham liked the change of pace on “Parenthood.”