Interviews
A Conversation with Jamie Lee Curtis
Barnes & Noble.com: What inspired you to write I'm Gonna Like Me? And generally, how do you come up with ideas for your picture books?
Jamie Lee Curtis: All of my books, including I'm Gonna Like Me, are usually inspired by a situation that I find myself in, or something that I hear. My goddaughter, after receiving a present from me in New York City -- a kind of garish dress that I bought for her from California -- ran to the mirror in her room, held the dress up to herself, and looked in the mirror and said "I'm gonna like me!" When her mom told me that, "boom!" it popped into my head "what a great phrase," and that's really where the book began. It turned into much more of a book about self-esteem -- how you get it, how you lose it, and how to protect it -- from a child's point of view, obviously. But my goddaughter Boco's words were really the inspiration for this book, and the book is dedicated to her.
I come up with ideas for my books genuinely that way. They sort of pop into my head when I hear something. My last book, Where Do Balloons Go?, was born when I was at a children's birthday party where all the balloons had been accidentally let go, and a little girl looked at her mommy and said, "Where do balloons go?"
So my inspiration changes. My last couple of books have evolved from hearing things. Often, it's my children saying something, as it was with my next book, which is called It's Hard to Be Five and is about self-control. So, that's how the process works for me.
B&N.com: I'm Gonna Like Me teaches kids to have pride in who they are -- and to like themselves every day. Did you have a tough time liking yourself when you were growing up? How do you teach your own kids to feel good about themselves?
JLC: I actually did have a very tough time liking myself. It's hard to know why. I would say myriad reasons bring you to that place. But the way I try to work with my kids is very much the way the book talks about it, which is real action for praise. I'm not an overly praising mom. I'm trying to learn that my children need to feel good about what they did, more than me feeling good about what they did. And sometimes, I think parents get in the way of their children having the experience of possessing some self-pride. I think parents can actually encourage children into a place where they can develop self-pride...but then it needs to be the child developing that for him- or herself.
B&N.com: Have you always liked to write? How/why did you get started as a children's book author?
JLC: I like writing, but I never really knew I was going to write books. It was an accident. My daughter said something funny one day, and I wrote a book about it. I didn't really realize it was a book until the last bit of it, which was very emotional, and then I went "Oh -- this is a book," and from that my writing career was born. But it was never an old dream of mine that I had somehow put on the back burner; it was something that kind of developed organically.
B&N.com: In your books, you have such a great flair for presenting the world as seen through the eyes of a child. Your voice is so naturally childlike. How do you accomplish this?
JLC: I do like to write very, very much. I think I'm particularly immature, which is why the voice of my books is so childlike. I think I actually relate very, very well to young children...and sometimes not as well to adults.
B&N.com: I read an interview where you said, "Acting is a job for me. I try not to overestimate its importance. I just turn in my work every day and go home." Do you feel more connected to your role as an author? Is it any more important to you...or again, is it just a job?
JLC: Acting is a job. I think with the movie business, and acting in general, there's a lot of self-importance attached to it. I'm concerned about the fake reality the movie business relates and then the real reality of my life -- and how complicated it is to balance those two things, and to not think the fake reality is a lot better and a lot more fun. So I'm trying really hard to remember that it's just a job and that my life is my family and my friends, and that that's what is most important.
Writing is, as you called it before, a voice. It's something from me that actually has to do with my thoughts and my feelings and my point of view and my take on the world. Acting is actually making believe I'm someone else and kind of interpreting their thoughts. So for me, writing is something that isn't just a job. It has turned into something that is quite passionate and very organic. I try to let go of it and try not to control the process, and if a book pops out, great. And if it doesn't, I'll wait.
B&N.com: Were you a big reader when you were growing up?
JLC: I read while growing up, but I developed my love of reading more in my later teens and early adulthood. I did love to read. I do love to read. I read a lot. I try to alternate between nonfiction and fiction. And I sometimes delve into a subject I don't know anything about, like the Vietnam War, and then sort of delve into five or six texts and look at it from a bunch of different perspectives.
B&N.com: One of the wonderful things about your books is that your sense of humor as an adult translates well into humor for children. Your text is witty in a way that makes it fun for adults to read, as well as for kids. Is this intentional?
JLC: The whole "sense of humor/adult take on the world" translated through a children's book is really for me, the key to the reason my books are successful. I've known for a long time that children's books, particularly picture books, are to be read to a child by an adult and therefore that marriage -- that moment between the child and adult -- is quiet, and I think kind of profound, and therefore, the book needs to be able to satisfy both of those people. So a lot of the humor in my book is adult-aimed. Obviously some of the subtitles and a lot of the little extra writing that Laura Cornell, my partner, does is very much aimed at adults and at making them laugh, and then the main theme of the book and the main text writing, which is mine, is very childlike and aimed at the child. I think the hybrid of that is unique in children's literature, which is why I think it's done well, and why it makes my books special. It's something I'm most proud of with these books.
B&N.com: Your life is full of so many accomplishments -- you're an acclaimed TV and film actress, bestselling author, mother of two, etc. How do you juggle it all?
JLC: What I've learned about the juggling thing is you've got to let something drop. Something has to drop, or you have to be prepared to let it drop. And just as a juggler feels like a fool when he drops something in front of a lot of people, I think you have to recognize that you cannot keep it all in the air all of the time. That's a kind of an '80s and '90s phenomenon, and I hope the millennium will bring a new perspective, where women who are mothers can focus more and more on being a mother -- rather than trying to make mother a sort of part of their life. That sort of slash job -- mother/executive. I think being a mother demands a full focus as much as possible, and we need to reexamine that, without taking away all the wonderful accomplishments women have been able to achieve in the workplace. I think if you've chosen to be a mother, that should be the primary focus of your life...until those children are raised.
