Book Review: Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between) by Lauren Graham
10/30/2018NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - 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.
Thoughts:
I rarely read autobiographies, especially of an actor but decided I should make an exception for a person that I admire. Lauren Graham, of course, we all know played Lorelai Gilmore in the epic TV series Gilmore Girls, and to say that I love that show to bits would be quite the understatement of the year. Honestly speaking, I think Gilmore Girls helped me develop my emotional quotient through out my teenage years. I would love to also read even a biography of Alexis Bledel, but she's too damn private, which I respect and love about her.
Blunt statement. It wasn't such a bore as I thought it would be. The main reason why I really prefer not to read autobiographies is so that the image of how I have curated them in my mind would not be shattered because they are such boring story tellers. Lauren broke this mindset I had and so now I am open to a possibility of reading more autobiographies in the future.
Blunt statement. It wasn't such a bore as I thought it would be. The main reason why I really prefer not to read autobiographies is so that the image of how I have curated them in my mind would not be shattered because they are such boring story tellers. Lauren broke this mindset I had and so now I am open to a possibility of reading more autobiographies in the future.
Honestly, half the time I was thinking it was Lorelai who was telling me all these stories. I am guilty of still seeing Lauren as the very strong Lorelai and can't seem to separate the two... but really aren't they almost the same person anyway?
Ah, the last chapter. I kinda boarded the same emotional train wreck Lauren took while filming throughout the revival. Tears. There were tears. With Richard gone, that was really one of my concern when news first came out of the revival, how the hell will they pull it off without Richard?! He was such a presence in the series, which I also bet that he was in real life. Even with all the Gilmore Girls having strong characters, it was Richard that anchored them.
I am appalled that someone took Lauren's blue coat. Of course someone took it, and for whatever reason they took it, shame on them. Though Lauren has learned to let go of it, still... that coat held so much stories and had a history.
I have been planning to read this book since last year and I am very happy to have picked it up when I got burned out with fantasy books. I was thoroughly entertained.
Quotes:
"Does anyone else notice that the ending is really more of a cliffhanger?"
"We take some pictures, trying to capture a moment that's impossible to capture."
Rating:
★★★★☆
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