Authors@Google: Molly Ringwald

>>Julie: Greetings, everybody. I'm Julie Wiskirchen at the Authors@Google team in Santa Monica
and we're extremely excited today to welcome Molly Ringwald.
[applause and cheering]
Molly began her film career at the age of 13 with a Golden Globe nominated performance
in Paul Mazursky's, Tempest. In the 80s, she starred in such beloved coming-of-age movies
as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, then moved to Paris in '92
and acted in such films as Seven Sundays and King Lear, a screen adaptation directed by
French film legend, Jean-Luc Godard.
On TV you can currently see her starring in ABC Family's, "The Secret Life of the American
Teenager." She also appeared in the series, "Townies" and Steven King's, "The Stand."
Her theatre credits include playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret on Broadway, a London Stage
Production of When Harry Met Sally, and the Tony nominated Enchanted April.
Off Broadway, she was in Tick, Tick…Boom, and in a national tour of Sweet Charity. And
today she's here to talk to us about her brand new book, which is entitled, "Getting the
Pretty Back: Friendship, Family and Finding the Perfect Lipstick." So please join me in
welcoming Molly Ringwald.
[applause and cheering]
>>Molly: Thank you. Hi.
>>audience: Hi.
>>Molly: It's so great to be here. I feel like I really fit the whole color scheme.
[laughter] >>Molly: I'm very Google. All right. I think
I'd like to start out with, usually when I read from my book, I like to start out with
the first chapter because I-, I like people to understand that when I'm talking about
"pretty," it's not so much of a physical thing as it is an attitude and a state of mind.
So, the, the first chapter is called, "Isn't It Pretty to Think So?"
[reads from book]
"Early on during my first pregnancy, a female acquaintance off mine told me, 'You better
hope she isn't a girl 'cause she'll suck the pretty out of you.' I sort of laughed. Sort
of. In a few short weeks, I found out that the baby was a girl. A few weeks after that,
I was absolutely sure that the woman was right. I was not a particularly attractive pregnant
person.
"Every woman I know has wanted to be beautifully pregnant; the type of Cover Girl pregnant
where you can't tell from behind. It's only until you turn and reveal the perfect bump
hovering over your Manolos that you are with child. Me? I blew up like a water balloon,
thanks to a semi-common ailment, preeclampsia, and a troubling, powerful fondness for Macho
Nachos. The freckles on my face decided to band together and form a pigment block party
and my ankles swelled as if I'd been stung by a hive of particularly vindictive bees.
"On the day my daughter, Matilda, was born, as I tried to tie up loose ends before heading
into the labor room, I was asked to participate in a Maternity Gap ad, which I was obviously
unable to do. When I hung up the phone and told my husband and friend, Victoria, the
nurse on-call chimed in, 'That's funny. A Gap ad? You look like the Michelin Man!'
[laughter]
"My husband, friend and I were shocked into silence. The nurse took this to mean that
we hadn't heard her and felt compelled to repeat her insight.
[laughter]
'You look like the Michelin Man,' she snorted. It wasn't until she went in for the third
time that Victoria snapped, 'Yeah, we got it.'
[laughter]
"In the months after I delivered Matilda, I would catch glimpses of myself in the mirror
each time thinking the same thing, 'Is that me?' I couldn't get over the heft of my body.
I would breastfeed my daughter and look down in horror to find that my breasts were larger
than her head.
[laughter]
"My husband came home from work one day to discover me in the bedroom dissolved in tears.'It's
true, it's true.' 'What's true?' he asked, alarmed. 'She got it all. She sucked the pretty
out of me.'
[laughter]
"I'm sure I'm not the only woman who has felt this way and obviously it isn't only motherhood
that can give you this feeling; it can be a relationship gone south, a stressful job,
weight gain. What makes it so disturbing when it is motherhood, however, is the completely
irrational feeling that your loss is someone else's gain; something that is so associated
with something so wonderful: the giving of life. It's the ultimate bittersweet sensation.
"It seems to me that there is a moment when women are no longer defined as pretty. It's
hard to know when exactly it happens, but suddenly you notice it. You are beautiful,
unique, handsome (if you're unlucky), or interesting; pretty is a word that is reserved for the
young. At some point you are expected to relinquish the word like an Olympic torch. If you were
ever called pretty to begin with, you know that there's a definite time limit imposed
upon the word.
"You could say that it has the longevity of the career of an ice skater or ballerina.
You get to dance, swan-like, a few times, then you're expected to teach it. What is
pretty anyway? Not just beauty. It's an attitude toward life, a frame of mind, a lightness,
even a frivolousness; it's attractive and charming, yet also naive. It's endearing particularly
because it's so innocent, because it seems to disregard, or simply be unaware of, all
the things in the world; the experiences, the people, the accidents that increasingly
defy and deny the sense of giddy hopefulness. When I told a friend I was writing a book
called 'Getting the Pretty Back,' she asked, 'Why don't you call it Getting the Beauty
Back? That's a better title.' 'But beauty isn't what I'm talking about.
Prettiness is inside every woman. It's a feeling, a sense of self that never entirely leaves,
it's always there.' "I remember at my daughter's baptism, which
we had in Greece where my husband's parents live, watching my mother-in-law dancing at
the after party at four in the morning, as she spun I could see the village girl she
had been 50 years earlier in every light, joyful step. It was moving and it was inspiring
and it was also, the best part, completely, carelessly normal. She wasn't thinking about
it. She wasn't pretending. She was just doing what felt right. I watched her turning her
wrists and hands in time with the music with such confidence and grace thinking to myself,'
She's so pretty.' "Getting the pretty back is about getting
in touch with your essential self; the part of you that knows what you really want, that
takes risks, that isn't scared away by all the things that can and have gone wrong. It's
the part of you that runs around in summer, holding your sandals in your hand. It's remembering
the girl you were at 15 who did double flips off the high-dive, the girl who laughed and
squealed with your best friend while you huddled together in the bathroom double-piercing your
ear with a needle and a potato.
[laughter]
"Being pretty can be about style or outer beauty, true. But on a deeper, more fundamental
level, it's about learning to take care of yourself again. Style is the first and easiest
step to reminding yourself, and the world, that you matter. Too often, after kids, after
years in and out of relationships, we settle. We stop paying attention to ourselves. Everyone
else's needs come first. We'd love to try a yoga class or see a movie with a friend,
or visit a country that we've never been to, but before that can happen we have all these
other responsibilities: the car payments, the mortgage, the dental appointments, the
carpools, the birthday parties, the work functions.
"At times they can make you feel as if adulthood is nothing more than a series of tasks to
be completed. And I'm not advocating trying to recapture your youth, mostly because it
isn't possible, but secondly because you shouldn't want to. Our life experience, after all, is
what makes us interesting, smarter, more confident and formidable. But being all those things
shouldn't preclude being whimsical, light, flirty and fun. At heart, prettiness is a
state of mind; it's a way of looking at things. A way of looking at ourselves. It's just one
thread of the tapestry that makes us up, but it's an all too often neglected thread. Luckily,
it isn't so hard to get the pretty back as I rediscovered again while writing this book.
I spent a lot of time searching through my past, remembering the good and bad, and finding
out what got me to where I am now and I invite you to do the same. Whether it's reconnecting
with friends that you miss or remembering how much you used to love to dance to Bananarama
in the living room by yourself--
[laughter]
getting back in touch with the pretty girl that you once were, just might make you realize
that she isn't so far from the woman that you are today."
[applause]
Thank you.
I wanted to read you one other part and, and I've been talking with my husband back there,
who just graduated from Stanford on Saturday, just got his MBA.
[applause, clapping, cheering]
Go Panio! So we were talking in the car about what to read and I didn't, honestly, I didn't
expect so many men to be here. And I'm really thrilled, so I'm trying to think of, you know,
the book is obviously written more for women, but not to say that men can't get something
out of it, too. So, I don't, I don't know. There's, there's nine chapters to, to the
book and they're all sort of about what it means, to me, to be a woman. So I just try
to think about, you know, wh-, what's important to me, and so there's a style chapter, there's
a food chapter, there's a fitness chapter, there's even a hair chapter.
[laughter]
So, I decided to read something I, I haven't actually read at other book readings and it's
part of the style chapter, which is called, "It Woman," which is kind of the genesis of
the book. I decided, when I was turning 40 years old, that every stylish book seemed
to be about "It" girls rather than "It" women. So, I wanted to write a book about being an
"It" woman. And so, so here's the, the beginning of Chapter Two, "It Woman."
[reads from book]
"When I was seven years old, I was a tall, leggy kid with short, shaggy hair and permanently
stubbed toes and for a good deal of time, I sported a woman's stocking, my mothers,
attached to the top of my head with two precisely criss-crossed bobby pins. This seemed to be--"
[noise interference]
What's that?
>>team member: ok
>>Molly: Oh.
[continues to read]
"This seemed to be, in my seven year old brain, the best solution as to how to exist in California
in the 70s with a gorgeous, blue-eyed older sister with long, blonde hair. I was sure
that she knew how it tortured me as I lay on the bed and watched her brush her long,
straight trusses and then flip it back over to have it land on her back as if in slow
motion. I was memorized by the perfection of it. It was the perfect color, the perfect
weight; it even smelled nice.
"Farah Fawcett shampoo. Which I'm pretty sure it was just Herbal Essence with a picture
of Farah stuck on the bottle. I asked my mother if I could grow my hair out like my sisters.
'Maybe later,' she'd tell me. 'This time we'll cut it short and you'll see, it'll grow in
thicker.' This lie, handed down from the ages, clearly senseless, and yet somehow at that
age, irrefutable, and anyway, who doesn't want thicker hair? So, off to the barber I'd
go where they'd chop off my honey colored wisps and fashion my hair into a boys cut.
'A pixie,' my mom would say. 'What's his name?' everyone else would say.
[laughter]
"In our neighborhood, in every direction out of our cul-de-sac, there was a home that housed
a set of siblings. Joanie and Jennifer to the left of us, Laurie and Lisa to the right,
and Karen and Krista in the middle, across the street. Not one of which, incidentally,
had anything short of shoulder length hair. Our games mostly consisted of freeze tag and
cartoon tag and I could occasionally corral them into taking part in a backyard vaudeville
show. I'd copied out scenes from classic Abbot and Costello sketches from a local show that
my brother and sister and I performed in on the weekends. I would direct them to the proper
timing and sometimes have to explain the joke. 'Yeah, you see, his name is Who and see the
other guy doesn't get it.'
"This would keep us occupied until the ice cream truck or some other distraction came
along and then home for dinner. Then, one day, while playing inside the house, rummaging
through my mother's things, I came across a long ponytail curled up in a hat box that
I was pretty sure wasn't real, but nevertheless intrigued me almost as though it were a living,
breathing thing. Treating it with reverence, I carefully presented it to my mother for
explanation. I don't even think that it matched my mother's hair color. 'Oh, it's a fall,'
she said. 'We used to wear those all the time a few years ago. Nobody wears them anymore.'
This information I accepted gladly since it basically gave me free reign to claim the
thing as my own. I would attach it to my head and no one would be able to pry it loose.
Unfortunately, there was precious little to attach it to.
"Every time I thought I had it fixed, the second I attempted to copy my sister's hair
swing, that I'm sure she copied from Susan Day, the flick from one shoulder to the other,
the hairpiece would fly across the room and sail onto the floor. Apparently, this unhappy
event actually happened to a famous singer, dancer, on Johnny Carson's, The Tonight Show,
which my mother remembers helped deter her from wearing the elaborate up do and they
were really going out of style anyway.
"This did little to deter me until I had to face the fact that as much as I loved this
piece of hair and wanted it attached to me, the thing had no interest in me, preferring
to hibernate indefinitely in the hatbox. I reasoned that the real problem was the weight
of the hairpiece and if I could just find a less weighty version, unfortunately, my
mother had not invested much in her hair accoutrement. There were only two that I could find and
one of them I figured was a Halloween wig and of little interest, since it was a short,
curly do that looked like it belonged to Bewitched's Samantha's frisky cousin, Serena. But I did
happen upon a pair of stockings, one for each leg. While pantyhose were becoming more commonplace,
my mother still owned the old-fashioned, singular nylons, which along with the fall, I never
saw her wear. The thought occurred to me that it was about the same length as the fall and
a much better color match. Two bobbies later, I was in business.
[laughter]
"I flicked my head around and admired my handiwork. Then I ventured out into the neighborhood.
[laughter]
"My friends make no mention of my new hairdo, if they even noticed they didn't' let on.
I was filled with a combination of relief and disappointment. Relief that I wasn't about
to be made fun of mercilessly, I still can't quite believe it. I don't know if it was the
age or the place, the fact that I had exceptionally kind friends, and disappointment because couldn't
they see I had long hair? Then a couple of days later, I noticed Jennifer sporting a
black stocking on her head.
[laughter]
"Soon, all the girls tried it out, even pinning their own hair up in order to show the stocking
hanging down. Joanie went so far as to put pantyhose on her head, but we all agreed that
was ridiculous.
[laughter]
"It was at that time when I realized that I had set a trend. I had an idea that was
different. I executed it and I watched it catch on. It was magical the way we all entered
into a tacit understanding that stockings on our head was cool, even when the evidence
should have clearly showed us otherwise. I think I discovered at that moment that fashion
was fun and ridiculous, but most important that as long as I set the trend instead of
following it, I would be ok."
Thank you.
[applause]
So, I guess now is the Q&A part? If you have any questions, if anybody has any questions,
I would be happy to answer them. Yes.
>>memberfemale1: Where did you get these shoes?
>>Molly: [laughs] Great question. I, I actually, I flew to London to have the cover photo taken
by a friend of mine named Fergus Greer, and it was styled by a wonderful stylist and they
are Manolo Blahnik. And, I actually, it has taken me months to actually have those shoes
in my possession now. I have them.
[laughter]
That was way back in December and I desperately wanted them. I thought, "I have to have these,
these shoes." They're like the modern day, like Dorothy, from Wizard of Oz or something.
So, they made me a special pair because apparently they were all gone. So, yeah, sorry.
[laughter]
>>member female: [inaudible]
>>Molly: Any other questions?
>>memberfemale2: I have one. I actually saw you when I was living in New York, in Tick,
Tick…Boom and which I thought was great and it was all about kind of the turning 30
and, and how to deal with that milestone and now your books about turning 40, so I was
wondering if you thought back to that musical or if you saw any parallels between those
two.
>>Molly: I actually, I haven't made the connection, but it, it's, it is, I think, a similar feeling.
I think for women, 40 is even more. I mean, 40 is really the moment when you can no longer
call yourself an ingénue in, in any realm at all, you know? And, and you know, most
people, by the time they're 40, ha-, you know, have kids and you know, or, you know. I mean,
I had my kids later than, than most people do. I have a six year old daughter and eleven
month old twins. Yeah, they're so cute.
[laughter]
But, you know, 40 is really that age that I think it's not so much that you feel different,
it's that, that you feel that everyone sees you differently. I was doing, when I was on
my book tour, I was doing "Regis and Kelly" and she, she actually had a really great comment
that I think she heard from someone else, but it seems that at 39, everyone says to
you, "Are you ok? You look so tired." And then you turn 40 and they go, "Wow, you look
great for 40." You know?
[laughter]
It's like, suddenly the perception completely changes. But yeah, I mean, Tick, Tick…Boom
was very similar. I think, I think Jonathan Larson really felt that way because his, his
career really hadn't taken off yet. He was still the "starving artist" and I think, for
him, he felt that that's acceptable. You know, we all put these numbers and, you know, they,
they don't really mean anything.
It's just what we put on ourselves, you know? When you're, when you're creating, when you,
when you're, when you're an artist, it's like you, you should have arrived already by the
time you're 30 and I think that was the pressure he felt is that, that after 30 it was like,
ok now he's gonna have to get a real job, you know? And I think that, that this happens
all the time. I think, you know, I'm, I remember turning 25 and feeling that, you know, oh
my God, I was so old, you know?
[laughter]
You know, it's just, i-, i-, it happens all the time, you know? You're a teenager and
all you can think about is, is being 21 and then after 21 its like, "Oh my God, I'm so
old!" You know? It's gonna happen. I think, I think I'm gonna look back on turning 40
and feel like I was a baby, you know? So, any other questions? Yes.
>>membermale3: Steven King's, The Stand, is a marathon of a book by any means, so when
you're preparing or any time since, have you read the book?
>>Molly: I read the book while I was making the movie, actually. I hadn't read it prior
to, to doing, I read the script. And the, the script, the, or I should say the teleplay,
because it was, it was a television movie; I think was a pretty faithful adaptation.
Because I remember as I was reading the book, I felt like I had just read it, you know?
Because I just read this incredibly long teleplay. But, you know, usually, I mean I think, I,
I prepare differently for each project. Sometimes I feel like I, I understand the character
completely. I mean, like for instance, all the John Hughes movies I did, there was not
a lot of research that went into those parts, you know? They were very similar to, to me,
or to somebody that I knew, but then other parts, obviously require more research.
>>membermale3: So, I love the movie adaptation and watching it is an effort in itself, so
how was filming it? I mean, it, it's so long.
>Molly: It was really long. I had just moved to France, actually and that was the first
time I'd been back in America since I had chosen to move to another country and I, I
remember having a lot of, of down time and, and constantly trying to, to get back to France,
you know? So, it was, it was, it was such a big, huge cast and, you know, I just, I
mean I had most of my scenes with Gary Sinise and he's, he's an amazing actor and, and a
great guy to work with so, so I had fun making it.
>>membermale3: Thanks.
>>Molly: Sure. Yes.
>>memberfemale4: You're one of these rare, amazing performers whose career has spanned,
you know, the stage, screen and television. And I'd like you to talk a little bit about
your approach to the different media. If there is one you prefer, and if it sort of on a
project to project basis.
>>Molly: That's a great question, thanks. I don't prefer any, any of them, I think.
I, I mean, I started out doing theatre so I think theatre, so I think theater is a little
bit like my first love and I've always felt really comfortable on stage. And then I moved
to film and I think I'm more known as a film actress. I love the immediacy of television
and I, and I love how many people you can reach on television, you know?
I, after I, I lived in France for all those years, I came back to New York and I did almost
exclusively theatre for about ten years and I feel like, except for the people that happen
to be there at the time, nobody knows. It was like I wasn't doing anything for, for
ten years, you know? But, I mean, people that were there, you know, they say me in all these
plays and they thought, "Oh, I didn't know you could sing, I didn't know you could dance,"
you know? But then, it just, there's all these people that it doesn't reach, you know?
So, that doesn't mean that I don't love doing it, but I, obviously when you work you love
to, to be able to, to connect with people and to reach people. So, I did all of that
theatre and then I moved here and now I'm on a television show and it, it always seems
like I love to go back and forth. I mean, I would love to go back to New York and do,
it's been, it's been a couple years now since I've done a play. I would love to do it, you
know, especially with the Tony's last night, I think, "Oh, my God, I love, I love doing
theatre." You know, and I'd love to do more films. I think it really just depends on the
project and I think that there's certain projects that, that sort of lend themselves to a certain
medium. So, depends on the story. Yes?
>>memberfemale5: Did living around Parisian women affect your sense of pretty? [inaudible]
>>Molly: I feel like French women are, I mean, they're, they're incredibly stylish. They
seem to come out of the womb--
[laughter]
with an Hermes scarf sort of wrapped perfectly around their neck. They just seem to have
an innate sense of style that I really think comes from a sense of confidence, you know?
When I was writing this book and going through the editorial process, I did a word search
one day on the word "confidence" cause I wanted, or "confident." I wanted to know how many
times I used that word and it was ridiculous. I used that word like, 25 times, I used the
word confident. But I think it really said something about one of the themes of my book,
which is how confidence, confidence in yourself, is one of the most important things because
if you don't have confidence in yourself, no one is gonna have confidence in you. And
it affects everything. It affects your style, it affects the way that people listen to you,
you know, it affects everything.
So, I think that that's something and I don't know exactly, i-, it's something that was
very interesting to me figuring out where, where French women come up with this sense
of confidence and I, I really do think it has something to do with their culture. And
it's something I hope to impart on, on, on my children, my girls especially. You know,
the feeling that they can do anything that a man can do and in heels, backwards.
[laughter]
Great question, though. Thank you.
>>Julie: Does anyone on the video conference have questions?
>>Molly: Oh, I think this gentleman has a question.
>>membermale6: So, you played a teenage mother and so I'm wondering when you were pregnant
with your first child, did you ever think back on that movie and did anything seem to
be particularly realistic? Did some things make sense or some unrealistic? Do you have
any thoughts about that?
>>Molly: Well, I think everyone is different in how they deliver their children. As I remember,
I haven't seen that movie in a long time, but I remember I did a lot of yelling and
screaming.
[laughter]
As most people do when they, when they have that, that scene when they're delivering children,
you know, there's like [heavy panting], you know all of that--
[laughter]
and I, and I did that and it seemed very realistic at the time, but, but having had three children
now I, I didn't deliver at all that way. Not to say that it didn't hurt, because it did
a lot, but all of my energy was very internal and very, y-, you know, I felt like I couldn't
make that much noise because I, I would lose my concentration and all I was focused on
was getting this baby out. So, you know, if I had to do it over again I might have played
that scene a little differently, so yes, to answer your question, I would, I would've
done it differently.
[laughter]
Yes.
>>memberfemale8: So, when, oh thanks. So, when writing this book was there any one particular
chapter that was your favorite writing, or, I guess I'm just reading through it and I'm
like, "She gives good email." That's an interesting one, but I, I, my question is like, which
one was your favorite in writing, if you had one or if there's one that, like, sticks out
the most?
>>Molly: Well, when I had the, the concept for the book, like I said I wanted to write
this sort of girlfriends guide to being a stylish woman and I, I feel like, so many
people feel like they grew up with me because they kinda did, you know? My movies are sort
of a rite of passage, you know, for, for so many people. So, I, I had the idea. I knew
I wanted it to be illustrated and I was really fortunate enough to get my dream illustrator,
Ruben Toledo, to, to illustrate the book.
But I, I always knew that I wanted it to be part narrative about my life, about my friends
lives and then I also wanted it to have sort of an advice aspect to it because I've always
been sort of like the go-to girl for all of my, my girlfriends. But I found that all of
the narrative was so much easier to write. You know, all the story telling, the, you
know, and I think that has to do with my background as an actor and getting into characters and
telling stories. When it, when it actually got to the advice part, even though I have
been that advice kind of girl, it, it is sort of hard.
Once you put things down on, on paper, I didn't want anyone to feel like I was a big old know-it-all,
you know? And all of these, all of, all of the advice that I write is really just, you
know, I'm not an expert in any of the, this is just strictly my opinion, you know? I have
a whole chapter we were just talking about that on, on t-shirts.
[Molly laughs]
I have a whole sort of manifesto on "You're not a billboard." And that, and that, you
know, we, we shouldn't be advertising other people's, you know, mostly it's those horrible
slogans or those, you know, those t-shirts that you pick up on vacation that say, "Barbados,"
you know?
[laughter]
And it's like, what is this really telling the world, you know? But anyway, to answer
your question, I think, I think all of the parts, the, the stories about, about my friends
or, you know, about my life, I think those were the definitely, or, or the one that I
read to you about being a little girl and, and sticking a stocking on my head, I think
those were the most fun to write.
Yes.
>>memberfemale9: So, I have a email question. So, like for me, being almost 40, the most
disturbing thing is now I see teenagers, like, dressing like the 80s and now I'm like that
old person, you know, who their era has come back, right?
[laughter]
It's really weird because I feel like some of the kids; they just could've gone to my
high school. Like, it looks--
>>Molly: Yeah.
>>memberfemale9: exactly the same. So, they say that if you are old enough to wear the
fashion the first time around, you shouldn't wear it the second time around.
[laughter]
>>Molly: I disagree.
>>memberfemale9: Ok.
>>Molly: I respectfully disagree with that. I, you know, I, I think that you shouldn't
dress head to toe in, in anything that you wore. I mean, mostly because it probably doesn't
fit, you know? I mean, I still have clothes that I wore in the 80s, but, you know, most
of them don't, don't fit the same. I mean, I'm hanging onto them, you know, for, for
my kids and, you know, but, but I think, I think the 80s now that, that people, I think
there's kind of like, cherry picking the best parts of, of a particular era, you know? There's
certain 80s-esque things that I wear now, you know, sort of color choices. I mean, Google,
very 80s, you know? All of the, you know, all of the primary color, the yellow and the,
you know. Like, I find myself doing that now. I have a cu-, a pair of, you know, yellow
Ray bans, you know? Different, you know, hats or, you know, there's certain things that
I, that I associate with the 80s that I still wear, but I try to make it modern, it's not
just head to toe.
And, you know, to be perfectly honest, in the 80s, I was doing other eras, you know?
I, I was doing, that was my version of the 20s, you know? Or, you could say that the
shoulder pads from the 80s was, was inspired by the 40s. I remember in the 70s being obsessed
with the 50s, you know? With Grease and everything and, and thinking that the 50s were just the
coolest thing ever. So, I think all those fashion, it just, it's constantly re-, recirculating.
There's nothing really original except for the way that you interpret it.
>>memberfemale9: Wow, I, great answer.
[Molly laughs]
I'm impressed, thank you.
>>Molly: Sure. Yes.
>>memberfemale10: Hi.
>>Molly: Hi.
>>memberfemale10: I'm, I'm so excited to read this book, I've been flipping through. I just,
since you've, you know, covered all the other media, movies and theatre and whatnot, I just
wondered, do you have another book in you?
[Molly laughs]
>>Molly: I should hope so because I signed a two book deal.
[laughter]
So, I'm really hopin' that there is a book in there somewhere. I was just actually talking
to my husband about that in the, in the cafe. I, I really after writing an entire book about
myself, I really want to write about something else. So, I think, I think probably my next
book will be fiction just so I can kind of get into those characters and, you know, I,
I, I think that's sort of what I'm leaning towards and then, if I ever write about myself
again, it'll be a long time. It'll be like the official autobiography years and years
from now.
>>memberfemale11: So, I read a little of your book at the airport a week ago, and you have
a chapter on, well not, you have a small part about dating a younger guy. What happened
to him and how did it work out?
>>Molly: He's sitting right back there.
[laughter]
>>memberfemale11: It's hard, right? Like, women are supposed to date, usually date,
we're trained to date yo-, older men. Older men for younger women, yeah? What are your
thoughts and how did it all work out for you?
>>Molly: I--
[laughter]
He actually was the, the first and last ol-, younger guy that I dated. It, it was hard,
it's true, women are, sort of, I don't know why exactly, why we are taught to date older
men, I mean considering that women are supposed to live longer it makes more sense to date
younger men.
[laughter]
But I, I like all, many other women, I, I'd always dated guys that were older and it was
sort of by accident that, as, as I write about in my book, that, that we even ended up dating
at all. We, we met through a mutual friend on email, actually, and I, we didn't even
actually meet in person for about six months and I actually thought that he was an older
man because in the way, in the way that he writes, I had this sort of vision of this,
you know, old swarthy intellectual and, and he was this 25 year old cutie-pie.
[laughter]
So, so it was, it was a little bit of an adjustment in, in my head because he, he wasn't exactly
what I envisioned and also I had that hang up, like, "How could I date somebody young,
this, who am I? Is he a boy toy? What's the deal?" You know?
[laughter]
But then I, I got over it, you know? And now, I, I don't even think that, we don't even
notice the age difference. Its seven years, which, you know, is, is a significant amount
of time. I do believe that our lives are sort of lived in seven year cycles, so occasionally
I'll notice that I'm in one stage of my life and he's in another stage of his life, but,
but it's ok. I think it's, three kids later, almost ten years later; I think it's worked
out ok.
[applause]
>>Julie: Does anybody on video conference have a question?
[laughter]
>>Molly: Hi, people. They're thinking about it. The guy in the blue shirt. I can tell.
[laughter]
Oh, no he's just, he's just chatting with someone.
[laughter]
>>member12: They're all on mute.
>>Julie: Oh. Ok. I think we'll take one more from Agraria.
>>memberfemale13: Thanks so much for coming and I think it's great, the transition you're
able to make or just like, looking over the past, I don't know, it's probably embarrassing,
but those terrible countdowns of child actresses and where they are and you're always a success
story, and so--
>>Molly: That's nice, thank you.
>>memberfemale13: I think it's very admirable. And I was wondering, I mean, I've heard that
you probably credit to your time in France, just being away and that kind of thing and
we already kinda touched upon like, women and friends being beautiful and the confidence
and stuff, but how did that impact your life and your career and do you recommend, what
do you recommend to other people, maybe if we can't go to France for that kind of defining
moment that, you know, helps you transition from where you were before to, you know, where
you are now?
>>Molly: Which part of that question should I address?
[laughter]
That was very long, interesting, complex question. I, I think, you know, France was sort of my
version of going to college. In fact, I had applied to USC and gotten accepted and was
supposed to go into the fall to, to start getting my college education and then went
to France to do a movie over the summer and just stayed. So, that, it, you know, that
was sort of my version of, of the college years and I, I had been working for so long
that I'd never really been, I felt like I'd never really been out of the public eye and
I felt like, for me, I needed to go somewhere where I wasn't recognized.
That I, I could sort of make mistakes and be silly and just do all that stuff, you know,
that, that, that everyone basically does in college, you know? And that's, that's what
I did and I'd, and that, that's what worked for me, but I think, you know, everyone's
different. I think it also had a lot to do with sort of following my bliss and feeling
like if I didn't do it at that time in my life, that I would never do it. And I, and
I always wanted to live in a foreign country and I've always had a thing about France.
I don't know why, it might have been a past life thing or something, but in my house,
my mom was a chef and she really idolized Julia Child and Julia Child was always saying,
"bon appétit," and so, to me, that was just, you know, it represented something so beautiful
and so cultural and I just, it just really spoke to me.
But I think it's different for everyone, but I, I really, I do recommend that somebody
lives outside of their own country for a period of time just because it, it just completely
changes your perception, you know? You live in this country and you're taught things in
your history books and it never occurred to me that people have completely different points
of view, you know? We think we're sort of the center of the universe here and guess
what?
In France, they think that they're the center of the universe and I think every country
is different, but I, it just, it just completely opens up your, you know, the world just becomes
a much bigger place. And, and that's really what it did for me. Thank you so much for
having me here. This has really been fun.
[applause]
And I have to say, I have to say I'm a very big Google fan and, and also my mother, who
is not the most computer savvy person in the entire world, just called me up, I would say
about a year ago and said, "Molly, there's this incredible thing called Google. Have
you heard about it? You can, you can ask it any question and it'll answer you!" Great,
mom. Anyway, so, many, many Google fans in the Ringwald household. And thank you, thank
you again.
[applause]