You have been in almost every section of the entertainment industry — from music, to acting, to voice acting. You’ve ignored casting directors who told you were never going to make it, and you’ve become so successful in what’s notoriously a boys’ club. I want to know if there’s any advice you would give to young women hoping to achieve the same type of success?
I could give my own personal experience, which is don’t give up — don’t! It takes a certain amount of self appreciation to stick with this. I started as a musician, and that was definitely a boys’ club, but I was determined to make a living and make my way. Plus, I had no other skill sets, so it was like, “This better work or I’m screwed.”
I started as a musician, and then acting came as a second thing. But then, I struggled through both of them. It’s like what I tell my kids — my older kids are both in the arts. You have to be part crazy to do this. … And then you have to have that [attitude] — you can’t give up. You have to really know, and you have to be able to handle rejection. You have to do a lot of self-work, so that you realize that you’re not what you do. That you are still viable, even though somebody’s not recognizing you or giving you a job.
The whole boys’ world thing is, I don’t know, it’s opening up a lot. And it’s something we have to deal with, but it’s getting easier and easier. I hope for younger women, it’s going to be not an issue. That’s what I hope.
“Torn Hearts” touched on that a lot — that kind of culture within the music industry of women being in an almost cannibalistic environment. I wanted to know if there’s anything you brought from your career as a musician into your role?
It was a lot about how far you’ll go to get famous. How much of your moral compass will you leave behind? And some of that dog-eat-dog style of getting what you want is sort of set up by a boys’ club. So, it’s kind of the misfortune that women have to struggle even a little bit harder.
[In the movie], what you see is, first of all, my character, who has been through the fame machine and now has a dark secret. [She] has lost [fame], and doesn’t know how to function without it. She’s [struggling] because she’s not famous anymore, and she’s hiding. And then you see the two girls coming in and what they’ll rationalize to themselves is okay in the name of possible fame. It’s a big lesson in what we’ll do when we’re afraid.
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