The point of launching a maternity line, for me, was to do something different.
Obviously 'Stranger Things' has given me the launching pad to have creative license for whatever I want, and I love doing the show, but when it comes to music, I want to distance myself as much as possible.
The Smiths was an incredibly personal thing to me. It was like launching your own diary to music.
I love the smell of clean laundry. Working in the garden and getting my hands dirty. Doing the dishes. These are the things that make me feel normal.
I'm not that nice - it's one of those things that reveals itself over time. You could talk to people who know me well; they could give you a laundry list. Except they probably wouldn't because they're petrified.
I'd love to have a program like 'Dr. Laura.' I studied psychology at the University of Miami, and when I rode the bus home from school, perfect strangers would strike up conversations with me and end up telling me their life stories. I think they could sense that I was studying to help people. That, or I have a face like a priest.
A lot of weird things happen to me. People call out to me on the street and I figure I know them, and I walk over. And then they start to talk about a movie, and I get so embarrassed. Sometimes they think I'm Lorraine Bracco or Laura San Giacomo or Marisa Tomei. I'm sure it happens to them all the time, too.
Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet.
Being interested in other fields and meeting experts outside entertainment - whether it's a two-hour conversation with John Nash that turns into 'A Beautiful Mind' or talking to people in architecture or fashion, CIA directors or Nobel laureates - has given me a better sense of which ideas feel authentic and new.
I personally find it difficult to accept that there could be anyone on earth insensitive to the comic abilities of Laurel and Hardy, Sid Caesar, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, or Martin Short. But no matter who the comic entertainer is, there is always at least a minority prepared to say, 'What's all the excitement about? He doesn't seem funny to me.'
I live up Laurel Canyon, and if I want to walk with my son, I have to drive to the park, which is so insane to me.
I had a pregnancy that wasn't private... A lot of people had their opinions about it. They were surprised that I came up pregnant, which was a surprise to me, because I'm a woman, and women get pregnant, and Lauren comes first before the actress, so having my son was the best thing that ever happened to me.
I've always worn a lot of Ralph Lauren, and plaid shirts in general have been a signature piece for me. With plaid, you can look super-relaxed or you can look a bit dressed up.
I love Polo. I have a lot of Ralph Lauren suits. I got Dolce, I got a little bit of everything. And my favorite thing about Ralph Lauren is that he puts the number three on a lot of his clothes, so I feel like it's meant for me.
I've done so many funny jobs. I worked at a farmer's market through high school. I worked in the stock room of Ralph Lauren. I graduated to salesperson at Ralph Lauren, which was a big deal to me. I've been a P.A. I've been a stand-in. I've been an assistant's assistant.
I played Othello, but I didn't sit around thinking how Laurence Olivier did it when he played it. That wouldn't do me any good.
The films that have influenced me most are: 'The Hustler', 'Badlands', 'Hud', 'Tender Mercies', 'Cool Hand Luke', 'A Perfect World', and 'Laurence of Arabia'. I also really like 'Fletch'. I feel like all of these films reached an honest place in regard to the human condition while also stringing together really entertaining stories.
A fan once stopped me outside a theatre and gave me as a gift a signed photograph of Sir Laurence Olivier. It was strange, but nice, too.
Some of those early roles were unactable. Even Laurence Olivier couldn't have done anything with them. The dialog ran to cardboard passages such as, 'I love you. You can rely on me, darling. I'll wait.' It was all I could do to keep from adding, 'With egg on my face.'
I was one of the first women partners at my law firm, the first woman in my Minnesota prosecutor job, and the first woman elected from my state to the Senate. So advice from women who had done similar things was important for me.
