I call my tiki bar my tiki office, even though I also entertain out here all the time. This beautiful, open-air space is such a creative environment for me. It's where my writing partner and I wrote much of the script for a Mamas and Papas biopic that's in the works, and where I have my meetings.
Maybe clothes are a form of creative expression for me. An outlet. Because I don't get to express myself creatively through my official duties.
Using creative expression as a means to a professional end makes me curl up a bit.
I'm someone who speaks my mind, so it was important to me that my publisher value originality and creative expression.
Writing was my route to creative expression, and I needed to write about the things that interested me.
If I only acted, I feel like I wouldn't have enough creative expression over my own sensibility, and also if I only acted, the notion of surrendering my fate and future to other people is deeply unsettling to me and it would make me uncomfortable.
The experience of both acting and producing has been wonderful. It certainly has created a full plate. But it is very exciting and rewarding to have creative input on the show. 'Reed' is about love and family and for me, playing a hand in shaping it has been deeply gratifying.
Then finally I said, 'Okay, well, I want to know all the details. I want creative input. I want to be consulted. I want to know what they're doing and who's involved. And I want to see the space.' So they took me to see it, and then I realized it was major! All these red flags on the Rue de Rivoli with my name on them right by the Louvre!
For me, just being on the cover of a magazine wasn't enough. I began to think, what value is there in doing something in which you have no creative input?
I realized that being that No. 1 on the call sheet sets the tone. That knowledge, it's important to me that everyone - not just actors, not just myself, but everyone - have a workplace that they enjoy, where they feel respected, that they have creative input, and that they feel is a place that they're excited to go to work.
It took me a long time to even dare to envision myself as a writer. I was very uncertain and hesitant and afraid to pursue a creative life.
The quality of one's emotional life changes over the years, doesn't it? But the basic instincts and desires, greed and hope, seem to remain constant. In the larger scope of things, there's a sense of fulfillment to living a creative life. So I guess that's what keeps me going.
Fame is part of me and my life as an actor. I enjoy the creative aspects of my life as an actor. I enjoy directing and acting as well. But the bottom line for me is not prestige and power. It's about having an exciting, creative life.
Your personal life, your professional life, and your creative life are all intertwined. I went through a few very difficult years where I felt like a failure. But it was actually really important for me to go through that. Struggle, for me, is the most inspirational thing in the world at the end of the day - as long as you treat it that way.
I definitely do not think of makeup as, like, a validation type thing. For me, it's a creative outlet and an art form. It's not like, 'Oh my God, I need to feel pretty.' It's like, 'This is so cool. I just created art on my face.
Acting is such a huge part of my life. It really allows me to have a creative outlet and to actually be able to have an outlet to discuss openly the things that truly I think are relevant in the world, that make a difference.
I'm the perfect amount of guarded. I don't reveal too much, and I never reveal who the songs are about. They are real life. People get that. I date a lot of musicians and they do the same thing. People that work with me - who I write about too - they get it. It's my creative outlet, my therapy.
School was hard for me. If there had been a school for the creative arts, I might have thrived, but... I needed that creative outlet so much. Also, I'm just bad with numbers.
When I got my MacBook, I started playing around with Garageband a lot. It was just a creative outlet. I put everything into it. I would skip all my classes just to be making my songs. Stuff like that made me feel good.
I realized after writing songs for years how important it is. Whether it provides a living for me or not, that creative outlet is something I need.
