Lauren Holly
With an illustrious career in the acting industry, Lauren Holly was somebody I just couldn't resist speaking to when given the opportunity.
In an exclusive interview with FemaleFirst she discusses her days of filming Dumb and Dumber, living with Jim Carrey, tackling the pitfalls of fame and much more. Check out what she had to say below.
First off can you tell me a little bit about what drew you to acting and how you first discovered your passion for it?
I was a really sort of ordered kid in that my parents were both academics and maybe slightly 'hippies' and what not - so as a typical oldest child I rebelled and was very by the books, and had my whole life planned out - that I was going to go to college and law school - and they're the ones who sort of turned it upside down a little bit by going on sabbatical for a couple of years when I was 12 or 13, to London, and I studied music and dramatic arts there and developed this passion and did it on the side at college.
When I did a play in my senior year, Francis Ford Coppola and his producer friend saw it and convinced me that I should give the professional life a try. So I threw my plans out the window and my very first job in the entertainment industry was not exactly in the entertainment industry.
I modelled Francis Ford Coppola's wife's clothing in their apartment in New York for buyers, so I fell into it that way. Which is an interesting and different way that I got into it.
When you did start to pick up these roles what was the experience like for you?
I loved it. I think that my parents knew me better than I knew myself and weren't the least bit surprised that I had this passion, and I really I guess I got really going when I got on a soap opera in Manhattan, and that was a job where I didn't have to have another job to support myself while I did it, so that was really good at the very beginning and was exciting for me.
How did you find dealing with fame and all that comes with it?
Well it was gradual, it wasn't a quick thing, but it did get sort of really heightened when Jim Carrey was who I was living with - we had done Dumb and Dumber together - and when that came out all of a sudden everything about us became news, and that was a little bit, frightening to deal with in a way - people going through our garbage, jumping our fences, trying to get pictures of us in our house and everything - it's fascinating to me now because at that time our whole objective was to stay away from tabloid press. That was what you'd want to do but now these days people court it if they want to be famous. It's flipped a little bit. But I still say that people with the most talent seem to avoid the tabloid press.
You mentioned Dumb and Dumber, can you tell us a little bit about your experience filming that because I imagine it was very unique with so many big personalities on-set?
Well it was very fun because we went onto very many locations and it was - in the days when films took 3 months to film - and you really became close to everyone and it was great because Jim and I were dating, and it was fun to make a move with your boyfriend, or whatever!
I remember that filming took place over Memorial Day weekend and July 4th weekend, and so big groups of us of the crew and cast would go to Lake Powell - a central location between our Colorado and Utah location - and rent house boats for the long weekends and just do cook outs and jet ski, and swim and it was just so much fun, you know? We'd anchor the boats and get on the top and lay down and watch the stars all night, we had a great time.
Now you star in Motive as Dr. Betty Rogers, what drew you to this role?
To be honest it all came from a coffee meeting with one of the executive producers.
Betty wasn't in the original script and they were creating this character, they explained it to me and I just fell in love with it because she's just really - she goes to the beat of her own drum and she's really good at her job, and has a sense of humour, and I just really like how this sort of middle-aged woman is depicted as being full of life, the budding one, smart, the one that's got all the sexuality going on - all of that.
In season two, one of the things that comes up is the friendship that really becomes apparent between the lead character Angie and Dr. Betty is a really cool, sort of non-judgemental, equal friendship where we both just lean on each other.
What do you think it is about the show that makes it so successful?
I think it's just that it takes the typical genre and turns it upside down a little bit, where you know who's the killer, who's the victim, and I think the audience really appreciates the sort of O'Henry feel to it, with the twists.
You always think you have it figured out and then there's one other layer which is shocking.
I think the audience just appreciates that and this season especially it became more and more popular in Canada because I think we start learning more and more about all of the characters - you're rewarded for your loyalty I guess.
The story kind of stands on its own but there's little things we carry through about the characters.
What hopes do you have for Betty's future?
Well I think that we're about to start season 3, and I think she's coming into her own this season and will be even more humorous, more of her in general I would say.
What would you note as some of your favourite moments in your career to-date?
Well, I would say that in television I probably loved the years that I spent on Picket Fences - that it was just a dream job in how much comedy and drama I got to do, it was a wonderful mixture.
In film I would probably say the time I spent filming Dumb and Dumber, and also the world travelling I did for things like Dragon.
And this past year has been really quite thrilling as well because I've made three feature films which are all about to come out, and they're all completely different.
One is a true story sports movie called Hoovey. One is a Civil War drama called Fields of Lost Shoes and one is Cinderella set in the fashion world called After The Ball.
So they're all super different and slated to come out soon.
Motive season 2 continues on Universal UK, Mondays at 9pm. Sky 113 Virgin 137.