Leslie Grossman: The Acting Life
The Hollywood actor—it's a mysterious career. The glamour, the jet-setting lifestyle, the exotic homes in Malibu, they're all rich! Modern day royalty who, through persevering and good luck, are living the lives legends are literally made of. And yes, they're beautiful. Or if not beautiful, then at least magnetic.
Ok, obviously I'm being dramatic, but I do think I've touched on a common perception of the Hollywood actor. And, yes, people like Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts do have wonderful careers as silver-screen superstars. But for most people acting is a hard and unpredictable career. The hours are long, longevity almost nonexistent, and the pitfalls along the way, life-changing. But acting is also a calling, it's an interesting job, and maybe most of all, it's an adventure.
During a recent interview, TeenHollywood.com asked television and movie star Leslie Grossman (who plays Mary Cherry on The WB's Popular) about being a Hollywood actor. She had a lot to tell us. And although her acting life has been an unforgettable experience, she could love it or leave it, for all the reasons you've never heard of.
"I actually made a decision that was a little controversial to my agents," says Leslie when asked about what she did on hiatus this past spring. "I decided that I didn't want to work. Hiatus is usually a time for everyone to scramble and get a movie. But this is my first real TV series and I was truly exhausted. I just made the choice that I didn't want to work over hiatus."
Leslie and the rest of the Popular cast work long hours on set. For the season finale last year, these professionals logged a 22-hour day in that bizarre episode involving musical numbers and quirky storylines. Leslie says that spending this much time with a group of people goes beyond the idea of a co-worker.
"We're involved in each other's lives now," she says. You just can't spend that amount of time with people and not get to know them on a deeper level. It's not like an office where you guys go home at five o'clock everyday."
So how does this cast stand to be around each other day after grueling day? Surely those monumental catfights on TV spill over into their daily lives?
"We all genuinely enjoy being around each other and there is no competition. I know that sounds like a lie but it isn't," says Leslie. "That's because we're such distinct characters. I mean nobody is the same. We really are incredibly supportive of each other."
A cast of accomplished actors can be intimidating and Leslie tells me that Popular's first season started off with the usual insecurity—this coming from a girl who's had success in movies like Can't Hardly Wait and The Opposite of Sex. As Popular began production in 1999, everyone was looking at someone else to become the next teen television star.
"At the beginning of the first season everyone was totally insecure," says Leslie. They didn't know where they fit in and it was kind of a toss-up as to who's going to become a star, who's not going to become a star. Really, that mellowed out because it's a very ensemble show. Everyone is working equally hard."
Leslie's character, Mary Cherry, is Popular's resident snob, who Leslie describes as "self-serving and evil." "I have so much fun playing (Mary) because I get to say and do all the stuff I wouldn't say or do in reality," says Leslie.
The idea that she's acting on a national TV show is something Leslie finds oddly impossible. A Los Angeles native, Leslie Grossman always felt that acting wasn't an option for her. Despite being born in the make-believe capital of the world, she didn't make her acting debut until she was a college senior in New York City. It was a play called Cereal! and Leslie's natural talent helped Cereal! become an off-Broadway success. She was 24 years old. She had dreams of being a social worker or a psychologist, yet here she was in New York as an actor.
"This is something that has truly fallen into my lap," explains Leslie. "I can't put restrictions on it and say, 'I have to keep acting for the next fifty years,' acting doesn't work like that. It could all go away and you could not work for years and years."
Certainly, Leslie is ambitious. You don't sustain a high-maintenance Hollywood career without it, but Leslie believes you can have too much of a good thing.
"I'm a hard worker. I take what I do very seriously, but I've never related to people who just function on blind ambition," she says. There's something creepy about being ambitious for the sake of being ambitious...just to win."
And essentially, that's what fame is, winning the ultimate popularity contest.
Winning and losing affect people everywhere but Hollywood has a way of putting a microscope on those situations. Leslie says this is most apparent at the audition. Auditions are make-it or break-it situations, where winning that coveted role or returning to your part-time job at the all-night diner on Sunset Boulevard are decided with a casting director's nod.
"There are many times at an audition where I'll be waiting to go in and I can't believe the behavior of the other actresses in that room," she says. "They'll do anything to freak-out the other actresses—intimidate, make rude comments—and you just have to know that they're coming from such a sad place that you can't pay any attention to it."
Leslie pauses for a moment and then says,
"Many actors and actresses think, 'Oh, I've got to be the biggest movie star or the biggest television star and I'm going to scratch and claw and do whatever I can to get to the top,' –that's not me at all. I can't even imagine being in that mindset."
But somehow Leslie Grossman did become a star. She says it's a life she usually enjoys but rationalizes the admiration as part of her job, nothing more.
"It really hasn't affected my life that much," she says. On the ladder of celebrity, I'm on the lowest rung. I get approached. People definitely speak to me. It's always nice. No one has ever been rude, although people do think it's appropriate to say things like, "You look so much fatter on TV."
But what about the money? Surely these people make a lot of cash, it must be a nice to buy whatever you like.
"You can't ever get too comfortable because it can all get taken away in two seconds," explains Leslie. "It's really a luxury to earn a steady living as an actress, but you always have to know in the back of your head, don't buy too much, don't get too excited, because in a year you might not be making anything."
Luckily for Leslie Grossman, she has other talents and interests. The world's a big place and there are always other options for a college graduate. But, really, Leslie enjoys her work, she's on a popular teen drama, she's acted in movies with Lisa Kudrow and Jennifer Love Hewitt, would she really leave it all behind?
"You know, (if I wasn't doing this) I'd probably be getting my degree in Psychology. I'd love to do something in social work. On the total opposite extreme, if I was going to stay in the industry, I've always been fascinated with casting and I'd like to do that. So there's lots of stuff. Who knows?"
Yes, regarding life, indeed, who knows? And regarding insight into an actor's life...who knew?
Find out more about Leslie Grossman and Popular on the WB's official web site, www.thewb.com.
