Looking for Autobiographies by Actors/Actresses*

June 30, 2023 9:11 AM

* who really dish on what is actually like to act, be famous, be recognized in public, deal with the media, deal with fans, and inhabiting a character. I would also like recommendations for books on acting and how it works.
posted by tafetta, darling! to Writing & Language (20 answers total)

Carrie Fisher's books are immensely readable, though she does spend a lot of time on her mental issues and addictions as well. Wishful Drinking, Shockaholic and The Princess Diarist.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 9:18 AM on June 30, 2023 [5 favorites]

Jennette McCurdy's recent memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died is a bit too real in parts but I'd say it qualifies.
posted by potrzebie at 9:33 AM on June 30, 2023 [8 favorites]

Harvey Fierstein’s memoir I Was Better Last Night digs into a lot of these themes as well.
posted by loopsun at 9:46 AM on June 30, 2023

Best answer: Not an autobiography, but you would be hard pressed to find a better popular book on acting than Isaac Butler's The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act.
posted by HeroZero at 10:11 AM on June 30, 2023

Best answer: Molly Shannon has a recent memoir, Hello Molly, that focuses a good deal on her work on acting, both prior to and during her time on SNL.
posted by SeedStitch at 10:12 AM on June 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

The Diaries of Alan Rickman
posted by staggernation at 10:17 AM on June 30, 2023

Best answer: Emma Thompson may work here...when she published the screenplay for her Sense and Sensibility, she also added in a diary she kept while they were filming. There's a good deal of day-to-day chattiness and some dishy gossip (in one segment she mentions the discussion in the makeup trailer the morning after Hugh Grant had been arrested), but there's also a good peek at the boring minutia that comes from making a film; having to stand around and wait while the light guys set things up, changing the schedule last minute because you were supposed to film outside but it rains, spending hours and hours on a scene because there's supposed to be a crying baby at one point and none of the babies want to cry, that kind of thing. There's also definitely a few places where she discusses what she does to psych herself up for one or another big emotional moment.

Not so much about the "having to deal with the public". It was kind of an insulated set, and the one or two "encounters with the public" she mentions, either people don't recognize her or it's an encounter she didn't want (in one entry she mentions going back to her hotel after filming one night and it's late and it's hot but she has a balcony, so she heads out there naked - right into view of another couple on the balcony next door, so she calmly turns around, goes back into her room, and "bites all the pillows in the bed one by one").
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:35 AM on June 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

I would say Jennette McCurdy's I'm Glad My Mom Died is not what you're looking for. She talks about how much she hates acting, and there's a little bit of behind the scenes stuff, but the book is way more about her relationship with her mother. If you're interested in the Dan Schneider situation or child actors specifically, then it would work for you.
posted by meemzi at 10:41 AM on June 30, 2023

Re: Jennette McCurdy’s “I’m Glad My Mom Died” - she writes about what it’s like to be famous, be recognized in public and deal with fans but that’s not what her book is about. Her anecdotes are largely negative - for example, she wrote about being recognized by a nurse in the hospital where her mother was being treated for cancer.

I didn’t finish it but I really liked what I listened to of Viola Davis’s book. Her childhood and early life is pretty grim but her writing about acting and the business of acting was insightful.

I also really liked Hello Molly by Molly Shannon but I feel obligated to point out that the beginning is dark. She wrote about how her father was driving drunk when he crashed their car, killing her mom, her baby sister and cousin (her other sister and father survived). That is by far the darkest part of the book but it was A Lot.

Also, she’s not known for her acting but Jessica Simpson’s Open Book covers being famous, being recognized by fans and dealing with the media among other things. I really enjoyed it but I also grew up with her music.
posted by kat518 at 11:18 AM on June 30, 2023

I loved Lulu in Hollywood, by Louise Brooks!
posted by orrnyereg at 11:31 AM on June 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: So I have read I'm Glad My Mom Died and agree that it has some good tidbits about when she was recognized on the street and how annoying it was. These are all great suggestions!
posted by tafetta, darling! at 11:36 AM on June 30, 2023

Shirley Temple's autobiography "Child Star." Among many other things, she describes some of the acting tricks she used and Frank Morgan (or was it Lionel Barrymore?) complained that at six, she had instincts that had taken him 30 years to learn.
posted by Melismata at 11:54 AM on June 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Charles Grodin’s It Would Be So Nice If You Weren’t Here fits the bill iirc. It has almost nothing about his personal life, it’s mostly about how he learned to embrace rejection as part of an actor’s life. I see he wrote a few more books but that’s the only one I’ve read.
posted by doift at 12:03 PM on June 30, 2023

Best answer: Michael Caine has written several books on the actor's craft, and they're excellent.
posted by Dr. Wu at 12:11 PM on June 30, 2023

The Moon’s a Balloon (1971) by David Niven
Lulu in Hollywood (1982) by Louise Brooks
Yes I Can (1965) by Sammy Davis Jr
posted by Ideefixe at 4:20 PM on June 30, 2023

Ellen Terry's (leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries) autobiography is on Project Gutenberg. Really enjoyable period piece.

I enjoyed Alan Arkin (RIP) "An Improvised Life" as well as Kathrine Hepburne's "Me: Stories of My Life"

A little off topic but Moss Hart's autobiography about working his way up from nothing to becoming a huge Broadway playwright/librettist is a really enjoyable read about a very specific time.

As is Arthur Miller's life-spanning autobiography, Timebends.
posted by stray at 6:31 PM on June 30, 2023

You're Him, Aren't You? by Paul Darrow, who played Avon on Blake's 7, amongst many other roles.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:24 PM on June 30, 2023

Dangerous Animals Club by Stephen Tobolowsky. He's a gifted storyteller.
posted by knile at 9:01 PM on June 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

Late to this but Shelley Winters (Shelley; Shelley 2) is the undisputed GOAT of this category
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:56 AM on July 1, 2023

I enjoyed The Actor's Life by Jenna Fischer about starting out in Hollywood.
posted by Threeve at 9:34 AM on July 2, 2023