One on One: Traci Lords

Tracy is impossible to categorize. While her early notoriety brought her international fame, her determination, grit and talent have garnered her respect in many areas of the entertainment industry and wait till I read this off to very very impressive.

She has appeared in dozens of films and television shows, from Roger Corman's Not of This Earth, Cry Baby by John Waters, Blade Zack and Mirra Make a Porno Um to Excision from Melrose Place to Roseanne Will and Grace Gilmore Girls Uh two series regular roles on NBC's The Profiler, sci Fi's First Wave. Her autobiography, Tracy Lords Underneath It All HarperCollins, was a New York Times bestseller and has

been optioned for a mini series. Her pioneering techno album One Thousand Fires radio Active m c A topped the Billboard Dance Chart and was featured on both Mortal Kombat and Virtuosity soundtracks. That is an amazing accomplishment. UM. Her directorial debut, Sweet Pea, was produced under the auspices of the renowned Fox Search Lab. She is currently a contributing designer at pin Up Girl Clothing. Her line, Tracy Lords for the Tour for Everybody, can be found at pin

Up Girls Clothing dot com. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband son and their rescue German shepherd Ladies and gentlemen. I give you the one, the only, Tracy Lords. High Scott, how are you doing, Tracy? You look great. Thank you. It's been a minute. Um, it's been a hot minute for sure. You know. I'm sitting here reading your bio. Your bio is so packed with so many interesting, eclectic things, and you've been so successful at so many things that I'm not even gonna go into that now.

I'm just gonna do a separate introduction for you. I just want to get into this, uh, this Gilmore stuff. Anyway. First of all, how are you life is good. Yeah. Year, Yeah, knock and forth between l A and Atlanta and New York. I'm on the East coast right now, and I did

a film and during the pandemic, which was very strange. Um, just because I don't know how much you did during the pandemic, but I think being in the bubbles as actors and having to wait outside and not having the connection to each other that we're used to having was very strange. It was really strange. Yeah. Yeah. We just kind of huddled in our house and I have a young son and a wife and and we uh we took a lot of walks when we were not allowed to.

And um, I wrote, Yeah, and I wrote a lot of music and I created a podcast and it's pretty productive. But yeah, I mean it was definitely not visiting people, uh, not losing the connections that I built up at staying in touch which was daily. But you know, we got through it. We got through it. UM powered through. So let's talk about, UM, how you got the show? Who contacted you first? To take us through that process where you became aware that that Gilmore Girls was interested in

you or that there was an audition? How did it tell us about it um it was. I had met Amy Sherman, how you know, earlier, not even I don't. I don't believe it was even for the Gilmer Girls, for something else she was doing. And you know, the girl Gilmore Girls was really on a role and they were looking for this character. And I was actually with my husband and my young son, our young son in

Hawaii at the time when the audition came in. So I came actually I was just cast in the offer came in for the Gilmore Girls, and so I came back early and I ended up one set and it was the first time I'd seen you, I think in maybe ten years. So we did that little HBO shoot him up action movie back in the day, and that's what I remembered you from. God that was thirty years ago. Machine right, Yeah, Yeah, that was that was something. Yeah, we met on a little film that you were the

bas sub you were, you were the executive producer. I believe we're one of the one of the main producers with PM Entertainment, Charles can Gannis and called into and it was a fun little film and it was I was headed back to New York. I had given up hope and and then I got a phone call and had this audition and got the part. Charlie offered it to me right in the room and I was like, yeah,

all right, you know, um, and it was fun. It was like we did big stunts in the middle of the night on on Hollywood Boulevard with car crashes and fire. It was just like it was kind of cool. Yeah. I mean, we would never get to do that, not in that way any different procedures. And I looked back at it now and I think, wow, we weren't killed.

But I mean it was really I mean, especially that night, it felt like a big budget film and like, what in the heck is a little movie doing this all this big stuff, all this big demolition and the stunts and the whole thing. That's a pensive. So I don't know how they pulled it off, but it was. It was large. You know. It's funny because p M Entertainment really they had a thing about that. It's they did

what they did, they did really well. It reminds me of like, um, I don't know, working for Roger Corman in the in the lumber Yard in Santa Monica, which you know I did, so I did my first not of this Earth was there with Jim nor Sky and that kind of like fly by the seat of your pants, this is happening. We've got fifteen pages today and we've got to get our day one take to take. Okay, great movie that it all worked, which I prefer, you know,

I love working that way. Um, well, yeah, it's it's it's It's sort of reminiscent of the stage, isn't it, because you've got to just bring it. You go out there and you just have to bring it. You got to get it in one or two or just like

that too. There's such a rhythm to the show, and in particular Natalie Zimman, the role that I played, she was just real fast talking, and I remember one of the first things the feedback that I got because I actually didn't speak to her to Amy, was that we need somebody with Tracy Lowd's energy, because I think I have a I can I had that New York kind of fast talking, don't slow down thing, and they wanted her to be that way. That was the note that

they gave me. And I just remember um thinking that it was an audition and being told that it was actually an offer, and just being so happy to be invited to your party because I'm such a fan of the show and because just what a cast, my god. So you yeah, really, I mean every day was like, you know, going to play with the All Stars. It was. It was. It was a heck of a lot of fun, but you really needed to bring your a game or else you were going to be in trouble. Um. Yeah.

And the writing, my god, so good. With the dialogue. It was lots of dialogue right in the big rhythm and everything about that show. So it was it was awesome. You know. It was a lot easier of a job then I think, and I realized at the time, because all of the heavy lifting had been done for you with the dialogue, right. So, I mean, the dialogue kind of told you where to go, stand and where to move,

I mean, if it's a ten page scene. And I think that was the the best part of it because we didn't really have to I mean, we had to be open. We had to have our you know, sort of actors process open and functioning in the whole thing. Uh. But when you just went through a couple of paces in rehearsal, you know, the writing guided you where you needed to go. It was all kind of logical, and it wasn't hard work, you know, it just wasn't hard figuring it out. It was all sort of like a

roadmap right in there with a dialogue. So from the very beginning, did you feel that way from the very beginning, Yes, from the very very beginning, because they threw it right away, and I told the story before they threw it. I think it was the first day or the second day. We're in production at Warner Brothers on season one, and it was six am or five hours. Lauren and I were in the makeup chair and they threw a ten page scene at us. It was just hot out of

the writer's room. We had to memorize it and go shoot it right then, and we were terrified at the beginning, but then we did it because the rhythm of the writing is just sort of song, you know, emotionally logical that you you just sort of remember it. You know that it just makes sense. So we went and did it, and we gained the confidence that we could do that sort of thing on that show because because of the writing.

Um so let me ask you, Um, you were let go as Emily's designer because of all that controversy and being pulled in different directions and all that. It was a great episode, by the way. You were great in it. Um Um. You had a lot of scenes with Lauren Graham. What what was she like to work with? Absolutely her, she was completely a pro. She um really giving as

an actress, and she was just really lovely. I mean, obviously you guys had the benefit of just living in those characters for so long, and I find you know, walking onto a set where you're a guest actor can be really intimidating because just you've you've got it all on your bones and you're having a couple of coffee and here's new new new words or pages or whatever, and you're like, yeah, whatever. And it's the guest stars that really sweat it because you got it just somehow

immersed yourselves and find that reality really fast. There's no room to to get comfortable. There really isn't. But she was really lovely and that she she made me comfortable, She made me feel welcome, and she was just really giving. So I really loved it. I loved that I got to work with her. What was it like you remember that first scene you did with her in Luke's diner. Do you remember that day in the diner? Yeah, where I'm I'm sort of way some poetic about different types

of wallpaper, So anything else you can remember about it. See. The downer was when you came in and you were going on about um about uh you know, when you're some You had some smartass remark that you said about, yeah, making things pretty when you girls are done making things pretty, and you started just right right away, you know, in on me trying to blow my job. I don't know, he was he had his moments, didn't he ult right? Yeah, that was a Yeah, that was a character. Yeah, that

was that was the guy. I don't know. I just I just figured he needed to be. Everybody was so um sunny in that cast. There just needed to be one for you. Well, I mean I think I think I think Emily and I uh provided some a much needed counterpoint to all that sunshine. Maybe you know what I mean. Yeah, I just anyway, um charming, kind of sexy. Think about your character too, you know, he he was a little bit crusty, he's a little bit salty. He liked to kind of poke at things, and it's got

to be this way. But there's still something really charming and kind of sexy about him too, which is I think why it worked right right and great chemistry with Lauren. I mean that that we just had that from day one. You know, you can't act that. You can't you can't fake that. It's either there it's not. As you well know, you have enough experience um to know. You walk on a set, you either feel it or you don't. You know,

it's just it's either there it's not. And you you know, you could be getting along with a person wonderfully and then you could end up their best friends. But on camera, something doesn't click. You know what I'm saying, Yeah, there's just that thing that isn't that's missing, and that's you know, now that we're talking about the diner, I remember that you didn't look at me once we're standing over us

at the we were. You came up behind us and we were I was showing her different swamps, That's what it was. I was showing her different watches for the wallpaper, and I was going on about it, and you came sort of like brooding up behind us. It was like, what's going on? And you said, this is a diner. You know, people need to be eating and you're taking up this table and what's all this stuff? And you

started just pitching about like what was going on? And I was kind of looking at out of the court of my eye, and you just never once looked at me. You were directing all of this to the back of her head. I didn't you didn't have a choice, I swear, officer. I didn't have a choice. That's what they paid me to do. And they said you gotta be this way. You know how many days were you on set? Do you remember on that on that episode? It was fast. I think I was on like three days. Okay, okay,

three days? Huh. Well, you know, did you get a plenty of photos? Did you get? It wasn't really like people weren't selfie crazy back then, were they? Yeah? One

picture from that set. Gosh, can you imagine today being on that set all the selfie but that you know, Warner's Warner brothers probably trying to keep a lid on it, you know, umd memos like don't don't, don't put this stuff on the socials, You're gonna mess up our PR department, which you know, yeah, well that's what's happening everywhere right now and I'm finishing a show here and I can't

talk about it. There's the social media block out for it. Um. They even now put different names on the top of the script. You've got the working title to the name of the film doesn't come out, and it changes always. It seems change, you know, during the last couple of years, just with lockdown, not lockdown. We're working, We're you're in this You're in the zone, You're not in this center. I don't know, it's been kind of cookie, it's been. It's been really a trip, it really yeah, it's it's

definitely times have changed, that is for sure. I was wondering if the podcast was born out of you being at home and needing a creative outlet, and it sounds like that's what happened. Yeah, well yeah, yeah, I just I thought what could I do, because you know, I'm a doer. I can't sit around, you know, I always have to be working at something, um, and my days have to be structured and I have to have goals, and that's just sort of how I grew up and

how I've always been. So yeah, that's that's what it came out and said. Okay, now, I'll build this, you know, let's build this. I'll make a phone call, let's build this. See where that goes? You know, complete madness for an actor to want structure because our business is so all over the place. I don't know. I mean, that's kind of how I approached uh uh studying in New York. And the whole thing is that it was it was my whole day, it was all of that. My whole

day was structured around that. You know, Um no, I sure, I mean chaos within the work um, and you know, all of those creative juices flowing shore. But in terms of my approach to the business, it's it's very very structured and disciplined. Um. And so I figured let's apply that to the podcast where And the funny part of it is tracy that I thought I had an original idea of a rewatch podcast because I've never seen an episode. I found out it wasn't terribly ritual that they already

had about ten of them. Um. Had you seen the series before you came to work or got the offer? Were you were aware of Gilmore Girls? You watched the show? Yeah? Yeah, um, mainly because I noticed you want it and if the film that we did, and I was like, it's not doing and I was like, wow, I mean it's it's this is what actor we wait for the day when

we have this, what you have, what you have? Um, those those jobs, those moments where the writing is amazing and you've got this, you've got this in your bones and you go there and it install clicks and comes together and you you book it and you're there and you're doing it and it's like that big score. It's

so wonderful. And I just remember thinking, wow, I mean just across the board, as you said, the chemistry, that just everything about the show and the fact that you know you made it there it is and being so happy for you, well, thank you. And it was just a guest star in the pilot. That's all started out. As it sort of grew into that and um still it's like, no, hey, however, you can get in the

door what you know? And I had to I had to tell you I took the easy route because there was there were no network auditions or real you know, hoops to jump through except that initial meeting with Amy and the Gavin and the direct and the casting people, and that was it. That was it. I read and that was it, got got the guest star role and boom, next thing. You know, I didn't have to go to

uh five six rounds of auditions and all that. You know, I've been through that and that's actually got a couple of jobs that way. But it's nerve wracking. God, you know, I know you've been there. You know what it's like. Yeah, I mean I think about those days, and I think about in particular in the nineties. I don't know what it was like right in the nineties, and it was

it was like Paramount Pictures. It was the WB the Fox lot, and you would go and you would be waiting to go to network and you know, it was usually like three people, was how I found it. You would be and I didn't know this at the time. I found out later, which I wish I didn't know, because it was complicated and they would put you in the zone. So if you were the first actor, you

were you were. It was. It was known that you were supposed to set the tone, and then the second one and then maybe the third one that they'd compromise and higher if they didn't like the first or the second. Absolutely maddening, So you would go in there and you didn't know which is zone you were going to be in. You remember this and if your your deal would be done, and you're thinking, in all of this pressure, everybody telling you to relax, don't worry about it. There's all this pressure.

There's just nothing but people just crashed and burned. But that's that's an important point that you bring up. And I don't think the audience knows that. It's a nice piece of behind the scenes information. Before you go to network on these things to the final round of auditions, there could be too, right. I mean, before you go in your deals are done, you know how much money you're going to make per episode, and if it's a lot,

you know, the pressure is greater to go in. And if it's just such because it's like you know, you've got all this money on the line and it's going to change your life and it's going to change your career. Um. Oh, it's excruciating. God, it's excruciating. But then if you hit, you get one. I did this with profiler. Um I just remember that feeling right. It's as an actor, anytime your phone rings and your agents says you booked it, it's that there's no feeling like it. It's such a

high with all that build up with television. Um, it's just absolute insanity, truly, because it's like, you know, I can move out of my car and I'm kidding, but it's pretty it's pretty amazing. So let me ask you this, how long has it been since you've seen an episode of Gilmore? Um? Well, this morning I went on to YouTube and I did a little perusing just to kind of refresh myself, and there was a lot about it

that I forgot. But you know what I noticed my in this how many guest stars from like all walks of life that you had on that show. Everybody was on that show. You know, I saw different friends and different things, And oh I forgot that was you know, shery Lynn Finn and this and that, and I mean there were all kinds of people on the show. Yeah. We even had Norman Mailer on. We had we had Madeline Albright, We had all kinds of people. It was just it was you never knew who you were gonna

see on set that day. You know. I Brian de Palmer came to set one day just to watch, you know, because his daughter is a fan, and so she came by and it was just like in gail En Heard's there and it's like what is But I was on set. One day that I was on set, came by from friends planning, and he came and said hello, he was hanging out with Laurence. Right. I just attended that he wasn't there, but it was very distracted. I'm nervous that I'm either going to be in his book or I'm

not going to be in his book. So I hope I didn't do anything to make the pages of the book. Um. Um, let me ask you, do you think they should have given Nicole more of a shot? And do you also think they should have brought you back more for more episodes? Did you want to come back for more? Well, you know what, I would have loved to have come back. It seemed like, you know, where could they really was the problem? Where could they go with the character of

what was going to happen? Um? What could have happened? Well, I don't know. There could have been something with Luke. There could have Why not? I mean, can you imagine I can that would have been That would have been a blast, right, you would have had to maybe retrain your your your gaze at some point. But other than that, one small technicality, yeah, just just could totally be a theay, the fans may might have turned on me and you

at the same time if that had happened. Um, well, you know, it's funny you can say that because in all the rooms, because there's so much about the Gilmore Girls all over the internet right and on YouTube and everything, and the fans of the Gilmore Girls they're they're hardcore, hardcore. They love the show, they know everything about Oh they have different teams, which one they root for and all of this stuff. Um, it's really it's really something that's

really something. It's really you find it like across like everywhere everywhere I go, everywhere I go, it's madness. Yeah, I get approached. I mean, I mean even in in my neighborhood where I am now Halloween because we moved here about a year and a half ago, but it's our first Halloween with our son in this area that and we went to this place where it's uh, um, they really do Halloween like I've never seen it. I mean, it was like being at a music festival. It was

it was amazing. Um, And yeah, we had to leave because there were too many people that were you know, my son was like, Dad, why is everybody? Why does everybody want to take a photo with you? You to wear a mask? No, no, we weren't in costume. The kids were, but we weren't. But anyway, UM, so let's talk. I want to talk a little bit more about your very diverse uh, film, TV, music, directing, and stage acting career at New York Times best selling author Fear Memoir.

What are you most proud of? What am I most proud of? Um? I'm most proud that I'm all working actor and I'm still a working actor. And maybe that sounds a little hokey, but it's really true, because you know, there's upston downs in the business. Longevity is something that is rare. You know, you get your a little shot, maybe you and then you fade away and that's that, or you're going to do something else. I was a paper girl when I was twelve years old. That's the

only other job that I've really had. But I've had many jobs in the entertainment industry. I am a singer, I am a writer. I have directed. UM, I have a passion for I do a lot of voiceover work now. I just built a booth in my house, which is amazing. That was what I did during the pandemic. You did your started your podcast. I started recording again and doing snippets and writing and and doing a lot of voiceovers.

Uh I. I I started years ago doing voiceovers, about ten years ago, and I've voiced about sixty two different roles, wacky roles, all from you know, shopkeepers to this and that in Hitman. So I've done a lot of video games and things like that. Uh. You go into the booth and you've got clients all over the world, and it's just it's really fascinating. It's been really fun. It's um you stay sharp that way as an actor because

it's so fast. You know, it's right away, here are the new lines, and here's the thing, and you know, something blowing up in this and you know, I have a ball doing it. It's been an interesting trip, so you know. And and this year it's like I have three pictures coming out, with three films in the camp so that's nice. I did the one in the Pandemic, which was very strange, staying in the bubble, like the tent that they put the actors in and you stayed

outside the outside the set. When they called you on, they texted you and you had your temperature taken and then you went in a little bubble. And we did this movie and it was so strange watching it now. It's been playing the festivals. It was released about six weeks ago, and to see this and really know what what was going on at the time, it just it's pretty bizarre. So there's that one. And I had a horror film that just hit with um with Halloween, so

that was really great. And I've been down here in the South working on a very dark comedy with some predible people that actors that I wanted to work for were a very long time and an amazing director. And I wish I could tell you what it is. I can't because of the social media. I'll look on I'll look on IMDBA, see what it is. It's probably listed there. Yeah, it's called Now then I didn't say any I'll find out.

I seem to have found my way into dark comedy and I'm playing women of a certain age that are slightly homicider me. Whatever gets you the job, man, hey, But it all started with the Guilmarkers. I want to talk about John Waters a little bit. Let's talk about cry Baby, which was an iconic teen a breakout comedy that also featured Johnny Depp thirty two years ago. The

fans still come up to over that role. Yeah, so Halloween, Um, every Halloween, I have people that dress up as Wanda for whatever reason, you know she's and sometimes groups of friends that will be the whole gang, somebody's the Johnny character, or somebody's you know, Ricky Lake, all of them they're they're the drapes and they post them to Instagram in different places and I love seeing, you know, just what they do with it at shows and conventions and those

types of things which I know you've you've been to for Gilmal Girls and etcetera. Little tiny girls come with their mothers, like five or six, dressed like Wanda, and then you get the mothers that are to the grandmothers. So it's everywhere from five years old to sixty five years old. Interesting that after all this time that it's still you know, it made such that movie made such an impact on various generations. Uh time, it was a bomb at the box office. It was Johnny's first big,

you know, mainstream um leading role. He'd been in Nightmare in the Street, but this was his first lead, and you know, it just it came out with a lot of hope and expectation and it just kind of it didn't find its audience. But years later it just did and it's become kind of well, it's iconic in a way. It it it has, it just keeps bubbling up. It's part of I think that's happened a lot actually with

John Waters movies. Next year he's going to get his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which I'm wildly excited about because he's me six years old and the man of them so much great stuff and it's just such a great person. I don't know if you've read any of his books, but pretty amazing after all this long hiatus. He Um, I was just reading a few weeks ago that he's he's making his next movie, which is in development. It's Liar Mouth, based on his book.

I'm obsessed with his books. So we've become, you know, we became dear friends throughout the years, and um, you know, that was something that was really pivotal in my life, my career and my god, I never realized how much impact Wanda Woodwork that character would have on me. Maybe you feel like that about um the Gilmore girls. I don't know. You just never know which role the fans

will really identify you. As you know, the John Waters films when I was growing up were the there was sort of this urban, artistic, alternative lifestyle consciousness that that was seeping out into the suburbs and shocking all of us, like, just like, what was that? Didn't we just watched We're talking about my desperate living and pla pink flamingos and you know that kind of stuff that the character divine

and the whole thing. I mean, nobody in the uh, nobody in the suburbs had really ever experienced anything quite like that. Um um, tell us a little bit about what it was like working with Johnny Depp back then. He was really um, really quiet. He was a total gentleman. He was I never saw him be unkind to anyone. John Waters once described Johnny as the best looking gas station attendant that's still pumpter Gas. And I love that

he put it that way because it was true. He had that kind of very laid back thing about him. Not to say that he wasn't serious about his work because he definitely was UM and I liked him. He was funny, he was charming, he was always a gentleman. Um. We we didn't none of us knew each other before that,

and we had to walk in. We had a brief rehearsal, dance dance rehearsals and did all that because it was obviously a musical, and we really bonded during that time and it was just a lot of fun doing that. You have over acting credits, what's your favorite? All uh, different ones for different reasons, you know. I remember my time on Blade was was actually was on set for weeks doing the opening, but it was just really that

one scene. But my time on Blade was amazing, just the stories and what was going on in the fact that it was you know, it was Marvel and they were doing this and it was, you know, the first of those types of movies that were happening. And Stephen Norington directed that film and he had UM He just really had it in his bones. It was the only time I ever worked with the director that he actually directed with headphones with music UM on while he was directing,

and I just thought, what what is this about? But if you Watch Blade, the Original Blade. Um, you know there's the big rave, the blood scene and the whole thing, and the music goes crazy and it's just like all this stuff, it has a rhythm to it. The musician maybe you understand when I'm talking about that that movie. It's like the everything that it has a beta has a rhythm to it. And I think it was really

because Norrington was so connected to that. He was literally so in sync with it that the characters moved that way, and and so that was an amazing experience. Playing Wanda was an amazing experience for for many reasons. I didn't know at the time that she would become like a style icon in a way and that the rockabilly community would embrace her as like, you know, sort of their mascot in a way. So that, Um, that's really delicious.

I love seeing that makes me happy. Um. But personally that was a great experience for me because I met my first husband, or that was my practice marriage, I say, and so joking, but we're still friends. And you know, just John and that whole community of people and what he was doing then, I had so much respect for it,

and it just was very cool in that way. And so I think there were a little there were pieces of different roles that um just fed my desire to be an actor because you get those little winds, do you know what I mean? It makes you suffer through to the next level, right, It prepares you, know, well, what a journey? Yeah? All right, We're gonna play a little game called rapid Fire. Okay, I'm wanna ask you some questions and you have to answer them, uh rapidly,

hence the name rapid Fire. Here we go. Are you ready? Here we go? How many cups of coffee you have in a day? Are your team Logan, Team Jesser, Team Dean? What is your favorite Gilmore Girls character? Uh? Will you? Of course? Thank you very much. What would you order it? Luke's Diner, the Cheeseburger? Would you rather go on a road trip with Taylor or Michelle? Michelle? Finish the lyric and where you lead, I will follow dot dot dot? Uh? Okay,

I failed? Okay, Jackson's Vegetables or Suki's Baked Goods. Would you rather listen to Drella's Harp or the Troubadours cover songs Chilton, Prepper Stars, Hollow High. Alright, listen, it's been great catching up with you. We hope you come back on and hope you had a good time. Um, and keep on keeping on, you know you Uh I used to say, uh, you know, never stand between a Frenchman and his desire. Well, the same goes with what Tracy

Lords wants to accomplish in this business. She's done everything, um, and she will continue to do everything and has graced us with her presence here on the I Am All In Podcast. Thank you for your time and thank you for coming by Tracy all the best too, good care of all right you too, by all right byetta Hey everybody, and don't forget follow us on Instagram at I Am all In Podcast and Emailie at Gilmore at I heart

radio dot com. Oh you gil More fans. If you're looking for the best cup of coffee in the world, go to my website for my company scott ep dot com, s c O T t y P dot com, scotty p dot com Grade one Specialty Coffee O