Watching House

Lisa Edelstein gave a great interview to Jewish Woman magazine recently - I love reading her interviews because she’s such an open book. There are some people, like my husband Scott who runs WWE Daily, that keep everything close to them. Lisa is very open and loves speaking about her life and her experiences. Here are a few excerpts from the great interview:

You were a live wire in the 1980s New York club scene, where you were dubbed “Queen of the Night.” What do you remember most about that time? Does the Queen live on today?

[laughs.] Does the Queen of the Night ever really die? Now I’m the queen of 4:30 in the morning, when I get up to practice yoga before I go to work. The people were really special to me during that time; there were a lot of phenomenal people of great talent whom no one will ever know. A lot of them died when AIDS first hit New York.

You turned 40 this year; did it feel like a milestone?

It certainly is a moment in your life where you reflect. One thing you realize is that there are ideas that you’re given by your parents about what life is supposed to look like, and then there’s the life you make for yourself, which doesn’t necessarily go in the same direction. I expected to have children by now but I don’t, and yet, the life I have is exactly what I wanted. In terms of desiring children, it’s hard to know if it’s your own desire as a woman, or if it’s cultural, or hormonal or physiological, some biological drive… I have a hard time finding “me” in all those things. I’ve decided if I end up not having a baby of my own and I still have this tremendous urge to be a mother, there are plenty of children who need mothers.

Pick a favorite on-screen boyfriend: Jason Alexander (on Seinfeld), James Spader (on The Practice), Ben Stiller (in Keeping the Faith) or Rob Lowe (on The West Wing).

The West Wing was a great moment in my life, because I was madly in love with Rob Lowe in high school. So it was one of those moments when you wish you could go back in time and show yourself what your life is going to look like. I was miserable in high school so it was such an achievement to find myself in bed, in my underwear, with Rob Lowe.

You are noted as often for your looks as you are for your talent. After a couple decades in show business, what sort of perspective have you gained on Hollywood beauty pressures?

It’s funny; I’ve never thought I was known for my looks. It’s a little weird, very flattering, but I’m the one who has to wake up and look at myself in the mirror every morning. I try to just enjoy the compliment and let it go as fast as I can, because everything changes. I want to age. I want to be an old lady. If I want to be an 80-year-old woman like my grandma Gertie was—and she was a fantastic woman—I have to be okay with getting older. The hard thing about this business is you have to look at yourself a lot more than other people do. People get a bit obsessed because there’s too much attention placed there, just by nature of the work. This is Hollywood. There are teams of hair and makeup people and photographs are touched up. It’s image-making; it’s always been that way.

I really love this interview! To read the whole thing, check out Jewish Woman’s Magazine here