“You have to define love with yourself before you can love somebody. The love I feel for my son is unadulterated, pure, visceral love. But, there’s this other definition—the love of self. You have to figure out what your definition of love is with yourself in order to engage with it robustly.”
-Minnie Driver, episode 273 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
This Mother’s Day, a special talk with actor Minnie Driver. On the heels of her debut essay collection Managing Expectations, she discusses the role of luck (3:40), her bifurcated upbringing (5:12) and how it shaped her view of motherhood (11:28).
As we walk through the 1970s, Minnie describes discovering acting in boarding school (12:00), her proclivity for running away (13:02), the story of her performance (16:05), the aftermath of Circle of Friends (21:16), an unnerving series of commercial auditions in her 20s (21:16) and what they taught her about misogyny in Hollywood (30:32).
On the back-half, she tells a tender story from the making of Good Will Hunting (35:06), the media pressure she faced following the film (40:40), finding refuge in songwriting (43:10), and how having her son, Henry, changed her course (46:20). To close, we sit with her mother’s final days (54:10) and how she defines love at age 52 (57:52).
To submit a question, comment, or reflection for our mailbag episode, write us at mail@talkeasypod.com.
Show-notes:
- Order Minnie’s debut essay collection, Managing Expectations.
- Hear her podcast, Minnie Questions with Minnie Driver.
- Follow Minnie on Instagram and Twitter.
- For more talks, hear our conversations with Cate Blanchett, Ocean Vuong, Questlove, Laura Dern, Steven Soderbergh, Tessa Thompson, Julie Delpy, and Matthew McConaughey.
- Order your Talk Easy mug in cream and navy or our vinyl record with Fran Lebowitz.
Illustrations by: Krishna Shenoi.
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