I just read Lauren Graham’s novel “Someday, Someday, Maybe,” and I was wondering how much of it is autobiographical?
—Miranda Bryon, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Lauren Graham’s debut novel is a fictionalized version of what it is like to be a young girl in New York, trying to become an actress, but she says she wasn’t writing about anyone she knew, herself included.
“I just used [my life] as a starting place,” she says. “What I wanted to write about was starting out, following a dream, not knowing if you are going to make it. I wanted it to be relatable, not make it too show bizzy. I am not interested in the stories of show business. I am interested in all the stuff that leads up to red carpet, all the stuff that leads up to success.”
“Someday, Someday, Maybe” has been optioned by Ellen DeGeneres’ production company to be adapted into a TV series — and Graham, 46, is writing the script.
“It is my baby and I feel very protective of the material,” says the Honolulu, Hawaii-born actress/author. “It has been a really fun adaptation to do and, I think, it could make a really fun TV show because it is about young people trying to make it in New York, which is always an appealing story.”
As viewers of Graham’s “Parenthood” series will recall, her character Sarah Braverman found some success as a playwright, but Graham says that while people always ask, that isn’t what inspired her to write her book.
“Sarah is now into photography,” she points out. “I like that. She is someone who is flighty and doesn’t stick with things. I actually would like to lean into it more in terms of, ‘Why didn’t she stick with it? What happened?’ I would enjoy seeing that. I think we will address that this season with this photography thing. Like, ‘What are you doing? Are you serious about it this time?’ I like that because I like her being a little bit of a mess if it makes sense.”
