Press | TV's Diggable Star, January 2002

Playing the brooding heart of a dark-horse hit. Interview by Michael C Hall

Michael C Hall: What's up, Lauren?
Hello, Michael Hall

Are you on the East Coast?
I am. I'm in Needham, Massachusetts.

How's that treating you?
It's treating me alright. Yesterday was Sam's birthday (Ambrose's husband). We had a little celebration and made pasta. It was very '80s.

'80s?
Meats. Tuscan. Or something. Great. I bet that's going in the article. (laughs)

Yeah. (laughs) So I guess we should start by taking about Six Feet Under. Is it different for you this season, now that the show's out and people have seen it?
Well, at first it just seemed like we were making this secret little project, but now people have opinions about it and that makes it more real.

Right. So do you feel like Claire (the 17-year-old character Ambrose plays on the show) is a lot younger than you are?
You mean, me, as a 24-year-old Lauren?

Yeah.
Sometimes, when I hang out with 17-year-olds. But that part of my life is pretty clear in my memory. And I just try to make her as real as possible and not a charicature of a teenager.

I got to watch you in your film Swimming and I really liked it. I identified with you character, in part because she seemed to be an outsider and also because she wasn't someone who tanned very easily, which is something I struggled with as a teenager.
Exactly. I got so many freckles on that job. I was hoping that they would invent a vat of sunscreen that you could just immerse yourself in.

(laughs) It was interesting, because you were pretty much in every scene but you said very little.
Yeah, it was a very interesting acting exercise, like silent film acting. I got to do a lot with my face and my walk.

Is acting something you just fell into.
I suppose I found acting through singing because I was always singing when I was a kid. I'd sing at weddings and funerals.

You sang at funerals?
I did. I had some friends who were organisers and choir directors in churches, so every once in awhile they'd hand me a gig.

(laughs) Is that something you've drawn on in your work on Six Feet Under?
Oh yeah. My grandmother told me to become a funeral director. She said, "Acting is very unpredictable. Why don't you consider a nice, practical profession?"

(laughs) So what does Claire do when she's alone? She seems like someone who spends a lot of time alone.
Oh, Michael Hall. (Hall laughs) I think she does a lot of reading and hangs out at the Griffiths Observatory and makes fun of people in Melrose. And she cruises in her herse.

And creeps people out. That would be pretty effective, you know, the green hearse reminding everyone about death. You can nip and tuck all you want, man, but you're goin' down!