If you're a suburban kid, and you're 30 minutes from New York City, that's the luckiest thing in the world.
I grew up in this little city called Brampton. It's pretty suburban - there's not a lot going on. In my neighbourhood, specifically, there weren't a lot of other kids so I would just spend a lot of time inside.
One of the things I noticed while I lived in New York City was how different the kids and teens were that grew up there versus, you know, my suburban upbringing. They have this innate resilience and toughness to them, and they're incredibly self-sufficient, usually from a pretty young age.
I loved growing up in Portland because I'm not from L.A. or New York or Chicago or some cool city... It was a very regular suburban life.
Dad has worked as a banker at the same firm in Boston, living in the same suburban neighborhood for over 50 years. Later in life, when I got out of graduate school and imagined myself living the life of a writer like Hemingway or Kerouac, his practical self inevitably encouraged me to get a steady a job and raise a family, just like he did.
Irvine, being a planned community, is really good shorthand, especially in a movie or book, for understanding suburban pressures.
Poverty, to be picturesque, should be rural. Suburban misery is as hideous as it is pitiable.
It's interesting, I'm from a really conservative, suburban town, and a majority of my family are very patriarchal. I mean, I love my family members, but they're slightly misogynistic, very closed-minded. But I'm sure a lot of us have families like that.
I grew up in Maryland on the East Coast - you know, close to D.C. but sort of in the suburban, rural area - and Nashville felt very, very homey to me.
It's a fun uphill struggle, making health insurance as a comedian, actor, and author. But it's hard to explain to people how I make a living. In New York, most people know enough creative types that I make some sense. But when I'm talking to someone like my suburban cousins or my mom's friends, it doesn't always go smoothly.
