Happy Accidents (30 page)

In our funny mother/daughter scenes in
Glee
, her character’s guilt and shame for having abandoned her children were always just below the surface, creating some lovely and bittersweet laughs. I walked away from that episode impressed with the way Carol Burnett’s work has stayed genuine throughout the years. I am honored to call her my friend.

Very soon after we finished shooting with Carol, as I was still reflecting on her career-long commitment to mining the truth for its laughs as opposed to relying on a bag of old tricks, I had a very quick encounter with Alec Baldwin at the
Vanity Fair
party after the Oscars. He grabbed my arm and said, “You know that big laugh you got at the SAG Awards just looking into the camera when they announced your nomination?”

I remembered and said, “What about it?”—trying not to sound defensive.

“People
expect
you to be funny, and from now on, everything you do will get a laugh. That’s the good news and the bad news.” Great advice that I took to heart; what’s funny and works for me today may not be funny and work for me tomorrow. I have to allow my work to evolve and grow. Which in the future will hopefully mean that I won’t be throwing a new generation of kids into the lockers with an adult diaper under my trackie.

Honestly, though, I am not overly worried about this, and for one reason in particular. I thoroughly enjoy the people I get to work with, and can’t wait to see what they bring to the scene. Indeed, the happiest accidents I have experienced throughout my life are the words and feelings that have almost popped out of my person as I kept myself open to the influence of the people around me. As long as I stay present, and in my heart, I trust that my acting, as well as my life, will not become stale.

I have to think that if anyone had told that
younger version of me who wrote letters to Hollywood casting agents from her dining room table in Dolton, Illinois, that I would one day be on a hit television show, and working with Carol Burnett no less, I probably would have believed every word of it. I was practically delusional . . . or maybe I was just prescient. Either way, I knew what I wanted, and (almost) in spite of myself, I got it.

What I did
right
was to be über-prepared and ready to pounce. After I’d walked away from
The Ugly Duckling
my freshman year in high school, I would never let fear overtake me again. Not that I wouldn’t ever
feel
fear again, I just would do my best to ignore it or use it. I grabbed at almost every opportunity, maybe even some I should have left by the wayside. I went full-pelt and balls-out, never coming up for air for a good bunch of years. I don’t know that this would work for everyone, but it worked for me.

While I was all go, go, go, anxiously looking for the recipe for success, hoping for someone to hand me the keys to the kingdom, Providence was able to sneak in there and lead me to exactly where I needed to be next. In this way, my life really has been a series of happy accidents. I became a comedic actress at The Second City, after being picked out of a large group audition that I wasn’t even that keen on doing. I ran into Chris Guest in a coffee shop and was cast in
Best in Show
. Steve Carell’s wife told him he had too many guys in his movie, and I got to do
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
and meet a great group of people. The mediocre pilot I was committed to failed and I was released to do
Glee
. I could go on and on.

And of course, I met my wife through an unlikely coincidence of timing in a city in which neither of us lived. The way I see it, these accidents of fate were actually my life taking care of me.

I would love to be able to go back and tell that young girl sitting at the dining room table in Dolton, Illinois, pen in hand, to trust herself in the world. I’d tell her, “You don’t have to drink, and you don’t have to be anxious. You just have to be you, and everything will be fine.” I can say that I do finally trust and have faith in my life.

I would never presume to give anyone advice on how to walk their own path, as I have no desire to deprive anyone of their unique journey; as you can see, my own has been customized to fit my needs and my particular brand of humanness. But I will offer this in the way of counsel (and I defer to the infinite wisdom of Carol Brady when I do): find what it is you do best and do your best with it.

To my friend, Lisa Dickey; thank you so much for the rock-solid outline you provided me for this book. Your great suggestions complete with clever turns of phrase have been invaluable.

Thank you, Mel Berger, my literary agent at William Morris Endeavor, for making this first time out in the literary world an exciting and fun-filled one for me. Your support throughout this process and your many kind words of encouragement as I sent you chapter after chapter have meant the world to me.

I give heaps of gratitude to Elizabeth Mikesell. I will always be in debt to you for your wonderful editorial assistance, your encouragement, and your “can do” attitude.

Big thanks to my agent Gabrielle Krengel at Domain. You make everything easier and better. I would be lost without you.

Thank you, Jill Schwartzman, my editor at Hyperion/Voice. Along with being a fabulous editor, you have been most patient and kind with me while I navigated this brand-new terrain as a first-time author. Like Lara, you’re a Smith-y, and like me you couldn’t get enough of
The Brady Bunch
as a kid; a match made in heaven.

I am so impressed and in debt to the fabulous and fashion-forward president and publisher of Hyperion/Voice, Ellen Archer. You head up a wonderful staff of amazing folks who deserve a big round of applause: Elisabeth Dyssegaard, Kristin Kiser, Marie Coolman, Kristina Miller, Bryan Christian, Sarah Rucker, Mike Rotondo, Maha Khalil, Claire McKean, Rick Willett, Shubhani Sarkar, Karen Minster, Ralph Fowler, Laura Klynstra, and Sam O’Brien.

Special thanks to the following folks for letting me use your personal photographs in this book: Beth Gilles Whitehead, Stacey K. Black, Guy Shalem, Joan and Mike Zerebny, Aunt Marge, Mom, Sue, and Julie.

And finally, thank you, Lara. You are my partner on every level, but especially so when it comes to the writing of this book. Thank you for making sense of my rambling and disconnected thoughts. I learned so much from you writing this book together. It’s also a tribute to your sticking power that after all this, you still want to be married to me. I love you more than I can say.

Jane Lynch
grew up on the South Side of Chicago and currently lives in Los Angeles. She married Dr. Lara Embry in 2010, and was lucky enough to get two daughters in the deal.

Photos are courtesy of Jane Lynch, except as noted in the text.

Copyright © 2011 Canyon Lady Productions

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information address Hyperion, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011.

The Library of Congress has catalogued the original print edition of this book as follows:

Lynch, Jane.

Happy accidents / Jane Lynch.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-4013-4176-3

1. Lynch, Jane. 2. Actors-United States-Biography. I. Title.

PN2287.L95A3 2011

792.02'8092-dc23

[B]

2011025141

eBook Edition ISBN: 978-1-4013-4275-3

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Cover design by Laura Klynstra

Cover photograph by Adam Bouska

First eBook Edition

Original hardcover edition printed in the United States of America.

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