Patricia Sheridan's Breakfast With ... Melissa Gilbert
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Melissa Gilbert in "The Christmas Pageant." -
Melissa Gilbert, second from left, with the rest of the cast of "Little House on the Prairie" in 1980. From left, Matthew Laborteaux, Michael Landon, Dean Butler, Melissa Sue Anderson and Linwood Boomer. In front are Karen Grassle and Lindsay Greenbush. -
Melissa Gilbert's "Christmas Pageant" co-stars are Lennon Wynn, center, and Robert Mailhouse.
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Melissa Gilbert basically grew up on television. For 10 years she played Half Pint, the nickname for her character Laura Ingalls Wilder on the long-running "Little House on the Prairie" series (1974-84). A writer, director, actor and mother of two sons and two stepsons, the 47-year-old split from second husband Bruce Boxleitner over the summer after 15 years of marriage.
Her autobiography, "Prairie Tale: A Memoir," which came out in 2009, is a candid look at growing up on the set of "Little House" and much more, including her struggles with alcohol. Adopted the day after she was born by actors Paul Gilbert and Barbara Crane, the former Screen Actors Guild president will star in the original Hallmark Channel movie "The Christmas Pageant," which airs 8 p.m. Sunday.
Your character in "The Christmas Pageant" gets fired. Have you ever been fired?
That is a very, very interesting question. I have never been fired, but I've been broken up with. It's funny, people should start using that now -- "You're fired, you're not my girlfriend anymore." [Laughing.] But, I am proud to say I have never been fired.
You have done just about everything you can do in your industry -- writing, directing, producing, acting. Do you consider yourself a perfectionist?
I think that I have high expectations of myself. I push myself hard. I don't know if I'm a perfectionist, because I don't think perfection is attainable or achievable. I used to try really hard all the time to be perfect, and it kind of made me crazy and sick, to be honest.
See the There is one thing I can guarantee and that is whatever I do in my life I am going to make mistakes. I have to allow myself those mistakes [clearing her throat]. It's part of staying sober, too. So I wouldn't say I'm a perfectionist, but I am particular. I like things done a certain way, and I expect a lot from myself, especially when I'm performing. I know when I'm in the groove, and I know when I'm not.
Is there any ritual or routine that helps you get in the groove?
There is preparation that goes into whatever job I'm doing. It depends on how far away from me personally a character is. A lot of what I do is a combination of imagination and imitation. I can picture people that I've known or seen in my head when I'm reading a script and thinking about a character. I can remember or imagine situations that I've been in that are similar to the one that I'm putting myself in.
It is not exactly a formal process that one would learn from an acting teacher. I did some coaching sessions when I was much, much, much younger, in my late teens, but I never studied, so I can't break it down that way.
You spent your childhood acting on "Little House." Did it ever feel like work back then?
Yeah, it did later. When I was a young teenager is when it got difficult. At least as I've observed it, the teenage years are the years when we are supposed to be somewhat undisciplined and stretching the boundaries and pushing the limits. I am going through it with child No. 4 right now. He just turned 16. So I've seen it.
I know with girls it's even more intense. I only have boys, but I remember. I remember not wanting to wear those petticoats and pantaloons and stuff. I remember wanting to dress like everybody my age did. I remember wanting to change my hair, and I wasn't allowed to. Apparently a nose job was OK [laughing] -- that I got a green light for. But the other stuff, I had to stay disciplined, and I had to maintain my work ethic and go to work every day. I just wanted to play with my friends and drive my car. I could drive a lot of friends in my car since it was a station wagon.
In your book "Prairie Tale," you are open about your struggles with alcohol and your life, but through it all you seem to have maintained a good moral compass.
Thank you. It comes from my parents. It comes from a sense of faith, a belief in something greater than myself. I mean basically I was born without being a sociopath. I know the difference between right and wrong, and I exact a heavy price when I am wrong or bad or whatever. I beat myself up more than anybody. So I'm not sure where it came from. I think it just is, and I think everybody has it, or most people do.
Did you feel you had a lot to live up to after such a successful career as Laura Ingalls?
I felt a certain burden of responsibility to be that girl off camera as well as on. I did feel eyes on me when I would go out or be out. I felt that I had to behave a certain way and obviously be polite and grateful when people would ask for an autograph. Sometimes that wasn't an easy thing to do, especially under extreme circumstances or if I was cranky or tired or if I was eating or back then if I was on a date. It's a weird situation to be in as an adolescent because everybody is looking at you, and you are a total freak anyway.
How have you raised your sons differently than you were brought up?
Oh boy, um, Oh BOY. [Laughing.] Oh boy. I guess there was a lot of mystery in my household growing up. A lot of unanswered questions. Where did I come from? Where did my dad come from? What did my dad die of? You know, major questions. Why didn't I go to the funeral?
We were never really told the truth about anything or discussed anything on a deep or intense level -- like life, death or stuff like that. I was raised in a family where my mother wanted to protect us from anything that was bad and in doing so was overprotective. So we were not allowed to experience grief or sorrow, not for any length of time.
I guess this is the biggest difference: My children are allowed to be very open about their feelings. We have very full and frank conversations about everything.
I have to ask: When did you learn to play the drums and do you still do it?
[Laughing] I had always wanted to play drums. Always, always, but it was just never possible. Piano was fine, ballet was fine, but if I had expressed a desire to play the drums as a child I would have been drummed out of the family.
It is something that has always fascinated me. Whenever I went to concerts, and I still do, I always watch the drummer. I don't know why, but there is something about percussion and rhythm that I am just drawn to.
So I decided that there were a few things I wanted to do when I turned 40. The year I turned 40, I started taking drum lessons and I started surfing. Some people would say that those are the symptoms and signs of a mid-life crisis, but I like to call it a mid-life reassessment.
I think it is fun.
That is the other object of the game here, to keep growing. I don't want to stop because now I'm 47. What's next? At some point I am going to learn to fly. Not on my own obviously but in an airplane [laughing]. That is another goal.
Am I still drumming? Well when I left to go on tour with the "Little House on the Prairie" musical, I gave the young man across the street my drum kit for the year I was gone. While I was gone doing the show I broke my back and had to have surgery. By the time I was ready to start playing again the child had had my drum kit for almost a year and a half, and I didn't really want to take it away from him. So the answer is no, I am not drumming at the moment. But I am considering maybe getting myself a new kit for Christmas.
You should hear our family as a band. Oh my gosh. I have one son who is a brilliant guitar player and one son who plays bass, and my youngest, Michael, can sing, and my son Dakota can play the tambourine, sort of. We've played at family barbecues.
First Published December 5, 2011 12:00 am
