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Interview Podcast Audio Gina Gershon
In Search of Cleo The music/acting crossover has long been a tired cliche.

One need look no further than the Grammy Awards, which were nearly torpedoed because many of music's biggest stars are also members of the Screen Actor's Guild and couldn't cross the picket line of the writers strike.

But for every rapper turned actor and every actor with an itch to share his or her shower singing with the rest of us, there are people like Gina Gershon, who seem to do it all and then some, with skill, panache, and individual flair.

For Gershon, whose latest album, In Search of Cleo, is for sale on iTunes, that dogged versatility comes at a cost. She tells MP3.com that she has so many balls in the air at one time that she rarely has time to get her business in order.

In 2007 alone, Gershon held recurring roles in three hit TV shows--Rescue Me, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Ugly Betty--and she also starred with Hilary Swank and Lisa Kudrow in P.S. I Love You. She also wrote and recorded Cleo and cowrote Camp Creepy Time, a children's book that has been acquired by Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks to make into a feature film.

Gershon spoke to MP3.com about the TV shows, the album, the book, performing her music live, and how she's able to handle so many projects at once.

Hey Gina, how's it going? Good. How are you doing? Good. Thank you for calling. I appreciate it. Sure. So, I was curious. You know, you're something of a chameleon as an actress, but you definitely have a specific vibe as a singer. And I was wondering if this sound that you have on In Search of Cleo is a reflection of your musical taste, or just what you're interested in right now? That's a good question. Well, you know, listen, I think the actress thing, I mean--I'm a chameleon that way just 'cause I'm acting, you know what I mean? Of course. It's fun to play different parts. I did a little tour a couple years ago based on a movie, Let's Pray for Rock and Roll. And it was kind of punk-rock music and I ended up writing a lot of other music for it just because a lot of the songs didn't work. But they had to be the same sort of vibe, like the movie, so it was more like heavy rock and roll and this and that, which is certainly fun to do and I enjoy doing it, and I was lucky that I had Guns N' Roses as my backup band for the tour that I went out to do, which was insane.

But when I started really thinking I really want to make my own album, I just thought it was really important to do it in my own voice. I didn't want to be acting. So I took off some time to kind of try to find that voice. And I was hanging out in New Orleans a lot, and I was hanging out with Leroy Powell, who I was playing with, he used to be playing with Shooter Jennings, now he's out on his own. And he's like really country bluesy, and I kind of pieced together a band just of people who I liked and maybe it was because of that New Orleans vibe.

This was the music that was coming out. And I think I gravitate towards writing more country style, that's just my style when I write. So I kind of honored it. It's definitely music I like. It's my taste. It's not to say I don't like rock and roll, I do, but if I'm going to go home, this is the sort of stuff I would listen to. Right. It sounds like you need to gravitate towards your voice and what you feel most comfortable in, whether it's writing or performing or both, and that's where you're at right now with this one. Well, I just think with music, especially, I don't want to be acting. You already have to fight the actress thing. And I just, to me the thing I love about it is it's actually even more of who I am than my acting. So I have to be truthful. I'm writing it and I'm singing it and I can't write something I don't know, that doesn't make sense to me. Right. And it's also probably one of several reasons why you want to pursue music in the first place, as to not be someone else. Yeah, absolutely. You get to write the script yourself. It's got to be really truthful. And that was the biggest criteria. If it didn't feel honest, then I just wasn't going to do it. I've tried writing for certain projects, and it's almost like character writing. I do it, but it's not my thing. I wasn't going to put my stamp on it. That makes sense. So you got a chance to perform these songs at The Box in New York City for at least like 10 nights or so in October right? Yeah, it was fun. You performed the music in a way that was very much a multivisual performance. Did you spend a lot of time writing and creating what was going to be going on beforehand? Well, no, that came about because I knew I wanted to perform my songs and I kept thinking, "How am I going to do this?" It's not like going from bar to bar as a tour. And plus I wanted to put a certain band together that you can't just throw in a van and go on the road. And I walked into The Box and I thought it was such a beautiful setting. I really liked the vibe there and it felt like it matched the vibe.

And I had this idea of doing drinking theater. I wanted people sitting down and drinking and listening to my music. And I happened to have this story that was a true story that was based on my cat when he was taken and I had to go find him, that thematically was a time when I wrote a lot of these songs. It was during a time of bad relationships and loss in my life and so I just married the two stories, because the story of trying to find the cat and everything I went through and searching for him, to me it kind of paralleled the themes that I was working on for the album.

So that's why I ended up calling it In Search of Cleo, because it made sense and then I just thought, "I'm just going to add that story to support the songs." And it was one of those weird things that just popped in my head. I thought, "Oh, yeah, that works." It really does. The theme of the album or the common thread that kind of runs through the album definitely works, and clearly some attention was paid to making sure that it fit well together. Yeah, I had probably like 20 songs and I think that's the hardest thing--which songs do you take off? There's a couple songs that I absolutely loved and I just, at the end of the day they didn't fit with the album. It killed me. But I thought, well, I'll just make another album. Absolutely. Now I wanted to specifically ask about the song "Pretty Girls on Prozac." Does that song have a specific origin? A person or anecdote that fits? Or is it more an observational type of thing? It's kind of both, actually. It was during a moment, two years ago or a year and a half ago. There was definitely this weird moment that I observed almost every female I knew was on antidepressants. It was really an odd moment. It's like how everyone goes through these weird phases. All of a sudden everyone has adult ADD so everyone's on Adderall, you know. This was like the Prozac moment.

And I was actually going to work in Dubai, and there was an actress there, I'm not going to say who she was, but she was really depressed at the time because her boyfriend had broken up with her. And here's this fabulous woman, and she was really depressed. And she was on antidepressants too, of course, and I remember going to her door, because, you know, I forgot a sleeping pill and I had to get one because I had to turn around and work the next day.

And she answered the door and she was really f***ed up. I think she'd already taken a sleeping pill but she was also on maybe antidepressants and sleeping pills. I didn't know what the rules were. Maybe they didn't go together. But she was really sexy and she had her glasses on and her hair was in her face, and she was complaining about this guy who seemed like a total schmuck to me.

And I'm telling you, this is one of those songs that it just wrote itself. As soon as she closed the door, from that moment on until I got back to my hotel room, the whole song was written. It was one of those weird things, the door closed and it just started going, "Pretty Girls on Prozac," da na na na na. It just kind of dropped into my head and I wrote it down and I knew the theme I wanted and that was the closest to a song being totally done that I've even written in two minutes. Almost instantly, the door closed as you walk away, and it's like right there. As I took a step the music started. Going on in my head. It was weird. That's amazing. The reason I asked is that there's also the obvious observational bent to this, with the line that you have in there, "simple girls with no plans who like to giggle and love to dance." There are just a few very ubiquitous folks in the entertainment world that kind of generally fit that description. That was about this guy I knew, and the girls he went out with. It was partially of her and I think partially of some of the guys that I had been seeing, or was friends with, my observations. All these guys sit there and complain, "Oh, my God, I can't get a real woman." It's like, well, yeah, because you like these 19-year-old girls who just kind of giggle and are easy. I mean, that's the truth. They just want these simple girls with no plans so they can do everything with them.

I'm telling you, this song, it's the easiest song I've ever written in my life. It just, it literally flew out of my head. I think the whole thing was written by the time I got back to my room. Weird. And even, even the bossa nova-y sort of thing. Originally I thought it was going to be more Burt Bacharach-y, with certain horns. But then with my band, then we kind of all sort of turned into more this sort of vibe. But the melody and everything was there. Very intense. You're obviously terribly busy with all sorts of stuff. But do you have any plans to do the live experience again somewhere else, be it LA or on the road or anything like that? I really would like that. I'm trying to figure that out now. When I did Cleo, it was almost more of a workshop. And I thought it worked, although I thought a lot of stuff didn't work, like there was a lot of stuff I'd want to actually do to make the story a little crazier. But, on the other hand, people really responded to the music, and so much of the comment was, like, just do the music. You almost don't need the story, although it's fun. And then in that way I can play actually more music.

I would really like to tour with this. My ideal thing was to do the show so that you do a week somewhere, like a week residency, and then a week somewhere else. And if you have a whole show it's a little bit different. I just like the idea because I don't think I've ever seen it done like that. There are obvious places that it would, it would fit easily, LA being one. New Orleans certainly being one, since it kind of helped inspire the direction of this. I would love that. I did this album, I did all this stuff, I don't have a label, I don't even have a manager at this point. I don't have anything, I just kind of did it, so, I mean, that was the problem when I was doing it--I raised the money and I did it, but, like, to tour and all that stuff, like I need to have to have like a grown-up helping me do this stuff. You know what I mean? I mean, I can't put all that stuff together. I just want to, like, perform and write and perform, and the rest of it I'm, like, OK, who's taking care of this part?

So, I came back [to LA]. There's this whole writers strike and maybe an actors strike, so I kind of felt like I had to do a movie. I'm starting a movie next week for the next month, but it'll be a good place for me to focus in on what I want to do with this. Because I had to go off and do a movie real quick before there's no movies to be made, you know? Exactly. That actually brings me to my next question. You had an extraordinarily busy 2007 with your roles on Rescue Me and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Ugly Betty and then the film PS I Love You, of course, putting together the album. Yeah, and I finished a book too. And the book, of course. It was a crazy year. Aside from the writers strike, were your plans to be equally busy in '08, or are you going to take a little rest, or what? I took a little rest for Christmas time. As soon as Cleo finished, I just took off and then I came back here, but then everyone's like, you kind of have to get a movie before this dies out and I thought, OK, so I could. You know, to me, in the perfect world, I'll do this. I mean, hopefully the strike ends, but I'll do the movie and then by then I'll have figured out and the right people will have come onboard to say, "OK, I know what's a good way to present this." Whether it's just the music or whether it's just the whole In Search of Cleo, but I feel like I'll do this and then in a couple months I'll reconvene.

I'm a very impulsive person, and when I did The Box, I just decided and did it. We didn't even have any advertising until like the last week, so people didn't even know it was there, which is kind of like a workshop. At the end, people were like, "Why didn't you do it?" Bono came at the last thing. He's like, are you insane, why didn't you film this here? I'm like, I don't know, I just didn't get it together. I didn't, you know, I definitely need a partner. I need someone else out there helping me do this stuff. Yeah, because obviously you're coming at it almost exclusively from the creative standpoint and presenting things in a creative way. I'm one of those people who kind of jump in the pool and then realize there's no water. But that's how I get things. I get that, and I just get excited and I want to do it. I feel like today's world, everyone makes albums, but half of them can't even really sing in live situations or play. Right. Even though if they can, they don't have the ability to actually put together an album that is an album. Like I said before, with yours, there is clearly a thread, a common thread throughout. Most of what you hear these days, it's a single or two with some rubbish thrown in on the side, and that kind of thing. I'm old-school, man, I like buying the whole album. That's why I kind of made my pictures, drawings inside, like, that maybe inspire people to buy the whole thing instead of just downloading. Just the one song or two songs that they liked or whatever. Yeah, absolutely. I've just been doing it on iTunes and through my website. I don't even have distribution, which later on someone said, "You're insane, get someone to distribute this." I'm like, oh, yeah, OK, I'll think about that. iTunes is certainly a good starting point, but, yeah, getting it in stores certainly helps as well. So many people don't even know it's out. They don't even know I've done an album. We've got to get this out there. Because you know, I'm really proud of it and I have to say, people seem to really respond nicely to it. No, you should be proud of it, it's good stuff, absolutely. Now, you know, you spoke about the impulsiveness that you often have, and one of the positive results of that is that I can't think of another well-known actress who was in three very prominent TV shows in the same year, in the same year that they wrote a book, were in a movie, and performed. [Laugh] It makes me seem kind of crazy. It's good stuff though, you should be proud of it. Yeah, well, I like what I do. So to me, someone might say I'm a workaholic, but I enjoy it. Right. If it's fun, that's even better. I have fun doing that stuff, and to me, at night I'm not going to out and do clubs. I don't do that, I'd rather stay home and make music. So, that's what I do. So, writers strike aside, were you planning on returning to the three shows? I mean, were there plans to have you back for the three shows? I don't know, no one said anything to me. I think I'd probably go back to Rescue Me. Dennis, who is a friend of mine, he's like, "Hey, you want to come back?" I'm like, yeah. It's an easy gig and it's fun to see him. For Curb, all he has to do is say come here, and I'm there. I just love working with him. But no one can do anything right now. Exactly, because it's kind of hard to formulate plans without writers. Last year, my commitment was to the book and to the album. I really wanted to finish those two things. So, to me, doing the TV shows, there was no commitment. It was totally around my schedule. They made it work for me. If you do a movie, like everything gets put aside. Right, everything else is on the shelf. So to me, Rescue Me was easy. You do it and you get out. And now I feel like I should be acting again. And then I'm sure half way through this I'll be like, "Oh, I really need to start making another album." Is the movie you're doing this Just Business movie? Just Business? Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Oh, I did that too, I forgot about that. Can you say what the new movie is, or no? I'm pretty sure the deal is closed. I'm going to be doing a cool movie called Love Ranch. I think it's called Love Ranch. You know they always change the name, but with Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci. Oh, wow, that's great. Yeah, and Taylor Hackford directing it. It's going to be cool. Yeah, it's actually going to be cool. The world does not get enough Joe Pesci, I don't think. He hasn't done a movie in 10 years. He's a music guy. Yeah, he is. He's fantastic. So, the last thing I wanted to ask you. You mentioned, you know, writing and wanting to get the book done. You know, it's gotten great response and if I've heard correctly, it's been optioned by DreamWorks to make a movie into it. Right? Yeah, Steven Spielberg wanted to do it. And you're going to produce and act in it? I'm going to, yeah, be one of the producers, and hopefully, knock on wood, I'm acting in it. They haven't guaranteed my part, but I certainly wrote a part in there for myself. Yeah. Given all of these things we've just talked about, that's probably, if not the most rewarding, one of the two most rewarding things, given that this is your first jump into writing for young adults and having it come out well enough. Yeah, it was totally my brother. I never in a million years would have thought, "Oh, I'm going to write a children's book." My brother had a fantastic idea and he had written a lot of it, and I just thought, "Oh, this is a great idea, you should rewrite a lot of this and make it really work" and he just never did it. He kept saying, "Here, you do it," and after three years he's like, "Here, just take it." He said he wouldn't do it unless I did it with him. I said fine. And then I kind of brought in my ideas, and then a year and a half later, we really had a finished product.

But it was fun, because I always saw it as a movie. He always saw it as a book and as a website which he put up the website, CampCreepyTime.com, which is really fun, you should check it out. That was his passion. The movie, when I told him that Spielberg might want to buy it, he couldn't even believe that. And Richard LaGravenese wants to do the screenplay. He was really dumbfounded. So it's worked out well, but now with the writers strike they had to stop working on the script, which sucks. Before the strike, were you thinking to get to work on it later this year? Oh, I was hoping to be, yeah, I was hoping that we'd be in production by now. The strike has certainly impacted you on several fronts. Yeah. I guess everything except for the music. That's why I wanted to get Cleo up, because I thought, let me just get this up because then if there's going to be a strike and I'm not going to be acting, then I could figure out what to do with this. And then maybe I'll take this on the road for six months. That would be perfect timing. I just need to get the right partner, the right people involved to help me make that happen. I'll get it together. Well, I really appreciate the time. I wish you the best of luck in keeping all these balls in the air. Thank you. Yeah. No, it'll be nice. I haven't really had enough time to focus on getting my music out there and letting people know. Yeah, we're happy to let our readers know about it. Oh, cool. Absolutely. Well, Gina, thanks again for the time. Thank you so much. It's good talking to you. Yeah, you too. Take care, bye.