video: Star of HBO & PCS Talks Looking, Food and All Things PDX
Monday, March 30, 2015
Laura Weedman eating a donut at Blue Star in Portland's West End. Photo by Kirsten Nicolaisen
So begins GoLocalPDX’s hour with Lauren Weedman, the award-winning playwright, actress, author and star of the (just-cancelled) HBO series “Looking,” fresh from a Pyrolates workout and pedicure in the Pearl District. She was barefoot as she entered the lobby of Portland Center Stage's Gerding Theater.
It was GoLocal’s intention to give the one-and-only—and currently shoeless—Weedman a quick lunch-hour view of the West End of the current city she calls home, a few of the local places she might've not had a chance to visit as she was creating the second engagement of her hit “all things Portland” show, “The People’s Republic of Portland,” currently playing in the Ellyn Bye Theater at Portland Center Stage.
Hanging with Lauren is a hoot and a half. The actress is a mix of both Lucy and Ethel. She talks in an unhinged, rapid-fire manner that's not unlike when you take a long drag off a cigarette and then say something really important. Lauren has you hanging on her every word. She is a word whore and what she is selling is worth every penny in your piggy bank.
Here's GoLocal's brief encounter with Lauren Weedman on the not-so-mean streets of Portland. Enjoy!
For more "brief" words from Lauren Weedman (she doesn't wear panties) check out GoLocal's exclusive video below.
12:10 pm: Crystal Hotel, SW Stark Street
In honor of the untimely passing of her HBO show, “Looking” GoLocalPDX escorted Lauren to the basement of the McMenamin’s Crystal Hotel, the site of a former gay bathhouse, Club Portland, that some say might be haunted. Intrigued by the history of the hotel, it was in the basement (where the bath house used to keep a life-sized Jeep but the hotel now houses a swimming pool) that Lauren shared how “bummed” she was about the cancellation of “Looking.”
In the show she played “Doris,” the best friend of one of the main characters, and the only female lead on the show. Not only is she sad to see the show go “buh-bye” but another season could've helped the single mother out both professionally and financially. “I needed the third season to get out of my small Santa Monica apartment,” said Lauren. Cancellation aside (word is that there will be a movie version that will wrap up the "Looking" story) Lauren is extremely appreciative of the show and her fans. “I was coming out of Jake’s the other night,” said Weedman. “And I heard all this screaming from across the street. It was coming from a group of guys in front of the gay bar Scandal’s. They came running toward me and were screaming “It’s YOU! It’s REALLY you! “ And I thought to myself, ‘wait...what?...who are they screaming at?...who are they talking about?’ And then I realized it was me. One of them started to cry and that got me teary-eyed too.”
There’s a bit of a discomforting side to Weedman’s new found-ish HBO-fueled fame too. “I was walking down one of the streets in Portland and I was trying to have a private conversation on the phone so I ducked into an alley,” said Lauren. “All of sudden I realized there was a group in front of me, waiting to say 'hello.' I still don’t know how they found me.” That said, Weedman doesn’t get as recognized as much as one might think. In fact, walking down Portland’s official “gay” street—Southwest Stark Street—no one seemed to notice they were in the presence of one of the best actresses on television right now.
12:30 pm: Blue Star Donuts, SW Washington Street
It was at spring-break, tourist-packed Blue Star Donuts that the perpetually perky 46-year-old (who has the energy and body of a 16-year-old) ordered a powdery doughnut packed with Meyer's Lemon curd. When asked about Portland’s obsession with sugary doughnuts and all things food she said, “I love a city that has an obsession, especially with food. In Los Angeles people have an obsession with non-food. They are always trying to find new ways to not eat.” As for Seattle, a city she once called home, she believes that city has a thing for food, drink, books and “bossy lesbians.” It was at Blue Star the newly single Weedman (she is recently divorced) talked about her use of the Tinder phone app. “Does Portland have Tinder?” she inquired. When she found out that Portland did indeed have Tinder and that it was a hook-up site for straight people she replied: “I want to date, but I don’t want to have sex. I just want people’s secrets.”
It’s Weedman’s ability to collect secrets and to blend into the background but equally stand out that personifies her work on both “Looking” and “The People’s Republic of Portland.” In both of these shows, which include plenty of improv (she loves improv), Lauren shows her ‘outsider’ perspective: whether it is as one of the only straight women in a group of gay friends, or as a single mom trying to escape Los Angeles and find a new place to raise her son.
As this is her second time at PCS with her “People’s Republic” show, it was worth asking her if anything had changed since the last time she had performed it In Portland. “Well, there’s an actual story now,” said Weedman half joking. “(The reality is) I think what’s interesting (with the show) is to see how it was last time, and see what has happened to me in my personal life since then. It has actually shifted my perspective. And my perspective of Portland has changed too.”
See Lauren Weedman's perspective on all things Portland at Portland Center Stage. Your view of Portland might never be the same.
“The People’s Republic of Portland,” Portland Center Stage, Ellyn Bye Studio Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave. Now through April 19. $25-$35. Click here for tickets.
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