Life’s Work: An Interview with Goldie Hawn

Goldie Hawn gained fame as the ditzy blonde on Laugh-In, but she is decidedly more serious offscreen. An accomplished actor, producer, and director, and also a hands-on mom and grandmother, she has for the past decade led a foundation that teaches resilience and mindfulness to 400,000 children around the world. Download this podcast You were famous at age 21. How did you adjust? It was very stressful. People perceived me as this funny, crazy, spontaneous girl, but I didn’t think they knew me very well. So I did seek psychological help, and it prepared me to understand the separation between perception and reality. I was then able to embrace my fans, embrace my world, with a more reasonable view of what was happening to me, and continue in my work. Why did you move into producing and directing? With Private Benjamin, Protocol, and Swing Shift, it was because they all had social relevance. It’s important, at least for me, that while we’re entertaining there’s also something substantive to talk about. Whether you’re an actor, producer, writer, or director, it’s all about the story you’re going to tell. What new skills did you need to develop? Obviously looking at budgets, but also being able to lead compassionately and to be less flappable. When you’re female working in a male-dominated industry, there are unfortunately extra things you need to do—for example, couch opinions in a way that sounds palatable and not threatening. That’s a skill I developed. Did you feel you were paving the way for other women? No. I never felt the weight of that. I had ideals, and I had my own work ethic. If you have a sense of yourself, your mission, your belief system, those things will lead you to success. If I did it to pave the way for other people, my intentions would have been clouded. Has the industry changed over the past few decades? The big money goes to kids and young men—big tent-pole movies, which are expensive but have a great return. The smaller movies aren’t being made as much. For instance, First Wives Club. We were all women of a certain age, and everyone took a cut in salary to do it so the studio could make what it needed. We all took a smaller back end than usual and a much smaller front end. And we ended up doing incredibly well. The movie was hugely successful. It made a lot of money. We were on the cover of Time magazine. But two years later, when the studio came back with a sequel, they wanted to offer us exactly the same deal. We went back to ground zero. Had three men come in there, they would have upped their salaries without even thinking about it. But the fear of women’s movies is embedded in the culture. You said social messages were important to you in deciding on projects. What other factors do you consider? It’s all variable. For example, I did Bird on a Wire because I wanted to work with Mel [Gibson]. He was a friend, and I thought it would be a really fun movie. So not everything had gravitas. It’s also about what you feel you can do well—not about whether the movie is going to be successful, because we don’t know, but about the experience and the intention. That goes for every kind of business. You have to have passion for what you’re doing. Can you control the outcome? Not always. But you can certainly keep your eyes wide open while you’re getting there and do your best. That’s always been my philosophy. You’ve worked with many famous stars. What’s the secret to developing rapport with an acting partner? It’s no different than with anyone else. You have to be open and have empathy, because not everybody is going to think or react the way you do. Is it wonderful working with someone who’s gifted and talented and amazing and receptive? Yes, there are moments that are very exciting. There are also times when you just can’t believe the behavior. Some actors aren’t that generous. Some are temperamental. It has to do with personality and behavior, what people learned when they were small. How did they grow up? How were they raised? Do they believe in themselves? Do they know they’re good? People can either make the world great or they can make it horrible. How do you respond in those circumstances? You hold your tongue. You be patient and try to understand, because otherwise, you’re just not going to get through. If you get agitated, your brain will be in a frenzy, and you’ll screw yourself up. You want to be able to think clearly, and the only way to do that is by getting quiet and looking at reality and knowing that you can’t change someone else but you can certainly change you. Your foundation focuses on teaching those sorts of responses. Why is that important to you? I became very aware of my psychology and the psychology of others, and then I wanted to understand more about the brain and its plasticity, so I studied that. I also became a meditator and have been working in that space since 1972. After 9/11, I realized that our children were no longer going to be living in a secure world. I also realized that the things we do in the first part of our life aren’t always what we do moving on. How could I make a change and give back? So I brought together neuroscientists, positive psychologists, teachers, and mindfulness practitioners to create a program we call MindUP. It’s designed to help children understand their own neurology, develop mental stability, and reduce stress. People told me I would never be able to teach children how their brains work. And I said, Why not? There are now more than 400,000 doing MindUP worldwide. It’s the preferred social and emotional program in the United States. We’re also in the UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, South America, and Serbia. How do you divide your time? Multitasking, the way everybody else does. I’m going to Mexico in a few days to speak to 7,500 people about MindUP. But then I’m coming back and not doing another conference, because I want to be with my five grandchildren on Halloween. I’m also looking at a potential television series that’s in its nascent stages. Sometimes I feel like I’m patting my head and rubbing my stomach. But that’s OK. I’m equipped. How did you balance work and family earlier in your career? I was between home and the studio, and my focus was always on my children first. I think you can fail at only one thing in life, and that’s parenting. Lessons, and resilience, are learned early. So I made my decisions accordingly.

Life’s Work: An Interview with Goldie Hawn

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