Feature on Cover Girl Rachael Lawrence (Part Two) by A.L. Harper
You have probably seen Rachael Lawrence in the VH1 comedy show I Hate My 30’s as ditzy, loud-mouthed receptionist, and wannabe-rock-superstar Vicki. If you read the first half of the interview you will know that Rachael I Hate My 30’s isn’t being picked up for a second season. Rachael is now primarily working as a vocal coach and composer.
Most recently she teamed up with fellow songwriters/composers Deborah Ellen and Josh Binder and signed a publishing deal with Randy Cohen and Dana Kasha’s company, Shoot and Score Music Publishing, under Universal Publishing – not to mention being All Things Girl’s cover girl. She is clearly a woman with great talent and vision not to mention a very full schedule so I was very pleased when she agreed to sit down with me for a quick chat. I found Lawrence to be a witty, intelligent and engaging woman, but what would you expect from such a talented up-and-coming comedy actress.
In this second half of my interview with Rachael we touch on her personal life and catch-up with what she is doing now. Letting you see a little of what makes up this interesting and extremely talented woman.
So tell us more about Rachael the person. Are you married, do you have kids?
I am very single. I definitely ready to make that next step happen in my life. You know you turn 30 and you go “Oh no! I’m not a kid anymore”. I work a lot, I’m a workaholic, I love working so it’s been hard to be out there and dating and meeting people. I’m not going to push it. I’m just going to keep doing what I love doing and when the right guy comes along then we’ll make it happen.
Is it important to you to be married?
Yeah I definitely have the childhood dreams of meeting the guy and having the family and doing all the things that most women want to do. I definitely want to be a mom. If I found the right guy I’m definitely ready to have kids. And move into the adult part of life.
What kind of men do you go for?
The more guys you go for who are wrong for you, you realise the kind of guys you do want to go for. Lately I really want someone who’s got their stuff together. Who, they know what they’re doing. They have everything kind of situated, at least have a job that they’re happy in, not just starting out somewhere. I definitely want someone who is more established in their careers. Cause that’s where I’m at and I’m looking for someone who has everything but the girl. And I’ll just kind of sneak in and fill in that spot for them.
But you live in LA, that must be so hard to find there
It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculously hard. And that’s why I’m waiting until the right one comes along instead of settling with a guy I will be unhappy with.
How many kids do you want?
I always said that — I mean you can’t predict stuff like that — I would love to have two. And if they are both the same sex I would like to shoot for a third. I’d like to experience having a boy and a girl. I don’t think I want to many, I want to be working. I don’t want to have like eight kids, I want to work.
“I get to dabble in all kinds of different categories. It keeps it really fresh. Everyday is different for me.”
How is your career progressing? You are primarily a composer right?
Yeah I have a publishing deal with Universal. Right now we’re working on our catalogue. I’ve got two partners. It’s really fun because we’re not writing… you know when there’s an artist who tries to make it as a singer-songwriter they’re writing pretty much on one style. But for us we’re just songwriters writing for other people so we get to write all kinds of styles, like if Mariah Carey is looking for a song, then we’ll write for her. Or if the High School Musical kids are coming out with their own albums we need to write something a little poppier. So I get to play around with all different kinds of genres. And I also write musicals. There is a theatre out here in Burbank that I write children’s musicals for. I get to dabble in all kinds of different categories. It keeps it really fresh. Everyday is different for me.
So you’re just a part time actress?
I guess you could call it that, yeah.
Do you enjoy acting?
I love performing. If it was less competitive and I didn’t have to sell my soul I’d probably be acting a lot more. But it’s just not a very stable business. It can be really dirty. There are just so many people trying to do it, especially where I am. I really wanted to do something where I have pride in myself, I wanted people looking up to me and I wanted to do something good with my talents. When I started coaching, singing, piano and songwriting people needed me and they wanted to pay me for my services. That just seemed so much more lucrative and productive than spending my whole day trying to audition, hoping I would get a 30 second commercial spot. Just for me I needed to be doing more than just act.
“People put all their eggs in one basket and I think they get in trouble that way”
I mean I think 99% of the acting population is unemployed. The odds are super that you will become an actor who is making enough to have a comfortable living. I mean look at me, we just did this TV show, I was in a starring role on it, and now you would never know I had a TV show. People put all their eggs in one basket and I think they get in trouble that way. While we were shooting the show, on the days I wasn’t shooting and on weekends I was teaching, I was composing, I was working seven days a week because I know there was a chance that, that show… I mean just because you get on a show doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to be a superstar.
It would be great if that’s what it meant.
Oh yeah! I mean we were ready. We had a great show — I loved our show. A lot of the people who worked on it, a lot of the crew they were really excited about it. We thought it was going to do well. But when we didn’t have the publicity we thought we were going to have, we realised we did need that kind of help and we didn’t get it. So that was a little frustrating. You know what, we got a TV show and that was great. So many people don’t ever get to do that.
To learn more about Rachael Lawrence you can visit her website. For more information about future projects with Drama 3/4 Productions you can also visit their MySpace space.
A.L. Harper is a freelance writer and motorbike fanatic originally from Salt Lake City, Utah but now living in Scotland. In edition to being the Managing Editor for All Things Girl, A.L. is the Assistant Music Editor for Blogcritics.org and a freelance writer.
