MORE THAN JUST PRETTY by joel martens When fame comes early, where do you go from there? It’s something that gets asked often in regard to young actors.
The truth is, for some... It can be a quick ride up and an even faster ride down. Molly Ringwald was one of those kids who appeared to have it all, and to get it overnight. Nothing could be farther
from the truth in her case; this lovely lady grew up steeped in performance. Her father is a noted performer himself, an accomplished jazz pianist, who formed several jazz bands and large scale festivals throughout his many years in the music world. Fortunately for Molly, Daddy took her along for the ride. She performed with him for the first time, as a 4-year-old and
released her first album, I Wanna Be Loved by You—Molly Sings, at the age of 6. This multi-faceted titan hasn’t stopped since that tender age... singing, dancing and acting, in films, on television and Broadway, writing books (one a recent award-winner titled, When it Happens to You), with another in the works. She’s contemplating a third album, has a popu- lar advice column in the London Guardian, a traveling cabaret show, three kids and a handsome husband. Where, one might ask, is the proverbial partridge and pear tree hiding in this busy woman’s life?
A WONDERFUL CONVERSATION WAS HAD ABOUT ALL OF IT; I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE MANY SHADES OF MOLLY RINGWALD:
This is a question that I like to start out with for performers. What is your earliest memory about music? I think my earliest memory is, well, I actually remember my mother bringing me in to sing for my dad. She listened to me during the day and
knew I could sing and was the person who told him that I could. My dad didn’t believe her. So, she brought me in to sing a song for him. That really is my earliest memory, singing for him. It’s interesting how that works. Don’t you think that you learn so much faster when music is in your life early on? I definitely think that you do and it’s something that I think about with my own children. But, kids have to love it and you have to let them
find their own way. To master an instrument or anything for that matter, you have to have that love and desire to practice. It can become an endless battle with your children, if you’re not careful (laughs). I started out with piano lessons, just like my brothers and sister and we just didn’t practice enough to get proficient. It’s really one of my biggest regrets now, that I don’t play the piano, or for that matter, another instrument. Well, I play the ukulele a little bit, but that’s kind of it (laughs). It is so much harder to learn as an adult, it’s like trying to learn a new language. You wish kids had that kind of foresight, but they just don’t. They don’t think they are ever going to be sick and they don’t think they’re ever going to die. We all think, “I’ll do that later, I’ll do that later.”
FEBRUARY 2015 |FEBRUARY 2015 | RAGE monthly RAGE monthly 45
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64