Actress Lauren Graham writes a 'girly' debut novel

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Lauren Graham, star of NBC's 'Parenthood,' says that she wrote a book of fiction, 'Someday, Someday, Maybe,' because it would be more fun than real stories.

Actress Lauren Graham has written a novel about an aspiring actress. (Photo: Stan Godlewski for USA TODAY)

A 'girly book' about emotions and 'no sports'On dating her on-screen brother from 'Parenthood'Finding the time to do 'something else' than acting

NEW YORK — The dining room at Sardi's, the legendary Broadway restaurant, is "beautiful, with burgundy walls and little yellow shaded lamps on all the tables," just like actress Lauren Graham describes it in her debut novel.

In a scene in Someday, Someday, Maybe (Ballantine, on sale Tuesday), Graham's narrator, a 26-year-old aspiring actress, finds Sardi's menu "extravagantly expensive" and the atmosphere "intimidating."

In real life, Graham, 46, doesn't mention the cost of her chicken Caesar salad ($22.50) and seems at home lunching at Sardi's. A cartoon drawing of her is on the wall, amid hundreds of other celebrity caricatures, everyone from Katharine Hepburn to Hugh Jackman.

Graham is best known for two TV series, Gilmore Girls and Parenthood, yet it was her role in a 2009 Broadway revival of the musical Guys and Dolls — as Adelaide, the perennial fiancée — that earned her a place on Sardi's walls. "One of those dreams," she says, "and then, it happens."

She's here's to talk about her novel about the improbable dreams of making it as actor. Graham, whose love of performing began with school plays in suburban Virginia, began writing it two years ago, after finding herself "with the time and room to do something else."

Graham's novel traces a year in the life of aspiring actress Franny Banks.

She had neither during her breakout role as a hip mom in Gilmore Girls from 2000 to 2007. "That really launched my career," she says, "but the hours were just insane, 12, 14 hours, day after day. At one point, my agent even called and asked if this was allowed."

The just-renewed Parenthood, in which she plays a divorced mom of two who moves back in with her parents, is less demanding. "It's more of an ensemble. I work maybe three days a week. I had time to do something that didn't rely so much on other people."

Set in 1995, Graham's novel traces a year in the life of Franny Banks, who's funny but insecure. Graham calls it a "girly book" that will appeal more to women than men. "It's about emotions and there's no sports, to cite a cliché."

Graham's editor, Jennifer Smith, says, "I wouldn't call it girly. Like many novels, it will appeal to women, but it's got a lot in it about hopes and dreams and being young in New York and desperately wanting something." Although Graham is well-known as an actress, Smith considers her "a new voice that's funny and charming."

Graham says her novel autobiographical in "only the most general way. I went out of my way to make sure that the characters did not resemble anyone I know. The agent is not my agent. The boyfriend is not my boyfriend,"

She adds, "I was so not interested in writing any kind of tell-all. If I wanted to do that, I would have just written a memoir and probably sold more copies." She laughs.

She finds it's more challenging and fun "to make stuff up. Of course, it's a world I know. I was most interested in those tiny beats or steps that get you on your way when you're so unsure about your career."

Like her narrator, Graham waitressed in a comedy club and shared a Brooklyn apartment.

Graham plays Sarah Braverman in the NBC series 'Parenthood.' (Photo: Danny Feld NBC)

She now "lives wherever I'm working," but has an apartment in Manhattan and a house in Los Angeles she shares with her boyfriend, actor Peter Krause, who plays her older brother in Parenthood. (As for dating her on-screen brother, Graham, who has never married, says only, "It's nice when you meet someone you work with and it works out.")

She wanted the novel to explore "the emotional journey, the kind of growth that happens to a young girl in her 20s."

In her 20s, Graham majored in English at Barnard College in New York, got a master's degree in acting from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, performed in summer stock, and between auditions, taught SAT prep classes in New York.

She was 28 when she landed her first TV role, a guest spot on Caroline in the City, which led to appearances on 3rd Rock From the Sun and Law & Order. In an episode of Seinfeld, she played a prospective girlfriend of Jerry's who tries to get to the top of his speed dial. Since then, whenever she sees Seinfeld, she says, "He goes, 'Hey, Speed Dial.' He actually remembers me."

As Graham's novel opens, Franny has six months left on a deal she made with herself, "when I first came to New York — that I'd see what I could accomplish in three years, but if I wasn't well on my way to having a real career as an actor by then, I absolutely, positively wouldn't keep at it after that." It's not looking promising, at least at first.

Lauren Graham chats about 'Someday, Someday, Maybe' at Sardi's in New York, which is a used as a setting in the book. (Photo: Stan Godlewski for USA TODAY)

Graham says she never had such a deadline, "but there was always a sense of urgency and an awareness of some kind of ticking clock. Even then, it didn't take a lot of experience to notice that most of the roles were for people in their 20s and early 30s. In general, I don't think acting is a career where you ever feel there's plenty of time."

In the novel, Franny is reminded of the odds against making it. "Of course I know how competitive it is to be a working actor," Franny says, "because all anyone tells you is how competitive it is and how only 5 percent of any of the union members make enough money to live on, and out of those 5 percent only 2 percent make a lot of money."

Graham recalls, "When I was starting out, you'd always hear those kind of stories. They seemed meant to discourage you. But that was then. Now, everyone is encouraged to follow their dreams without really paying your dues. It doesn't seem realistic, but that's how it is."

She attributes that to shows such as American Idol that are "so fame-based. All we had, when I was young, was Star Search," a talent show hosted by Ed McMahon from 1983 to 1995. With a laugh, she adds, "and that didn't make it seem all that appealing."

At lunch, Graham resists drawing parallels between her novel and her life. She and her fictional narrator both were raised by single fathers.

In the novel, Franny was 12 when her mother died in a car accident. Graham was 5 when her mother divorced her father and moved away, but Graham says, "We later had a relationship. It was complicated, but it's not at all like the book."

She plans to write another novel, "not exactly a sequel," but with some of the same characters. First, however, she's finishing a movie.

In A Friggin' Christmas Miracle, to be released in December, Graham plays Joel McHale's wife as they visit his father, played by Robin Williams, and his family of misfits. As Graham puts it, "Hilarity ensues."

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