Andrea: I hadn’t thought about that sort of angle. I certainly think beyond the idea of having to have kids as the destination, but I do think we’re sold an idea of what happiness is. Whatever that is, and that could be hitting certain status-markers with coupledom or parenthood or even owning certain things. So, if you just take it abstractly, I do think we’re a little controlled by, for lack of anything else, it’s capitalism, it’s what’s being sold to us, literally. It’s advertised to us, and I think that the more we see examples of people just taking into their own hands something that goes against a cultural norm, I think that’s a great example of how to live. Because I do feel that people feel entitled to certain things and when that doesn’t pan out, there’s a sense of disappointment.
Chelsea Peretti: Spinster is gonna end capitalism.
Your character, Gaby, starts her life’s goal in her later 30’s, and that’s not normally how society wants things to go. Everybody should have their sh** figured out by the time they’re 25—whatever. I wanted to know what you guys would say to people in their 30’s and 40’s, especially women, who want to start a career in a creative field?
Chelsea: I would say, ugh, what is that Phyllis Diller book, Like A Lampshade…It’s a Phyllis Diller book, and it was so inspiring to me because it talks about her career starting after she already had a number of kids, a failed marriage, she was already in her late 30’s and then she became a massively famous stand-up and met all her goals and dreams, so I mean, I just think that if you believe in yourself and this is so corny, but if you believe in yourself and you work hard, I guess maybe not if you want to be a supermodel, but if you want to do something else, never decide it’s too late.
“Spinster is gonna end capitalism.”
Andrea: I love that. I want to read that. That’s a book.
Chelsea: Yeah, it’s a book all about Phyllis Diller, hold on, I’ll find it.
Andrea: I love that. I would totally echo that. For somebody—think about it. At age 25, you have to have it figured out. That means you would have had to decide the path when you were 17 years old. Like who wants their 17-year-old self to decide what their 45-year-old self is gonna do? That makes no sense.
Chelsea: It’s called Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse. Yeah, she was literally a housewife with multiple kids and a marriage that wasn’t working, and she completely reinvented herself. I’m pretty sure she was working in advertising, and she was already breaking barriers there as a woman, but then she switched to stand-up.
Andrea: Oh my god, I love that.
Chelsea: Yeah, it’s very inspiring.
I should read that for sure.
Chelsea: It’s great!
