Happy Accidents

by JaneLynch (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2012

  $22.40

• Used

  Paperback
  2011

  $3.28

  Best-known as Glee's sharp-tongued Sue Sylvester, Jane Lynch's on-screen persona is someone that many love to hate. But when she's not prowling the corridors in Sue's shiny tracksuit, who is the real Jane Lynch and how did this Golden Globe and Emmy winner learn to channel such delicious nastiness?

  This is no typical Hollywood memoir of torment, grief, regret and plastic surgery. It's a simple but candid story of how a girl from Chicago came to Hollywood, overcame her demons, and finally hit the big time. Taking a good, hard look at herself, Lynch reveals that she and Sue Sylvester actually aren't all that different. At times in her life she `was a real pain in the ass'.
  `I was an anxiety-stricken kid with a big, scary secret.' How difficult it is to imagine this funny, bright, intelligent woman hitting rock bottom, but she is frank about her self-loathing during those years and paints a vivid picture of drunken nights, angry tirades and a person with no friends. In short, she was a real-life Sue Sylvester.

  Yet this very same woman has starred in string of great, fun movies, including Talladega Nights, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Role Models and Julie and Julia, with actors such as Steve Carrell, Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep. With her impeccable comic timing and quick wit, she has transformed what was originally a guest part on Glee into one of the programme's most central and defining characters, and has won several awards for doing so. Lynch relates the story of her comedy career in a voice that is modest, hilarious and endlessly entertaining, even though her own life hasn't always been such a laugh.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2011

  $3.28

  This is the hilarious and inspiring story of how Jane Lynch changed from a real-life Sue Sylvester to the happy and fulfilled actress she is today.

  In 1974, a fourteen-year-old girl in Dolton, Illinois, had a dream. A dream to become an actress, like her idols Ron Howard and Vicki Lawrence. But it was a long way from the South Side of Chicago to Hollywood, and it didn't help that she'd recently dropped out of the school play, The Ugly Duckling.

  But the funny thing is, it all came true. Through a series of happy accidents, Jane Lynch created an improbable - and hilarious - path to success. In those early years, despite her dreams, she was also consumed with anxiety, feeling out of place in both her body and her family. To deal with her worries about her sexuality, she escaped in positive ways - such as joining a high school chorus not unlike the one in Glee - but also found destructive outlets. She started drinking almost every night her freshman year of high school and developed a mean and judgmental streak that turned her into someone similar to her on-screen nemesis, Sue Sylvester.

  Then, at thirty-one, she started to get her life together. She was finally able to embrace her sexuality, come out to her parents, and quit drinking for good. Soon after, a Frosted Flakes commercial and a chance meeting in a coffee shop led to a role in the Christopher Guest movie Best in Show, which helped her get cast in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Similar coincidences led to roles in movies starring Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, and even Meryl Streep in 2009's Julie & Julia. Then, of course, came the two lucky accidents that truly changed her life. Getting lost in a hotel led to an introduction to her future wife, Lara. Then, a series she'd signed up for was abruptly cancelled, making it possible for her to take the role of Sue Sylvester in Glee, which made her a megastar.

  Today, Jane Lynch has finally found the contentment she thought she'd never have. Part comic memoir and a story of real-life luck, this is a book equally for the rabid Glee fan and for anyone who needs a new perspective on life, love, and success.