I’ve always been extra, but people haven’t always been kind about my extra-ness. A former male friend once said to me, “You know, people would consider you beautiful if you didn’t talk so much.” And an ex-boyfriend told me, “You laugh too loudly in restaurants, and you always need people to look at you.” I sort of understood what they were saying. I’m a lot. But ever since I was a kid, I’ve thought, Some people will like it, and some people will hate it. Either way, awesome.
Yet, growing up and working in Hollywood, I started to question whether I should try to be something else. Especially at 19, when I was told by producers, studios, and directors that I wasn’t OK the way I was. Like the time I landed a TV role and the makeup artist was instructed to cover up the moles on my face, neck, and body. I was like, Wait a minute, my moles are my skin. How is my skin not good enough for you?
Being told these things hurt, but I said to myself, You’re really talented and you’re really funny. So when social media hit, I loved it, because I felt like I finally had the ability to present my personality to people.
It never even occurred to me to manufacture myself. I was just me.
Once my Instagram Stories started getting really popular, The New Yorker called and wanted to do a piece on me. I was skeptical at first, like, “Are you trolling me?” But the writer said, “Every social platform has an early adopter, and you’re it for Instagram Stories.” I was like, How cool! The attention also came at a time when I was trying to figure out what to do careerwise. A pilot I’d done for NBC didn’t get picked up, and I was devastated—so much so that when Tina Fey’s company reached out about a project, I was like, “Guys. I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I don’t know if I can put myself through this again,” and passed.
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A New Take on Talk“What audiences are responding to on late-night is a personal take on the news,” says Busy Tonight host Busy Philipps. “I can bring that.”Preen By Thornton Bregazzi blouse, skirt. Wolford bodysuit, $150
Then, a week after that New Yorker story came out, I was in the desert for my manager’s fiftieth birthday. I was kind of stoned, and I turned to my husband, Marc, and said, “I know what I have to do. I have to have a late-night talk show.” So I called back Tina Fey’s producing partner, Eric Gurian, and in a crazy twist of events, they came back two weeks later, saying, “E! is looking for a late-night talk show.” When we made that deal, I thought: I willed it to be so.
What audiences are responding to on late-night is a personal take on the news. Working on Busy Tonight is exciting and scary, but I think it’s OK to be scared every once in a while. People want more authenticity; I can bring that. And I still love Instagram. I use it to develop ideas for the show, ask questions, and see what people are responding to.Getting here has been a journey. Sometimes I get asked, “How do you and Michelle Williams maintain such a close friendship when you’re both actors?” It’s because I’m not Michelle. She and I have two wholly different paths. Everybody’s career, and everybody’s success, is different. I stayed self-assured in who I was, and now this is my path. And yeah, it’s pretty fucking cool.
Read on for more outtakes from Glamour assistant editor Samantha Leach’s interview with Philipps:
GLAMOUR: You have such a rabid fan base on Instagram. Has there even a DM, or even a comment you’ve received, that’s made you think, wow, I’ve really touched someone’s life?
BUSY PHILIPPS: Once, a couple years ago, I was complaining about one of my daughters, and this woman responded very angrily at me like, ‘Go fuck yourself, like, at least you can have a child.’ I was like OK, do I respond? But before I could, someone else who follows me responded to her and said, ‘It sounds like you’re having a really hard time in your life. I am sending you love, and I hope everything works out for you.’ And then the [original] woman responded saying, ‘I just found out yesterday my 7th round of IVF failed. This is just a dark moment and I felt like lashing out.’ And the [other] woman responded saying, ‘I totally get it. That must be so hard. Just know that there are people who want to support you online. Sending you a virtual hug.’ It was such a sweet exchange. Sometimes trolls are just trolls. But in that specific instance, it was just so clear this woman was in pain.
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Naked Ambition Philipps’ tattoo reads, “Aced out in her nudes,” a nod to a childhood act of defiance she details in her memoir, This Will Only Hurt a Little, out this month. “I was a unique little kid,” she says.
GLAMOUR: You’re known for being so “unfiltered.” How will that translate into late night?
BP: What I’m hoping to build is [a show] for what we see as an underserved audience. People who care about [the news], but also like face masks, and want to know which celebrities were roommates when they first moved to L.A. Like, people don’t know that I only know Jessica Chastain because she and Michelle [Williams] have known each other forever. They did the Williamstown Theater Festival together. Or that Seth Meyers was Ike Barinholtz’s roommate. I think that kind of stuff is interesting. I just have a lot of information like that, because I’ve been working in Hollywood for 20 years. I know a lot of people’s dirt in a fun way. Fun dirt.
GLAMOUR: Since you’ve bared so much of your life online, do you ever get worried people won’t take you seriously on TV?
BP: No! I think people like vulnerability and personal takes. I’m not worried about it. I’m the fucking best. Why wouldn’t they take me seriously?
Busy Tonight premieres on October 28 on E!
