10 minute read
Linda Balaban
- Publisher/Editor Lon Levin
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When did you first think about what you wanted to do as an adult? Were you encouraged or discouraged by family, friends, teachers, mentors?
The funny thing is, I never thought about what I wanted to do as an adult. I have always done what seems to fall into my lap. I think I’d be further along in some ways with clearer vision, but everything I involve myself in feels authentic to me in part because I take my time to get there. My family has been a part of the entertainment industry since the early part of the 20th century, so my sisters and I grew up taking lessons in music, dance and drama. We all work in the entertainment industry. I’m lucky to have spent my formative summers at the most magical place on earth, Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. The arts are seen, accepted and celebrated at Interlochen. I’ve had quite a few mentors throughout my life who each exposed me to high levels of integrity and talent. I spent quite a few years in Boston where people like Dr. Kenneth Cranell, Professor Emeritus and a renowned voice and articulation teacher, taught me more about acting than most of my acting teachers. Lee Wilson and Marilyn Cook, my teachers and mentors at boarding school are some the best classical musicians I have ever learned from, performed with and are my greatest friends to this day. Steven Ivcich was a great Chicago mentor of mine for the stage and I had never been able to grasp a method until I met Steven. He would likely object to the idea that he was teaching a method, but I have the notes to prove it!
What kind of kid were you? Where did you grow up? What were your influences?
Most of my adolescence I felt awkward and out of place. But I think most people say the same thing. I grew up in Highland Park, IL, a beautiful north suburb of Chicago. I love Chicago and love being from the Midwest. Chicago has the best of everything. Great people, arts, culture, food, events and schools and great public transportation. For me, growing up in Highland Park was tricky. In middle school, in the 80’s, being a musician was not very highly regarded in the popular crowd. Sadly, I knelt to the peer pressure that I felt and dropped my classical music studies in order to fit in, (or at least to stop getting sneered at when I walked down the hall with my flute case). By the time I was a Freshman, I started taking acting classes like my older sister, who was a fabulous actor.
Highland Park High School was lucky to have Barbara June Patterson as one of our acting teachers. She raised the bar for all of her students. When it came time for me to register for the class, I didn’t get her as my teacher, and I was so upset because I knew I was missing an opportunity to learn from the best. So, I decided to skip some of my other classes and hide behind the curtain in the black box theater where she taught, taking notes upon notes (I still have them all). I remember hearing a story once about Gary Sinise (who also attended Highland Park High). Gary was asked who he would have thanked if he had won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Lieutenant Dan Taylor in Forest Gump (for which he was nominated). Gary said Barbara June Patterson was one of the people he would have thanked.
Tell us how your background played a part in your choosing to be a film producer?
When I moved to Los Angeles as an actor, I didn’t want to wait tables. And I wasn’t the dog walking type or nanny. Thankfully, I was offered a 12-day job as a Production Assistant on what was literally my first day here. Quite the experience to learn the ropes in Baker, CA, the gateway to Death Valley during a 120 degree heatwave. I must have done an ok job, because they asked me onto the next job, and the next one. It wasn’t long before I realized they wouldn’t hire me if I had an acting class or an audition to run off to. After almost two years as a PA, I was working on a commercial with my friend Jeff, who was a great production manager. One day, he had to go home to wait for a Mac desktop delivery and told me I need to wrap out the job. I was totally panicked! I had no idea how to close the books and I was confused by all the deliverables and where they needed to go! But I must have figured it out, so on the next job, he hired me as the Production Coordinator. After coordinating about 7 commercials, I landed an interview with an HBO TV series and at the time, the producers had a background in one-hour comedy specials (the paperwork trail was similar to commercials vs. episodic so they hired me). I always like to say I became an accidental producer. That series turned out to be Season 2 of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry David brought in new producers for Season 3, but kept the crew. I worked for 8 seasons on the show, eventually becoming a producer on it, which spanned over a period of 17 years (long hiatuses)!
I’m sure you’ve been asked about Larry David and Curb Your Enthusiasm a gillion times so I’ll try something I hope is different. What character do you relate to best and why?
Haha! It’s funny that you ask that question. Because every time someone asks me what I’ve worked on and I tell them CYE, they cannot wait to tell me how all the things that happen in their lives are exactly like an episode of the show. I think that’s one of the things that makes Larry so good. We all have a less than desirable side to us and Larry’s material speaks to everyone’s worst aspects and inclinations. As for what character I relate to - I think we all can relate to Larry, that’s why he makes us cringe. Need I say more?
What’s your process when you approach a project?
Every new project makes you feel like you have no idea what you’re doing. So I guess my process is to not assume I know how it goes, to be detail oriented and to do the work and be prepared with all the info I will need. Having my fiancé Aaron as a business and creative partner has been a great joy. We each bring our own set of skills and work very well as a team
Tell us about Arbonne and why you choose that path?
Arbonne is a certified B Corp brand that manufactures holistic nutrition, personal care and beauty products. I became a business owner with the company while producing for HBO. Having a side
(continued) business is one of the smartest things I’ve ever done and social marketing is very much trending now. Diversifying financially has allowed me to have more choices. I wasn’t able to do all the things I wanted to do while working in traditional employment because my time was limited and there was a very clear financial and success level ceiling. My side-hustle business is the only thing I’ve ever done that’s paid me every single month for 12 years straight. I work for myself now, rather than other people, I have a production company with Aaron (Dissection Media), and we work on developing and producing our own projects. The ability to spend time with my family when I needed to be there most has been critical for me. I believe everyone should seize the opportunity to build an asset and a safety net for themselves. This one spoke to me because it’s a very smart model.
Explain your experience on your social media and why you’re into it?
You know how most people have to schedule down time from social media? I have to make myself go on social media. I’m a social media curmudgeon. I never have the impulse to take a photo of what I’m doing and let the world know about it. I think my generation is an interesting one. Computers and ATMs emerged while in our college years, and I never feel like I’ll be able to keep up with the demands of digital life. As tough as 2020 was, I discovered that many people felt relieved to have a built-in excuse to slow down. That said, I do use social media for my business (we raised the funds for our film on Facebook) and I also find private FB groups very helpful for my social marketing business. I’ve got a goal to really learn how to use Instagram (or maybe just to remember to even visit Instagram) but every time I start to look into marketing online, I just feel like I’d rather talk to people one on one. I’m sure by the time I do figure out how to use my social media accounts more effectively, the world will be on another platform. Can you feel the Larry David in me coming out? 72 Hour Hold is a blog my fiancé Aaron started, in the wee hours of the morning, one day after I picked him up from a 72 hour hold in a psychiatric hospital. He was having suicidal ideation due to medication he was on, posted about it on drum roll . . . Facebook . . . because he felt that to publicly announce his feelings would force himself to be accountable and keep him safe. That quickly led him to a need for the blog and he asked me to co-write it with him. In hindsight, writing helped saved his life during those 3 and ½ years in trauma recovery. Disclosing abuse is not something everyone has the luxury of doing. It’s often not safe for people to do so, but for Aaron he had me, and loving family members. So, coming out with the truth and telling his story was what saved him. (72hourhold.com).
Why did you and Aaron decide to discuss this openly in podcasts?
The feedback and support we got from the very first blog entries was overwhelming. It felt difficult and raw to be so public but as we wrote and published articles, so many people approached us to thank us for telling our story because they also had a story. I’m pretty convinced the whole world experienced a kind of spiritual and cultural trauma this last year for multiple reasons that I will not get political about but safe to say, our society is divided and all we thought we knew has collapsed. We find that shining a light on what is happening in our lives is honesty, and far better than the build-up of stressful thoughts that lead to blow ups. We call it the pressure cooker. Gotta let the steam out.
What do or did you do to promote yourself? What exciting projects are you working on now?
I’m a belly to belly kind of gal. I love talking to people, networking and finding out what’s going on with them. These days, I pretty much live on Zoom. I figure we can all help each other in various ways when we exchange information about all the amazing things we are doing. We’ve just completed our first film "Garage", which is a short suspense film about a middle-aged man who’s trying to get his PTSD episodes to stop. We’re in development for the feature version, and while we circulate the short throughout the festival market, we’ll be working with trauma specialists and therapists to help promote recovery for those still suffering the effects. We’ve got a few other exciting projects and we’re feeling quite blessed to be together and to have launched our filmmaking careers with this precious little gem called Garage (garagemovie.com).
