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nordstina 's review for:
I do enjoy a celebrity memoir, and clearly so does Jeff Hiller as he uses fellow memoir titles as his chapter headers for his memoir Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success, using those individuals' ages as examples on when they got their start in the industry. I must say I probably have seen Jeff in commercials or side bits in movies in the past, but I really know him through the GEM of a series Somebody Somewhere which has an all too short three-season run on HBO (seriously, if you have not seen you must, though it's hard for me to envision someone picking this book up without having seen the show).
Hiller focuses much of this memoir on on the slog he had to go through in the industry to finally get a co-starring role on a series as he approaches middle age. He highlights crap jobs he had (Olive Garden server was a doozy), weird commercials he has been featured in (though Snickers was a money maker), and the day to day grind of rejection but still putting yourself out there. His writing about the sweet relationship his fellow cast member of Somebody Somewhere and him had was very sweet to read about and absolutely tracks with the show. A lot of his character on the show overlaps with Jeff's personal life. It was great to read about Hiller finding the right vehicle for him on TV, and how he got to that point. His childhood (growing up gay in Texas) was tough to read, but I really appreciated how much his mother in particular supported him. This was not a particularly revelatory memoir, but fans of Jeff's TV work will appreciate learning more about his background.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.
Hiller focuses much of this memoir on on the slog he had to go through in the industry to finally get a co-starring role on a series as he approaches middle age. He highlights crap jobs he had (Olive Garden server was a doozy), weird commercials he has been featured in (though Snickers was a money maker), and the day to day grind of rejection but still putting yourself out there. His writing about the sweet relationship his fellow cast member of Somebody Somewhere and him had was very sweet to read about and absolutely tracks with the show. A lot of his character on the show overlaps with Jeff's personal life. It was great to read about Hiller finding the right vehicle for him on TV, and how he got to that point. His childhood (growing up gay in Texas) was tough to read, but I really appreciated how much his mother in particular supported him. This was not a particularly revelatory memoir, but fans of Jeff's TV work will appreciate learning more about his background.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.