In Conversation With Emmy Raver-Lampman
Emmy Raver-Lampan, star of the hit Netflix series, The Umbrella Academy, talks about doing what nourishes her soul, letting the universe guide her to where she is supposed to be and what fans can expect from her character, Allison Hargreeves, in the newest season of the show.
A very special thank you to the team. Photography by Sami Drasin; styling by KJ Moody; hair by Kim Kimble; makeup by Joanna Simkin.
Interview by Alison Engstrom
Hi Emmy, it’s so great to meet you! How have you been holding up in this unpreceDented time period?
It definitely comes in waves and I think there isn't an emotion that I haven’t felt at some point. It’s been a true roller coaster. We have a countdown in our kitchen and we are on day 134 in our house. There have been emotional moments, joyful moments, exhausting moments, exciting moments and creative moments. I am trying to just stay on top of my mental health, self-care and to wear a mask. My parents don’t live far from here and I see them a lot. It’s about taking care of myself and being healthy so I can see and take care of my family. I am also enjoying this time with my partner. We never get to spend this much time together; our relationship functions at a very high level of long-distance. So the fact that we have been alone together in this house of 134 days is completely unheard of (laughs). It’s unheard of for so many people. There is part of this that is unnatural but then again, we don’t know if we will ever get this time again. So I think we are trying to live in the moment as much as we can but then give each other space, when we need it.
You have had an incredible career so far on Broadway from starting in the original cast of Hamilton and also starred in Wicked and Hair. so i haVe to ask, was having a career in theater always the dream?
It honestly wasn’t (laughs). I grew up in a very musical house; my dad and I would always sing together in church, he was in a band. I was always the entertainer whenever my parents had dinner parties—I was maybe four or five. I was so quick to hop on top of the coffee table and put on a show for my parent’s dinner guests (laughs). I was just an active kid—I did soccer, track and tennis; I was a Girl Scout, took ballet and did community theater. I was over-active but then I think the older I got the other activities started to fall away and it was just soccer and theater for a long time.
There is a performing arts high school where I grew up called the Governor’s School for the Performing Arts in Norfolk, Virginia. You have to audition for it in middle school and if you get it, you split your day between going to your normal high school and to another facility for Governor’s School in the afternoon. I auditioned when I was in 8th grade and I got in. We were doing full stage productions, they are really cultivating young artists. I was in the musical theater department. I enjoyed theater and that was the way my parents raised me, to follow my gut, follow my heart and to do the thing that fills my soul and makes me happy. And if it stops making me feel that way then find something else to do. I grew up in a household where it was encouraged to do what makes you happy.
When I was looking at schools all I really wanted was a school in New York. It was kind of New York or bust, it was about location—I wanted to live in New York City and be able to call myself a New Yorker and know the subway map by heart. I ended up going to Marymount Manhattan College—they have a musical theater program and it was only a minor, which was really enticing to me because I had a conservatory experience in high school. I wanted a liberal arts degree and to be able to have New York as my playground. I auditioned outside of school and I ended up taking a year and a half off to go on tour with Hair, which went to Broadway. I never grew up dreaming about accepting a Tony Award or being on a TV show or in movies. It has always been about what creativity inspires me and being around people who I love and building a community around me of amazing humans. I have always approached my life from that direction and wherever that takes me, is where it takes me. I am kind of here for everything.
I love that mindset! I feel like so often when you set out to do something, you are focused so much on the end result that you forget how it makes you feel along the way.
Exactly, you loose sight of the journey and the journey is what your actual life is. I get asked the question, what’s my five or ten year plan and I have never had one. I don’t put parameters on my life like that. I have always let the universe guide me in the direction that I am supposed to be going. Sometimes it is really hard; I find that the older I get, if I put expectations on something or when I am expecting a result, it takes way longer for it to happen or it doesn’t happen at all. As opposed to just taking a step back and accepting whatever will be, will be and whatever is meant to be mine will be mine and what’s not is making the room for the thing that is supposed to be mine.
I really love that, that’s a motto to adopt in life for sure. You are a woman of many talents, where and when do you feel most in the flow—singing, dancing or acting?
I definitely feel the most at home when I am on stage, but I think it’s because I have been doing it way longer than I have been in front of a camera. I honestly think is what propelled me to move to LA and to make the leap from theater to TV and film. I still don't understand TV and film, I am still wrapping my brain around it; my education in that field is at such an early phase. I understand theater at my core; I understand how musicals work and I know how to learn music and how the audience participates in what you are doing because I have been doing it longer. I love the fact that being in front of the camera intimidates the hell out of me. I am nervous every day on set but I kind of strive for that feeling because I think it is growth. I chase the things that make me feel like that. As intimidating as TV and film is and can be, I do enjoy the learning process that I am in the middle of because with every project, I am still learning. You are always learning; I think the second you think you are done learning it’s over.
I completely agree with that, it’s like throwing in the towel. Now to talk about season two of ‘The Umbrella Academy’—congratulations, the show is such a hit! What have fans of the show told you why they love it so much about it?
I think it’s maybe the same reason that I fell in love with the show, when I first read the pilot and was auditioning for it. There is a wealth of content in this superhero/sci-fi world and I think what makes this show so unique is that it’s really about these six humans and the fact that they are superheroes is very secondary. We are exploring the human side of these powerful people and you get to understand them and how their issues are very universal. We are dealing with depression, drug abuse and loneliness; they are taking on problems and struggles that a lot of people go through and are going through. I think that people have been able to connect and attach to the show in that way. You are getting to see the flawed side of being a superhero; it’s not always about the super suits, powers and glam; at the end of the day, it’s really about how damaging that can be of having such an outward, seemingly fantastic childhood but what it’s like to have a father who didn’t even bother to name you but gave you numbers and encouraged manipulation, cheating and the abuse of the powers, rather than a greater understanding and use of them. For me that’s what I connected to the most. I have met a lot of fans of the show at conventions and Comic-Con and they tell me and my fellow castmates that it’s made it easier to get through a tough time. It’s really inspiring and I am so grateful that people have been able to connect to it.
Without giving any spoilers, what can viewers expect this season from your character, Allison Hargreeves?
Allison has always lived in this place of luxury. She was one of the favorites of the father; she was the poster child. She has this career, fame, money, a husband and a daughter but I think you learn quickly that all of those things do not make for a happy person—all of those things don’t make for a full soul. In the first season, she recently got divorced and she lost her child in a custody battle. This life that is so seemingly full of riches on the outside is actually really lonely and full of a lot of regret and guilt. I think the second season, because of immediate circumstances she has to struggle and go through, she is forced into a new version of herself. I think she initially had a lot of fear there but then she opens her heart to reinventing herself, starting from scratch and scaling everything back; she isn’t taking the easy way out. This season we are seeing Allison looking in the mirror and liking who she sees back for the first time in her life. Even at 30s she still is learning about herself and learning how to love herself.
I am in my late 30s and I feel like that is still an ongoing process. You need to reconfirm it on a daily basis.
Oh my gosh, yes, because the world is constantly changing around you and making you feel like you don’t fit in and you are too much of this and not enough of that; you are constantly having to evaluate yourself and having to reaffirm your own strength, self-love and self-care. I think that work is always ongoing because you are also changing, your interests are always changing including your body, how you think and your mental health.
Since the show is centered around superheroes, I’d love to know if you had one superpower what would it be? Mine would be to snap my fingers and disappear to wherever I wanted to go in the world.
I actually really like Allison’s power; the power of influence is scary as hell, it is such a powerful power. It can definitely be abused, used incorrectly and taken advantage of but I also think that if properly used and respected, a lot of good could come from a power like that. My second option is always time travel. There are some brilliant moments in history that I would have loved to be a part of—I would have loved to be at the March on Washington. There are so many monumental moments in American history and the world, like watch the dinosaurs walk around, are you kidding? (laughs)
Besides being in front of the camera or on on stage, do you have any desire to write, direct or produce—can we hope for a musical one day?
I think that is the thing that I am trying to grapple with and wrap my brain around because there has been a shift in what I want to put my time into and the stories that I want to tell, in addition to the projects I want to be a part of and the people who I want to work with. I think representation has always been important but I want to be part of projects where it is also important to those projects. I want to be involved with projects that are about the black experience and are written for and by people of color; with black producers, showrunners and writers—I don’t mean just one—I mean a wealth of people of color telling stories about the black experience and stories of inclusivity and diversity.
Right now I am coming at it from a producing angle. I definitely have, being a biracial woman, the biracial experience, which is also part of the black experience, but is different than it too. It also doesn't have a lot of representation, which is why I think being able to voice Molly in Central Park is so incredible because she is a teenager and now she is going to be voiced by a biracial woman. I have a lot to contribute on that topic—like what it would be like to be a biracial teenager—I understand that in every fiber of my being.
I have stories I want to write but I am not quite there yet. My friends have a lot of unbelievable projects they want to get made and I think, maybe I can help you with that? I think the privilege that I have to be part of a Netflix show, Hamilton and an Appple show there are a lot of people who I know who are hungry for content. My partner and I are talking about a lot about helping our friends move forward with their projects.