Molly Shannon on Baring All for Her New Memoir and Why ‘The White Lotus’ Was ‘a Dream’

variety.com:

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterMolly Shannon has never worked with David Mamet, and yet the “Saturday Night Live” alum credits the playwright with her career breakthroughs.In her new book, “Hello, Molly,” Shannon details the so-called “Mamet scam,” in which she and a friend pretended to work for the “Glengarry Glen Ross” director to secure meetings with Hollywood casting agents.

It worked, and ultimately led to Shannon appearing on David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks.”Shannon parlayed that opportunity into a decades-long career, most recently appearing on “The Other Two,” HBO’s hit anthology series “The White Lotus” and Showtime’s upcoming comedy “I Love That for You.”For Variety’s annual Power of Women issue, Shannon spoke about breaking into show business, her time on “SNL” and knowing when to ignore the “no.” What inspired you to write a memoir?I wanted to share my story and hopefully inspire people.

It was very cathartic writing it. And I also wanted people to laugh. I had a tough time when I was a kid, and I wanted to write about how you can get through some of that stuff and have resilience.Your book begins with a car crash that killed your mother, sister and cousin when you were only 4.

What was it like to write about it?It feels vulnerable. Writing that chapter was hard and almost felt like I was holding my breath when I was writing it.