Amanda Peet is pulling back the dirty curtain of life under the spotlight.
The 54-year-old actress called Hollywood nothing but “smoke and mirrors.”
Asked about the “biggest misconception” that stars live “perfect lives” in Hollywood, Peete told Fox News Digital: “That’s ridiculous.” “It’s smoke and mirrors. There’s nothing there. Name a saying and it applies to us. It’s the height of despair. ‘What are they doing over there? Why don’t I have it? Why don’t I look like that?’ That’s where it’s bad.”
she continued. “It’s hard to do that in Hollywood. It just sounds corny. There’s so much competition and it’s hard to break out of that very competitive mentality where the island cheese is too small and there are too many people trying to get it.”
The “Something’s Gotta Give” actress added that it’s also not easy getting older in an industry that’s so obsessed with young people.
“Now that I’m older, I feel more at peace with that, but it’s really, really hard to find that. It’s hard not to want to chase your own buzz if you’re lucky. Instead, ask yourself, ‘When my alarm goes off in the morning, what do I really want to do? What do I want to do? Is this really what I want to do? Is this really helpful, will it be helpful to someone?’
Pete stars in Season 2 of Apple TV’s “Your Friends & Neighbors,” which premieres on Friday, April 3rd, with one new episode added every week until June 5th.
She said fans can expect “so much more” in season two.
“There’s also the issue of Coop having a secret life,” Pete said of Jon Hamm’s character, who plays her ex-husband on the show.
“And I think this season, too many people are starting to realize that something is going on with Co-op,” she continued. “And it becomes more and more dangerous for him to keep doing what he’s doing. It’s incredibly exciting. And[her characters]Mel and Coop are still in this relationship, right? They’re so annoyed with each other, but they still seem to want to have sex with each other. So, yeah, it’s a really big mess.”
Pete also appreciated the storyline in which her character dealt with menopause, which she said was cathartic for her.
“It was very cathartic to be able to put my own frustration and anger about menopause into the right context, to play it out as a character rather than in my own life,” Pete said.
The actress has also been open about her breast cancer diagnosis, which she announced earlier this month.
She told Fox News Digital that when she first heard the news, her thoughts were filled with “horror.”
“My children and terrorism,” she admitted.
Pete said he made the decision not to tell his dying mother. “She hadn’t been feeling well for a long time, so it was understandable that I didn’t want to scare her, if she could understand.”
“So it wasn’t a hard decision. I’ve been close to her all my life, so it was kind of a hard decision in a more global sense.”
Pete revealed her breast cancer diagnosis in an essay in The New Yorker last Saturday, saying it was stage I and did not require chemotherapy, but she would undergo a lumpectomy and radiation therapy.
