I come from Texas, and my grandmother and mother were born in Arkansas.

My mother was very funny. My dad had a great sense of humor. My grandmother, too.

I was raised going to the movies with my grandmother as a kid. And then I'd come home, and my best friend and I would act out the films that we saw.

I wish my mother had left me something about how she felt growing up. I wish my grandmother had done the same. I wanted my girls to know me.

My grandmother and I saw an average of eight movies a week, double features, second run.

My grandmother and I followed my mother here, to a house a block north of Hollywood Boulevard but a million miles away from Hollywood, if you know what I mean. We would hang out behind the ropes and look at the movie stars arriving at the premieres.