Hey, Campers!

You know how much you love your summer camp experience? Well, your favorite celebrities loved their camp experiences just as much when they were your age just as much as you love yours now. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, for instance, had a blast during her time away at summer camp.

Julia went to the Sidwell Friends Tennis Camp where she picked up on some impressive skills handling a racket and found some summer camp friends along the way. Lots of kids enjoy being able to get a laugh out of their friends. Julia loved it! Comedy had always been a passion of hers.

She performed in the Second City Theater (which should sound familiar to you if you read the Everything Summer Camp Blog post about Chris Farley as he too performed at this theater, as did other famous comedians like Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Stephen Colbert, and Shelley Long to name just a few). 

In one night’s fortunate performance in 1982, Julia was eventually asked to join the cast of the national TV show “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) on NBC. At this point she was only 21 years old which made her the youngest female member of the cast throughout the program’s history since 1975.

On SNL, Julia worked alongside up and coming contemporaries like Eddie Murphy, Jim Belushi, Billy Crystal, and Martin Short. She also worked with a writer named Larry David who wrote for SNL at the time, co-creator of the breakthrough sitcom “Seinfeld,” also on NBC. Larry cast Julia in 1989 for her own breakthrough part—Elaine Benes.

More recently, Julia played Christine Campbell in “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” as well as Selina Meyer in “Veep”. Julia has received three Emmys, along with a Golden Globe Award, and five Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Julia is passionate about comedy. What are you passionate about?

- John

Hey, Natalie Fanatics!

Pretty much everybody has fallen in love with her since we all first met her. She’s America’s sweetheart and a Hollywood legend! Today I’m revisiting Natalie Portman! I posted about this beautiful actress a handful of years ago when we were first launching the Blog. Since I posted about her some five years back, I thought we’d go back in order to get to know Natalie at least a little bit better.

In her previous post, I discussed how she attended Stage Door Manor and some other information like her most notable projects in her acting career. I also covered interesting little tidbits, like awards and nominations she’s won and other life achievements. Today, however, I want to go real deep so we can attempt to really get to understand who Natalie Portman is, not as a celebrity, but as a person:

Natalie “Not-in-the-Morning” Portman

As she confessed to Harper’s Bazaar, “If I didn’t have kids or didn’t have to go to work, I’d probably sleep till noon! But I do work and I do have kids, so I’m up and alert.” But she doesn’t like it! The leader of a well-disciplined life, Natalie has adapted to being up early, but she’s made it clear that if she had things totally her own way, she wouldn’t see much of the AM.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

We all end up at least a little bit like our parents in one way or another throughout our lives! Natalie was exactly like her mom in one very specific way from the very first day she was born. It was the day she was born—the same birthday as her mother, June 9. Isn’t that interesting?!

Psychology and Natalie

“I don’t care if [college] ruins my career; I’d rather be smart than a movie star,” Natalie was once quoted. She graduated with a Bachelors in psychology from Harvard in 2003. Of course she’s gone on to achieve a successful acting career, but she’s a legit nerd too! Her published paper, ‘Frontal Lobe Activation during Object Permanence: Data from Near-Infrared Spectroscopy’ makes my head hurt by its title alone.

Natalie has accomplished much in her life and learned so much in the process. An incredibly bright, shining star herself, a great quote of hers sums up how I always felt about my education: “I don’t love studying. I hate studying. I like learning. Learning is beautiful.” And, with that, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!

- John

Hey, Summer Camp Fans!

We love featuring celebrities who are former summer campers from back in the day. I first started posting about celebrities who had attended camp in 2013 and, since then, I’ve covered over 100 celebrities on this Blog. Having covered so much ground, it seems appropriate to backtrack and retread some of the famous folks who were already featured to take a deeper look.

So, in his post from five years ago, we learned that Adam Levine attended Camp French Woods Festival of Performing Arts in his childhood. We also learned that the original name of his band, Maroon 5, was Kara’s Flowers and that in addition to his love of music, he is interested in theater.

Well, I figured it’d be fun to go over some other points about Mr. Levine you might not have known that we didn’t quite get around to in the first post:

ADHD
Did you Maroon 5 fanatics know that the lead man has dealt with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) ever since he was a young boy? He uses medication to help ease some of the Disorder’s symptoms and has learned to cope with it in other ways throughout his life as well. To help others with ADHD, Adam speaks about and shares his coping methods.

Writing
In his previous post, I told you about Adam’s interest in theater. Did you know that he dabbles in writing as well? He’s well-familiarized with songwriting—sure, but he’s also worked as a writer’s assistant for the old CBS show ‘Judging Amy’. At that point, he had no idea where his music career was headed.

First Kiss at Camp
So we’ve been over that Adam went to Camp French Woods Festival of Performing Arts. What I didn’t tell you is that he had his first kiss when he was there from a girl named Kattie. He recalls walking with her one evening after dinner and says that she suddenly went for it and it surprised him. He said it kind of freaked him out. After all, he was only 11 years old.

Stretching and Breathing…Who Knew?
A big fan and advocate of yoga, Adam practices his routine prior to every Maroon 5 show. He’s so dedicated that he brings his instructor along for band tours to keep him focused and disciplined. Adam was introduced to the practice of yoga when he broke a collarbone weight-lifting. He fell in love and has been committed ever since.

On the subject of yoga, Adam has commented that it “Carves you into a different person—and that is satisfying physically” as well as to say that “Yoga takes what you have and molds and sculpts it, which is a much more natural way to look and feel.” Take Adam’s word and maybe give yoga a try for yourself if you haven't yet. It might even be something you could try for the first time at summer camp! And, as always, thanks for reading!

- John

Hey, Zooey Devotees!

Most people who are aware of Zooey Deschanel are quick to become fans of her. You know where we stand at Everything Summer Camp; we posted about Zooey just as soon as we got this Blog up and running. It was her that led us to realize just how many actors have attended summer camp and launched this entire Celebrities at Summer Camp series for the Blog.

Since I posted about her some five years back, I thought we’d go back in order to get to know Zooey at least a little bit better. In her previous post, I discussed how she attended French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts and some other information like her most notable projects in her acting career.

I also covered interesting little tidbits, like how she’s won nominations for awards like the Golden Globe, a Grammy Award, and an Emmy. Today, however, I want to go real deep so we can attempt to really get to understand what makes this woman tick:

Singin’ in the Fame
Most people are aware of Zooey’s side singing career—another item I mentioned in her previous post was that she’s in a duo with musician Matt Ward and together they are ‘She & Him’. But did you know that not only did she sing all her songs in the movie ‘Elf’, but also on most of her movie soundtracks? That’s her voice in movie melodies such as ‘Once Upon a Mattress’, ‘Yes Man’, ‘500 Days of Summer’, ‘Winnie the Pooh’, and more!

ADHD
Zooey suffers from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). She takes medication to reduce her symptoms which include the difficulty to keep focus, disorganization, impulsive behavior, and fidgeting. Throughout her life, the actor has coped with her problems and yet she has made her way to the top.

Seamstress
When Zooey was in high school, she was a huge theater nerd—big-time—and she always needed new clothing for costume attire in private productions with friends. An issue was that she wasn’t allowed to go to the mall until she was 17 so she didn’t have great shopping opportunity. And even when she did, she didn’t ever have much money at that age anyway. As a result, she learned to sew and crafted her own clothing.

All in the Family
Her name may not be quite as recognizable as Zooey’s, but Emily Deschanel, Zooey’s sister, started her acting career five years before Zooey. Emily has four years on her younger sister and is best known for her role as Temperance Brennan in the Fox television series, ‘Bones’.

Zooey has accomplished much in her life and learned so much in the process, but there’s one thing she’s never been able to call herself is a morning person. There are more inspirational quotes of hers out there, but I like this one from her a lot: “In an ideal world no one would talk before 10am. People would just hug, because waking up is really hard.” And, with that, thanks for reading, Camp Fans!

- John

Hey, Summer Camp Fans!

There are plenty of celebrities who happen to be former summer campers and we love featuring these famous names to learn a little about them. Celebrities who had attended camp were featured in 2013 and, since then, I’ve covered over 100 celebrities on this Blog! Having covered so much ground, now I’m going back to retread some of the big names who were already featured years ago to get a closer look.

In his previous post, I shared that Mr. James Franco not only got his claim to fame from the cult classic TV show ‘Freaks and Geeks’ from 1999 but also attended a four-week program at Innerspark: California State Summer School for the Arts where he focused on a variety of artistic media from Dance to Film to Theater and Creative Writing and more!

But let’s dig deeper to see what makes this Hollywood heart throb tick…

James of all Trades
James got a lot out of his four-week stay at Innerspark! Not only did he come out a famous actor, but the guy is also a painter, an author, a professor, as well as a musician. Talented is an understatement to describe Mr. Franco.

Cashier Acting
Against his parents’ advice, James quit school at UCLA to pursue an acting career. He got a job at McDonald’s to support himself till he started landing roles and used his time talking to the customers to practice his different accents. He eventually returned to UCLA and graduated in 2008.

General Family
James ended up working alongside his mother, Betsy Lou Franco, on the soap opera ‘General Hospital’ playing the role as his mother’s character’s son on the show. James admits the experience was pretty weird to work with his mother, but he eventually got over it.

James Freak-o
When he first met James for casting on ‘Freaks and Geeks’, showrunner Judd Apatow thought James was kind of a homely guy. After James was hired, Judd was surprised to continue hearing from the women around the office how cute and dreamy they all thought he was.

“Always have one artistic thing that is pure,” James has written in his novel ‘Actors Anonymous’. “At least one thing, where you don’t compromise. You can do other things to make money, but have one pure area.” Do yourself the favor of living up to these simple and powerful words. And, as always, thanks for reading.

- John