In this episode of About Your Mother, meet Amy Ferris. Amy is witty, brutally honest, talented, and regal, like Meryl Streep, and she looks like her too.

Ruth Pennebaker of the New York Times described Amy’s memoir, Marrying George Clooney: Confessions from a Midlife Crisis”, as “poignant, free-wheeling, cranky, and funny. It is all those things, as well as a deep exploration of a complicated relationship with her mother.

Amy Ferris is an author, screenwriter, editor, and playwright. Enjoy my conversation with Amy as she shares her story and talks about Buddhism, living and getting kicked out of a commune, midlife, truth-telling family divisions, and more.

The conversation starts off with Amy describing her mother and their relationship growing up. For Amy, she has always thought that her mother was the most powerful woman in the world. Though as time passed, she realized it was something else entirely.

“I actually thought my mother was the most powerful woman in the world. And then I realized that no, she was angry. That was really profound realization for me. I mistook all of her anger for power.” – Amy Ferris

I get to love differently; I get to behave differently. So I took all of the bad stuff that I had grown up with and decided I would never do that to another person. - Amy Ferris
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Amy shares more of her experiences with her mother, though there was one comment her mother said before she passed that changed everything. From there on, Amy decided to stop blaming her mother for the bad things in her life.

“It was time for me to stop blaming my mother, for the shit my life that was going wrong, it was really important for me to say, Okay, you know what, now I’m responsible for my choices and what I’m doing and who I am.“ – Amy Ferris

Amy then talks about the other aspects of her book, Marrying George Clooney: Confessions from a Midlife Crisis. One of the interesting stories that piqued my interest was when Amy was living in a commune.

“You know how everyone always says what would you write your younger self? And a lot of people would say I would write, ‘Don’t make out with Eric in the back of the car that day in high school, get your diploma go to Harvard’. But you know, I would tell my younger self, ‘do exactly everything that you did, because that’s what got you here’. If I hadn’t done anything differently, I would not be where I am in any way shape or form. I wouldn’t be the woman I am.” – Amy Ferris

To hear more from Amy Ferris and how to get yourself out of a midlife crisis, download and listen to this episode.

Amy Ferris is an author, screenwriter, editor and playwright. Her memoir, Marrying George Clooney: Confessions From A Midlife Crisis debuted theatrically (Off-Broadway) in 2012. Ruth Pennebaker of The New York Times called her memoir “poignant, free-wheeling, cranky and funny.” Amy co-edited, along with Hollye Dexter, the new anthology Dancing at the Shame Prom.

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