Charlotte Lawrence on Nepotism, Songwriting and Turning a Passion into a Job

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Charlotte Lawrence has caught the acting bug lately. Born into a showbiz family – her mother is actress Christa Miller and her dad is Bill Lawrence, creator of Scrubs and co-creator of Ted Lasso and many more – she initially channelled her creativity into modelling and music, and 2023 has seen her release three new singles, with an album on the way for 2024.

Also this year, however, she entered the family business, and scooped a role in the upcoming Apple TV+ show Bad Monkey, where she’ll star alongside Vince Vaughn, Jodie Turner-Smith and others. Deputy Editor Gina Tonic recently caught up with Charlotte to talk about turning her hand to the dramatic, and channeling the same emotions she uses for songwriting into her performances.

It’s been a really busy year for you between the new music and your acting debut, how are you finding it all?

I’m having fun and feeling so lucky! I’m a part of the small percentage of the population that gets to turn their passion into their job. It’s a lot of hard work - any job in the entertainment industry is - but I’m honestly smiling through every second of it.

That’s such a nice point of view on it! So, I heard you auditioned for Bad Monkey without telling anybody you were going to go for it. What spurred you to take the leap into acting?

It’s kind of funny - I was receiving all these texts from my friends who are actresses who are my age and have a similar look to me, and they're like, ‘Oh my gosh, I just auditioned for your dad's show, Bad Monkey. I didn't even know that it was your dad's and I just thought it was cool!’

So I called my dad’s assistant, who is also my best friend and roommate, and asked her about the show and who’s auditioned and all the tea basically. Then she paused and said, ‘Wait, you need to try out for it.’ She sent over the script, I read through and immediately connected to the character and knew I had to go for it.

My agent booked me in with an amazing acting coach Anthony Meindl, and we rehearsed it a million times, then we sent it in to the casting director. Then two weeks later, I got the call off my dad like ‘What the fuck!’ 

Apparently the casting director sent over the top ten picks for Caitlin and I had made it into that selection. My dad thought we were playing a prank on him, but once he realised I was serious, he's like, ‘If you want to do this, you got to work the hardest you've ever worked. And this has to be your priority for the next year, your main priority.’ I promised that I would and the rest just fell into place.

Is it intimidating working with your father, or were you glad to have your debut in one of his productions?

The thing is that there are a hundred million chances I would not have gotten this job if it wasn't my dad's show. I obviously know that I'm at a huge advantage. My dad is the writer and showrunner, and I understand how nepotism works - I am so fucking lucky and blessed to have this opportunity. And having special access to that opportunity doesn't mean that I'm not going to try my hardest and do something that makes me feel excited and passionate.

Working on set with my dad was a great experience - I’m the biggest fan of his work! - and he didn’t take it easy on me by any means. It was definitely an incredible challenge taking on this role but I still had the best time ever.

Did you find the creative process for acting different to the creative process for making music?

I always had this mindset towards acting that was like, you know, with music, I get to write my own feelings and thoughts and go through my own shit and put it onto paper and I get to sing my own words, and with acting you have to act somebody else's emotions out, and it's not as emotional and blah, blah, blah. But the second I started taking acting classes, I immediately realised that I couldn't be more wrong. 

Acting is all about taking your emotions and your real emotions and what you go through and putting them to use - it's not acting if you're just reading the lines out loud, you have to really search for what it means to you and how it makes you feel and how you would react in that situation. 

Acting requires a lot of emotions and asks for a lot in the sense of self expression, I definitely felt that emotional connection between songwriting and acting. Either way I am making art that I want to feel proud of and to do that I have to dive into the deepest parts of myself, understand what those feelings mean to me and revisit shit that hurt me in the past.  

All art needs emotion and I just love anything that evokes feeling. Music is my first love and my forever love. I feel like I was born to write songs, it makes me feel happier than anything in the world. But I do love acting as well - I want to audition for a million more things and keep going with it and keep trying it. It made me feel really happy and fulfilled.

Words: Gina Tonic