BW: Literally. What is time? It’s so wild how everything was so warped in 2020. I imagine you’re typically very busy as an actress… and with all that extra free time, it must have felt strange.
JJ: I learned a lot about myself during quarantine last year. Time… I’m not as good at it as I thought I was. I needed to have some routine, just to feel partly that I had some control over the situation. I didn’t want to feel like I was on vacation — I couldn’t... because there was so much fear attached to it. I kept busy, and did all the things that I didn’t have time to do before at home.
BW: Like what?
JJ: Organizing my bathroom, going through all my beauty products, giving away things I don’t use anymore, finding old makeup that has probably expired years ago… this a project that I would spend a whole afternoon or morning on. I went through my closets, organized it all. I shed a lot of weight in my house. To clean and get rid of things I didn’t need or that I was holding onto for no reason... It was a very therapeutic process. I also found things I forgot I had, sentimental things.
BW: That must have felt so good.
JJ: Yeah, I didn’t want to just spend my time sitting on my phone. Scrolling through IG and the news gave me more anxiety.
BW: What kind of screen time were you clocking in?
JJ: Ugh, I don’t even want to tell you.
BW: Haha, it’s all good.
JJ: Well, okay, when I’m working it’s fine. This past week I was down to 2 hours a day, working on the film. But at the beginning of the pandemic I was up to, like, 8 ½ hours — and I was like, Jesus, that’s my whole day.
BW: We were all in the same position.
JJ: I wanted to get away from that, so I found I had to force myself to either sit outside by the pool or sit on the couch with a book. I read a ton. I read a lot anyway — I need to read to fall asleep. I went through all my books and got rid of the ones I didn’t want to re-read… our neighborhood started a little sharing library at the corner. But this past year, I got through all of the Agatha Christies and re-read the books I loved in my 20s, just finding a different perspective on them now. I read a lot of memoirs about all kinds of people… I read, oh gosh, the UFO Files.
BW: I love that you read so much.
JJ: I know a lot of people were more productive than I was, taking up online education. I didn’t learn any new instruments… I got tap shoes at one point and realized I had no idea what I was doing. I picked up a lot of things that I put right back down, and I didn’t feel guilty about it at all. I did a lot of cooking — I didn’t do any bread, but — I went through my favorite cookbooks, made a lot of comfort food. I tried to work out, but without a class or a teacher, I didn’t do very well at that — so I did a lot of swimming, yoga, because you can do that outside in the yard. Things like that.
BW: That all sounds so nice and restorative.
JJ: In the “before times” these are things that I would have considered a waste of time. Like, oh I don’t need to organize this…
BW: Was there anything you truly felt like you were wasting time on?
JJ: The only thing I can think of was the phone stuff… the worrying about the current state, the fear and anxiety... I had to let that go pretty quickly because it was affecting my mood. I was also home-schooling my son, and there’s that responsibility. I got really into my set routine of waking up, getting him ready for school, doing the chores, feeding the dog. I had a routine, but when I had time to myself, I didn’t want to waste time. I wanted to do something productive. Just for my head, my mental space.
BW: I’m glad you were able to get things done that you couldn’t prioritize before because of work.
JJ: I just went back to work recently for the first time, shooting a film, having no time. Either you’re in your hotel or on set working 16/18-hour days. It was good for me, in a way, to get back on an airplane and go to another country, but your time isn’t yours at all. After a year of not working, it was scary to do that again. Now that it’s done, it’s like, okay, I did it, it’s fine, I did great, I could totally do that again… It’s funny how adaptable humans are with change, but also how scary it can feel when you’re faced with it. Then, once it’s over, you’re like, why was I so worried about it?
BW: You just gotta rip the band-aid.
JJ: 100%
BW: What’s your idea of fun?
JJ: Well, we had to shift what ‘fun’ meant to us a little bit. But we love going to the beach, anything to do with the ocean. Luckily, we live in an area that’s full of nature — we could go hiking and ride our bikes and spend time by the ocean. I know a lot of people didn’t have that, so we definitely felt super lucky.
BW: Were you able to get out of your neighborhood at all?
JJ: We did a lot of little road trips this past summer. But just being home… We have a great community of friends. We’d have people over to swim, play sports. I needed more things to entertain the both of us, so basketball became a big thing to do together — watching it and playing it. I got rid of a sitting room in the front of the house that never gets used and put in a pool table instead, and we got really into that. Just little activities that we could do so we weren’t just sitting around staring at our screens.
BW: How old is your son?
JJ: He’s 9 — he was going through 2nd grade and part of 3rd grade during all of this.
BW: I can’t even imagine how hard it was for him.
JJ: He hated it, but he’s been back at school since January, and he’s so much happier.
BW: And I’m sure he returned to school with an improved jump shot on the court.
JJ: Yeah, he’s at basketball camp now, too. He’s so happy.
