Busy Philipps with Hillary Kerr
SXSW, Austin, TX
March 8, 2019
By Jim Chapin
Busy Philipps, the actress, Instagram star, and host and executive producer of E!’s “Busy Tonight,” talked with Hillary Kerr, author, and co-founder of Clique Media Group on Friday, March 8, at SXSW.
In her usual animated and candid way, she told stories of her twenty-year career with no topic off-limits as she discussed the challenges she faces as a woman in the entertainment business and how she came to be where she is at now.
She started the discussion with a quick anecdote about her name. Born as Elizabeth, she earned the nickname “Busy” from her intense energy and constant motion.
Philipps’ career started with a role on Freaks and Geeks, which led her to a role on Dawson’s Creek. That experience, she said, was her first experience to the pressures of Hollywood and conforming to certain “standards.” It was a bit of a jolt to be told, ‘You’re not fucking good enough,’” Philipps said.
While she experienced some success after Dawson’s Creek, including roles on the television shows ER, Cougar Town, and HBO’s Vice Principals, and in such movies as Made of Honor, He’s Just Not That Into You, White Chicks, and The Gift, she faced a lot of rejection for her own creative projects that included TV pilots and film scripts. She did find success in an unlikely place -social media, specifically Instagram, where she currently has over 1.6 million followers.
She said, “One of the things that grew out of my frustration and my boredom and my lack of control was me turning to Instagram and Instagram Stories and finding an outlet and a way to make the content every day and tell stories in that way.”
The last year has been very positive for Philipps. She became a New York Times’ best-selling author with her book This Will Only Hurt a Little. And in the fall of 2018, she began hosting a late-night talk show on the E! network called Busy Tonight, the idea of which occurred to her when she was stoned.