The Trend: Actress, Author Bailee Madison Talks New Book, Advice She Got From Billy Crystal
1010 WINS -- Award-winning teen actress and producer Bailee Madison, who is now the co-author of her first young adult novel, stopped by The Trend to talk about Losing Brave.
She also told host Rebecca Granet there was something special she wanted actor Billy Crystal to know.
Bailee said Billy gave her very special advice when the two worked on the film Parental Guidance in 2012. Bailee was 12 years old at the time, and at the end of the film, Billy handed her a locket with a key and said, "There are so many doors to unlock, you hold the key to many of those doors but there are so many more out there I want you to not be afraid to try your key into those doors and unlock those possibilities."
Bailee said although she thought it was great at age 12, she recently remembered it again, and at age 18 wants Billy to know how much it meant and that the advice is so true and very poignant in her life right now.
Billy thanked Bailee via Twitter Friday and the pair had a sweet exchange.
Madison and Reader's Choice Award finalist author Stefne Miller teamed up to write the psychological thriller which is also Bailee's first fiction book.
Losing Brave centers around the main character Payton and a tragic event. Rebecca asked Bailee if she had a specific inspiration for the character or if it was a multitude of different things coming together.
"I was very fortunate to write this book with Stefne Miller whose a dear friend of mine and incredibly talented author, so I think Payton specifically was inspired by parts of myself but also stories that Stefne has actually gone through at my age and memories she has so, um, it was both of us collaborating to try and figure out little tactics that each character has -- it's a very character driven book so it was very important to us to make each character their own person and very unique to the book."
Bailee also said she is so grateful to Stefne and wouldn't have been able to do it without her.
"She knows this world," Bailee said. "This is the world she's grown up in and the world that I've grown up in is the business side in front of the camera so I was constantly being nourished and my mind was constantly learning because of what she knew but I think what's most surprising is the stages of revisions. I think even her as a successful author -- she still gets surprised with the revisions sometimes - you go through so many stages."
"I mean, our book started off completely different that what it is now. The core of it has remained the same - the values that we wanted to put in the first book remain there but at first it was this kind of offbeat, witty you know, kind of drumming its own beat and then it became this psychological thriller that was this really fun transition to make."
