Academy Award®-winning actor, producer and humanitarian Cate Blanchett joins author Lauren Hough in narrating the audiobook edition of Hough’s Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing(Random House Audio; on sale April 13, 2021), a searing and extremely personal collection of essays from the heart of working-class America, shot through with the darkest elements the country can manifest–cults, homelessness, and hunger–while discovering light and humor in unexpected corners.
As an adult, Lauren Hough has had many identities: an airman in the U.S. Air Force, a cable guy, a bouncer at a gay club. As a child, however, she had none. Growing up as a member of the infamous cult The Children of God, Hough had her own self robbed from her. The cult took her all over the globe–to Germany, Japan, Texas, Chile–but it wasn’t until she finally left for good that Lauren understood she could have a life beyond “The Family.” Along the way, she’s loaded up her car and started over, trading one life for the next, until eventually finding herself as what she always wanted to be: a writer.
“Surreal is a word I’ve been using a lot lately,” Hough says of teaming up with Blanchett for the audiobook. “It’s the only word I have to describe any of this—from my cable guy essay blowing up, to sitting in a studio, reading the words I wrote for the audiobook, my audiobook. It’s been a ride. I mean, all of this is so new and different, so completely opposite the life I knew, that every part of it, even losing my voice because I’m not used to talking this much is just f—ing fun. Surreal is also a good word to being able to text Cate and ask her if she’s ever considered doing an audiobook. You write these words in the dark, just hoping to connect, if only to yourself. I doubt I’ll have any words at all when I hear Cate Blanchett read these stories I wrote. She’s been so tremendously generous and real. I’m incredibly honored and deeply grateful, and I am going to lose my damn mind.”
Blanchett is a fan of Hough’s writing, commenting: “Lauren’s perspective on the world at large is so startling that one can’t unsee, unhear or unread it. Her writing is a bugle call for the human spirit. Much like the woman herself. My conversations with Lauren over the last several years have been honest, raw and sidesplittingly funny, and I treasure her friendship and her penship beyond measure. It’s been a journey, indeed, from first reading her tweets and articles through to ingesting the galleys for Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing. But speaking her words aloud was perhaps the greatest revelation of all. I well understood Lauren’s hypnotic power as a storyteller, but in speaking her words, I truly understood the rhythmic heartbeat alive in every phrase. Aching to connect. Aching to be heard.”
At once razor-sharp, profoundly brave, and often very, very funny, the essays in Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing interrogate our notions of ecstasy, queerness, and what it means to live freely. Each piece is a reckoning: of survival, identity, and how to reclaim one’s past when carving out a future.
LAUREN HOUGH was born in Germany and raised in seven countries and West Texas. She’s been an airman in the U.S. Air Force, a green-aproned barista, a bartender, a livery driver, and, for a time, a cable guy. Her work has appeared in Granta, The Wrath-Bearing Tree, The Guardian, and HuffPost. She lives in Austin.
CATE BLANCHETT is an internationally acclaimed actor, producer, theater director, and dedicated member of the arts community. She is the co-Founder and Principal of film and television production company, Dirty Films. Most recently, Blanchett executive produced and starred as Phyllis Schlafly in “Mrs. America” on FX, which received 10 Emmy nominations. Her performance in the series garnered Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG Award, Critics’ Choice Award nominations. Blanchett also recently created, executive produced, and starred in the Netflix limited series, “Stateless,” which received 18 AACTA nominations, the most a television series has ever received. Blanchett will next be seen in Guillermo del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley” alongside Bradley Cooper, Rooney Mara, and Toni Collette. She will also be heard voicing a character in del Toro’s upcoming adaptation of “Pinocchio” for Netflix. Additionally, she will star in Adam McKay’s upcoming film “Don’t Look Up” alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Evans, and Ariana Grande. She is currently in production on “Borderlands,” a film adaptation of the ever-popular video game alongside Kevin Hart, with director Eli Roth. Blanchett is also a global Goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR.
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