Christopher Lowell- Actor

What is your name?   

Chris Lowell

What do you do and are you still able to do it? If not what are you doing on a daily basis? 

I was acting on a Netflix show called GLOW. I wasn’t even a week into shooting when we got shut down “for two weeks” because of COVID-19 concerns. That was on Friday the 13th. By Sunday, they’d closed down all the restaurants, bars, cinemas and gyms. It happened fast. But I can still eat and drink and smoke pot. And I can sleep and I can still worry about New York. I can’t go to work, but I can still take photographs and write. I can order takeout (carefully) and I can throw money at all the restaurants in the city that have closed their doors but opened their donation pages on GoFundMe. I can call my friends and family, go on long walks, exercise, and read more. And I can stop checking the news every thirty-five seconds.

Where are you social isolating (what country/city) and with whom? How is it being home with them all the time?! 

I’m currently isolating in a treehouse in Los Angeles with my partner. We were both out here working when the shelter-in-place orders went into effect. We’re a good team. It’s been tough trying to turn this place into a home for ourselves for the foreseeable future, and it’s especially tough when one or the other of us has a cloudy day, but we’re mostly just feeling grateful that we’re together and healthy, and that we have a place to stay.

Do you have a routine you try to stick to? 

Yes. I wake up in the morning, exercise, shower, make breakfast. I try and answer emails early in the day. In the afternoon, I go on walks in the neighborhood and take photographs. I try and read at least 20 pages a day, and call at least one friend or family member to check in. Every 10 days, we go grocery shopping. We alternate between cooking and ordering takeout from restaurants in the area.

Do you get dressed in the morning or stay in your PJ’s?

I get dressed. Helps me feel more productive. Having said that, I came out here with only a carry-on’s worth of clothes, so it’s a pretty limited wardrobe.

 How is your life and your headspace changing as the weeks of isolation continue?

Every day is different. I don’t really want to distract myself from what’s going on. I think it’s important to examine the way this experience is affecting both myself and my community. For the most part, I’m able to fill my time with reading and writing and photography and exercise, and we have fun together in the afternoons and evenings. The hardest part is the isolation itself. I miss my community terribly. I need to hug everyone and pour them a drink from the same bottle. I’ve tried Zoom and Facetime a couple times and I hate it. It’s not real. It’s not close to real. There’s nothing to hold onto.

 What frightens you the most about this, do you have ways of calming yourself?

I’m worried that our country is being run by a narcissistic, dilapidated skintag of a human being. I’m grateful for the leadership of governors. Cuomo’s press briefings are the closest thing we’ve got to national leadership. I worry about my friends who are doctors. I worry about my friends who are waiters or social workers or small business owners. To calm down, I’ve pretty much turned off the news full-stop. I know what I need to do in terms of social distancing protocols. Eventually, I’ll get a notification telling me that I’m going back to work, and that’s when I’ll know this thing is coming to a close.

Have you managed to find any silver linings?

There are plenty of silver linings. I don’t have COVID-19. That’s a silver lining. My partner and I are together and healthy. I have a job to go back to when this is over. I have a yard where I can be outside. My family is healthy. Creatively, I’m experimenting a lot with my photographs. I’m reading more. I’m watching good movies.

People are saying this is a time for real change both personally and worldly. Do you agree and if so how do you see your life changing from this?

I think this pandemic has made clear that we need to overhaul our healthcare system and expand our social safety net. Hopefully it’s being made abundantly clear that workers, not billionaires, are keeping the world turning right now: the people bagging our groceries, delivering our mail, operating our buses and subways. And hopefully people are being reminded of how important SCIENTISTS are.

Are there any conspiracy theories you subscribe to?

No.

If you were president what would you have done differently?

I would have listened to the healthcare professionals advising me. I wouldn’t have shut down PREDICT last year. I would have continued to require nursing homes to test for infectious diseases. I wouldn’t have labeled COVID-19 “the Chinese virus” in press conferences. I wouldn’t have called it a hoax. I would let the actual experts on the pandemic run the daily press briefings. I would try and convey a message of unity and empathy as often as possible. And I would have voted for Elizabeth Warren.

Using the color chart below please tell me in general what colors you are feeling. It can be a whole rainbow if you want or just one…! 

Red- angry    

Yellow- scared

Green- inspired, this is giving you time to reflect and/or create

Blue- sad/depressed 

Pink- happy. You see and focus on the silver linings.

black- doomed this is hard

cream- you feel no difference

orange- over whelmed

I’d say it’s a constant mix of GREEN, BLUE and ORANGE.