Mandy Moore spreads the Love - interview
- Mar 16, 2011
Oh Mandy. Virgin Red Room speaks to the one and only Mandy Moore about performing at the Oscars, her new album plans and the Virgin Mobile Love Button.
Greg Rose: So, love.
Mandy Moore: Yeah! Love, love, love!
GR: What's the first thing that pops into your head when you think of love?
Mandy Moore: Love, love, love, love, love. My family, my hubby and our four animals, they are the first thing that pop into my head.
GR: You have a dog named after Joni Mitchell right? Please say that's true.
Mandy Moore: Yes! We have a dog named Joni and another named Jackson. He isn't named after Jackson Browne though, we just love the name Jackson, haha.
GR: What is your favourite song with love in the title?
Mandy Moore: Oh, wow, that's hard. Bizarrely, the first song that I thought of was 'what's Love Got To Do With It' by Tina Turner, haha. That's not my favourite song though. I would go with the classic 'All You Need Is Love'. And I guess that's all.
GR: So you are behind the #FacebookLove campaign to get a Love Button on Facebook with Virgin Mobile Canada. Are you a Facebook enthusiast?
Mandy Moore: I am a big Facebook user – I like me a little social media, as it were. I definitely use it more for personal stuff with my friends. I love being able to instantly communicate with people, it's great.
GR: You recently performed at the Oscars. What was the best moment?
Mandy Moore: The best moment was when I finished my performance – just the sigh of relief!
GR: And what was the scariest moment?
Mandy Moore: The scariest moment was probably the very first moment of walking out onstage, before I started singing. There was a lot of anxiety. I made a mental not before performing that I wasn't going to look out into the audience because during rehearsals they had those big placards with pictures of who was going to be sitting where. That freaked me out beyond belief! So I decided then and there that I wouldn't look at anybody and would just stare straight ahead above everybody's head. That helped eliminate the intimidating factor.
GR: Did you get to meet any fellow stars who you love?
Mandy Moore: I got to meet Randy Newman, and I am a huge Randy Newman fan. That was a pretty fun, geeky fan moment for me. Other than that, just getting to people watch like everybody else was fun. Standing on the red carpet and just looking around at who else is there, that was pretty neat!
GR: What is your first love – music or acting?
Mandy Moore: Nothing can replace music in my heart, it definitely has first place if I had to choose. I think it's just a balancing act, it's prioritising like anybody else who loves to do more than one thing. Right now I'm working on a record so that's the hat I'm wearing and what I'm focussed on. Once that is finished and it's time to focus on something else, I'll do that. I don't know, it's pretty easy, it's never been an overwhelming task for me to balance the two.
GR: You mention your new album. Your music has changed direction over the years, what kind of sound can we expect from your new record?
Mandy Moore: I think the next record will definitely follow suit with the last one. It will definitely have a 70s influence a little bit. I'd like to make a really live sounding record and I really want to tour this record. I'm not sure how that necessarily reflects the music but it's fun to keep that in mind. How can we make sure we can execute this well live? That's really important to me.
GR: When can we expect the new record to be released?
Mandy Moore: I would say that some point before the end of the year, it will be out.
GR: Finally, back to the Facebook Love Button. Give us your best reasons for introducing the Love Button?
Mandy Moore: The best reason is that every time you love something using the Facebook Love Button app Virgin Mobile will donate $5 cents to the Red Cross efforts in Japan. That's the biggest, most important thing.
Also, there is a discernible difference between liking and loving something. I think Facebook owes us that distinction, you know? Loving something, rather than just liking it, I think that's really important.
Find out how to fight for your right to Love on Facebook, and join the Facebook Love Button movement.
Like Mandy, you can choose your favourite love song too. Happy Loving.
Greg Rose
