Artist Information
“What I’ve learned with songwriting is to always tell the truth, to never settle for something that’s just OK,” says Rita Wilson. “And to have found that at this point in my life is a gift.”
Though known for her work as an actor, film producer, and activist, Wilson has accessed a powerful outlet with her songwriting. Digging deep, exploring, and reflecting, with Bigger Picture her work has entered a prolific and thrilling stage.
“Songwriting has been the most pure expression of who I am,” she says. “I love everything I do, but it’s the most intimate act you can have creatively. As an actor, you put on a character; as a producer, you have to let things out of your hands. But as a songwriter, there’s nowhere to hide.”
Indeed, that sense of songwriting as a means of examining your own experience lies at the heart of the project. “The album “Bigger Picture” is a musical scrapbook,” she says. “A scrapbook collects souvenirs and memories and shows where you came from, and this album is about a woman looking back at her life, who was lost at some points, who’s not sure who she is. Things can knock you down and you think, ‘I remember who I was—where is that person?’ We all get to those points where we go, ‘What has happened to me?’ “
Rita Wilson recognizes the ways in which all of her exceptional accomplishments are connected. “Doing Chicago on Broadway was what really made me realize how much I love music and that I wanted it in my life creatively,” she says. “If you look at the bigger picture of all the things I do, the thing they have in common is the joy of human connection, and always trying to be real and authentic. “Songwriting seems to require something else. You have to lay it all on the line. It’s scary, but it’s good to feel that kind of fear. It’s exhilarating. “
