Sara Bareilles turns 44 on December 7, the same day the filmed version of her hit Broadway show Waitress opens in select theaters. She tells ABC Audio what she plans to do to celebrate.
“The most amazing thing is that I kept the date clear … and it’s been a really busy time, so that was my little gift to myself,” says Sara. “And so I get to sort of follow my whims, which is one of my most favorite things to do. So one of the things we will be doing is kind of sneaking into a couple of Waitress screenings. So I’m very much looking forward to that.”
Last month, Sara posted a series of videos on Instagram sharing her conflicted feelings about aging, revealing that she’d been “spiraling” and wanted to “stop fixating on some unattainable sort of … beauty standard.” She says many people reached out to her to share their own feelings about aging.
“What I see is a lot of women in particular — but I got messages from men as well — that we’re all sort of pretending that this thing is not happening, and we’re feeling like we’re supposed to hide the fact that we’re getting older from each other. And it feels a little bit like Santa Claus,” she says. “Can we just all be real about it? But it’s complicated, you know?”
Sara says the reaction she got to her post simply proved a lesson she learned years ago.
“Vulnerability equals connection. They are two sides of the same coin,” she says. “…[T]hat has been affirmed over and over and over again for me in my life, especially as an artist. So every time I share something that feels truly vulnerable, the feedback is connection.”
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