Patricia heaton, 66, finds her (musical) voice | members only

HAVE YOU JOINED THE MUSIC SCENE NOW THAT YOU’VE MOVED TO NASHVILLE? I am starting to be part of the music scene! I’m starting to write some songs with some writers. So that’s been just

recently, within the last week. So somebody just suggested it to me, and it had kind of crossed my mind. And this person put me in touch with some writers, and it’s been really fun. And I

want to say successful — of having done one song so far that everybody seems to love. So, we’ll see. CAN YOU SING, TOO? I’m a singer, but I haven’t done it in a really long time. But I’m

really just writing to see what kind of songs I can come up with, with writing partners. I WAS GOING TO ASK YOU IF YOU’RE GOING TO WRITE ANOTHER BOOK, BUT WOW, YOU’RE WRITING MUSIC! Well,

I’m sort of at that point in life where the kids are out of the house. I don’t have a regular series yet. So there’s space in my life to explore new artistic and creative ventures. I’ve

definitely started to learn how to work with musicians, singer/songwriters. WHO’S YOUR FAVORITE SINGER-SONGWRITER? Well, I’m so old, I go back to people like Joni Mitchell, who’s a very

singular type of voice and singular type of song. I love all those. But my boys keeps me very in touch with what’s current, and I like to explore that. I’ve always loved music. … It’s sort

of like you’re in Nashville, and you want to take advantage of the wonderful, generous, creative, talented people that are there. WHAT ABOUT OKLAHOMA, WHERE YOU WERE FILMING THIS MOVIE —

DID YOU GET TO EXPLORE THERE? Yeah, I [have shot] three different movies there. At first, when I saw Oklahoma, it was just sort of flat. … But as you work there, you get to find your

favorite little coffee shop and your little diner and who makes the best biscuits, and you learn the history of places. …. One point I was filming in Bartlesville, where they filmed _Killers

of the Flower Moon_, in Indian nations. And they shot _August: Osage County_ there, the Tracy Letts play that was turned into a movie. And you just discover all these wonderful parks and

get to know people, and it becomes like a second home. It’s really lovely. That’s another great thing about working in this industry is getting to explore different places around the

country, even around the world. Patricia Heaton stars in “The Unbreakable Boy,” in theaters Feb. 21. Lions Gate/Courtesy Everett Collection THE MAIN CHARACTER IN _THE UNBREAKABLE BOY_

ACTUALLY TEACHES HIS PARENTS JUST AS MUCH AS THEY TAUGHT HIM. WHAT DID YOUR SONS TEACH YOU? When I started having boys in Los Angeles, I noticed all these parents were saying, “Well, my

daughter’s going to this school, but my son is more of this type of student, so we’re sending him to a different school.” I just thought, _I’m sorry, all my kids are going to go to the same

school and it’s going to be the closest one_ — this precious kind of thing of “My daughter’s special so she has to do this, my son’s special in this way…” I thought it was pretentious. And

then one of my sons was struggling and the school wasn’t able to accommodate the way he learns. And suddenly I became a convert, and I was like, _Oh, we need different schools for different

ways of learning because people learn differently_. That’s what my sons have taught me: everybody learns differently.