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Emma Roberts has acted in TV thrillers like American Horror Story and Scream Queens, as well as movies including We Are the Millers, Valentines Day, and Hotel for Dogs. She also happens to be both an avid traveler and the founder of online reading community Belletrist. Lale chats with the actor about the books she likes to travel with (and where she likes to buy them), her love of train travel, and one of her all-time favorite cities: New Orleans.
Lale Arikoglu: Hi there. I'm Lale Arikoglu and this is Women Who Travel. Today on the show I'm talking to Emma Roberts. Emma has acted in some of your favorite TV thrillers, like American Horror Story and Scream Queens. And your favorite movies, like We are the Millers, Valentine's Day, and Hotel for Dogs. She's also the co-founder of the online book club, Belletrist. And that's exactly where we started our conversation.
On a pretty gloomy Wednesday afternoon in New York, Emma told me about the books she likes to travel with as she gets over her plane anxieties. And what book she recommends on a trip to one of her favorite cities. Okay, that's enough preamble. Here's my conversation with Emma Roberts.
If you could pick three adjectives about the kind of traveler you are, might be hard to just do three, but what would they be?
Emma Roberts: Is overpacker an adjective?
LA: Oh my God, I think absolutely.
ER: Okay. I'm overpacker, spontaneous, and fun. I'm a fun traveler. I will say. I think I'm a good travel buddy. I mean, you really know who your friends are, and family for that matter, after you travel with them, especially by planes, trains, and automobiles. People's true colors always come out during travel, so I think I'm pretty fun. Minus the fact that I always have to check a bag.
LA: I think people can forgive you for that if you are being fun and spontaneous. But yeah, no, I guess it's like roommates. It's like someone can be your best friend and then you travel with them, and you're like, "Oh, maybe we are not made to do this together. It's better if we just go for dinner."
ER: It's very true. It's very true.
But no, I love to travel. I mean, for me, I would say two of my passions are reading and traveling. And so, I was very excited to do a collab with my book club, Belletrist, and Trainline because I just think reading and traveling, especially by train, is so romantic and very aspirational, yet attainable. I feel like I always make up excuses of why I can't go do stuff. So when I'm off of work ... Lately I've been trying to really go and do more. I feel like you got to just go sometimes. Don't think, just go.
LA: I love what you say about books and travel being so linked because you kind of think of them as being ... I mean, I know we all read when we're on a beach or something, but they're kind of seen as quite separate things. Like a book as to escape in your imagination and a travel is to kind of be rooted in a place and to experience it. But there's so many books I've read that when I reread them, they take me back to that trip. And they don't even have to be to do with the same place. It's just there's something about it. If you're on a train, it's like, "I remember reading this when I was going through the Alps in Italy."
ER: Oh, yeah. It's very true. I would love to have that memory. I haven't done the Alps in Italy, but what I love to do is with all my books in the last few years, I've started writing where I was when I read it, and how old I was when I read it, because I always underline throughout my books. And sometimes I go back and I'm like, "Why would I underline that? When did I read this?" And so now I have some sort of touchstone of where I was and how old I was.
And I just think there's something cool about being able to look back and see where you were in life and also geographically when you read a book because I feel like where you read something or how you read something definitely affects your perception of it.
I started A Movable Feast by Ernest Hemingway so many times throughout my teens, and I liked it and appreciated it, but I could never get through it. And then, I remember finally in my twenties reading it while I was in Paris with my best friend and I'm like, "Oh, this is the best book ever." I do feel kind of metaphorical location and literal location can really affect your appreciation of a certain story. Sometimes you're not ready for certain books until you are, and so I love that.
LA: It's kind of like until you've lived a little bit more life and often that comes with traveling.
ER: Totally. You said it much more succinctly than I did. Yes.
LA: I loved the European book list, speaking of Paris, that's in this collaboration you did with Trainline. Can you share a little bit about how the collaboration came about? And also when it comes to picking books for a trip, what kind of books do you like to take with you? Because I find that so hard. You said you're an overpacker. I'm wondering if it's all on a Kindle or if you're cramming actual physical copies in a suitcase.
ER: I am cramming physical copies in a suitcase.
LA: Love it.
ER: I refuse to go electronic with my books, but I have been pulled over in security and they've gone through my bag because I've had too many books in it. Where they're stacked in a way where for some reason it flags my bag. And so, I now have limited myself to two books to travel with, maybe three, if I'm going overseas, which is still nearly impossible.
With my book club, Belletrist, we're always looking at unique and fun and interesting and organic ways to collaborate with brands. Trainline came about and I just thought, "Wow, this is so cool," because I love fashion and beauty and all of that. And we love doing those kind of collaborations, but I was like, "Wow." To collaborate with an app that revolves around travel was just so unique and felt really true to us.
I mean, the amount of times Kara—my partner in Belletrist—the amount of times, we've traveled through Europe together and taken the train together so many times. So, we had a lot of fun sitting down and being like, "Okay, we have to narrow down 10 books" for what we're calling the reading route list. And we would go back and forth all hours of the night on text, on the phone. Certain books, we had to cut off the list, which were heartbreaking. And then of course, she was laughing at me because I was like, "Well, if it's travel," I was like, "Does time travel count?" And she was like, "I knew you were going to ask me this," because she knows I'm obsessed with time travel.
And so, I did sneak one book about time travel, that also takes place in the UK, called The Midnight Library. And that is a tearjerker and just such a quick read. Bring more books if you bring that with you because you'll finish it in one day.
LA: The Midnight Library, I feel like is such a beloved book.
ER: I was late to the party.
LA: For a good reason. I'm very attached to my books, which sometimes isn't helpful when you're traveling. If you tear through them and you want to buy more, do you shed books and leave them in a place?
ER: Never.
LA: Okay. Just wanted to check.
ER: I mean, unless... I won't name names, but there are some books that I've been so excited to bring on a trip with me, and then, I realize 60 pages in that we are not a match. And so, then I will pass it on to somebody else and hope that they're a match. So, I have shed a few books in that way, but if I love a book or I finished a book, I will not give it away. People will ask to borrow my books and I'm like, "I'll order you a copy." And they're like, "No, I'll just take yours." I'm like, "No, you won't. You can't."
LA: I've never not been burned by lending a book to someone. I don't think it ever gets returned. It's not very generous of me, but ...
ER: It doesn't get returned. I will happily buy someone a copy of the book. I'm like, "I'll have it sent to your house on your doorstep, but you are not taking mine with you today."
LA: You've mentioned Hemingway and A Movable Feast, which I also read as a teen, struggled with, and then, managed to crack it a few years later. Are there any other authors or books you've read on a recent trip that I guess is a match for you?
ER: Well, another book off of our list, The Talented Mr. Ripley. I feel like most people know that as the movie, myself included, and when I found out that it was not only a book, but a book by Patricia Highsmith who is iconic, I was so excited to read that and I was excited to discover it later after I'd already seen the movie. And so for me, that had to make the list. I mean, it's just such a classic thriller.
LA: And the ultimate travel story as well.
ER: Totally.
LA: And travel movie, I mean, ugh.
ER: And I feel like it's for anyone. Like your mom, your brother, your friend. I feel like everyone gets something out of that book. And let's be honest, the movie's also iconic. I do watch the movie for a bit of fashion inspo before a trip, so I love when the movie is as good as the book because that can be rare.
LA: Oh, very rare.
ER: And I feel like for The Talented Mr. Ripley, the book and the movie, are 10 out of 10.
LA: We're going to take a break.
And we're back. Let's hydrate. We were both on flights yesterday, so I'm sure we're both feeling a little in need of some water.
ER: Always.
LA: When you're not reading.
ER: Yes.
LA: And you're traveling, I want to hear about what you want to do when you've put the book down. Are there specific things you like to do on a trip? You said that you're spontaneous and that you're fun. Those things do go hand in hand. Makes me think that you're not necessarily a spa person or maybe you are.
ER: I love a spa. I love a massage, but that always comes last on my list. If I feel like I have enough time or I've done enough other things, then I will go to the spa and get a massage. But I'll never sacrifice running around a new city, or an old city for that matter, for spa time. I'm huge into vintage and antiques. I love discovering curiosities and oddities along my trip. So, I always look up first a flea market. And when I go to Paris, I always am trying to figure out when and where the flea market is, and we'll go there. I'll go to some secondhand bookstores.
Actually, the reason I was trying to move our convos was because I was running late because I was picking up some vintage books that I had bought that I forgot to pick up, and so I was running over there and the...
LA: Oh, wait, what bookstore in New York?
ER: B & B Rare books, and they're absolutely amazing, and I buy a lot of stuff from them, but they are always finding really, really, really unique things. And my latest find from them is the manuscript of Democracy by Joan Didion.
LA: Oh my God, it is a tome.
ER: It is. So, here you go. It's from her publisher.
LA: Oh my God. It's incredible. What a thing.
ER: So, that's why I was running to go pick this up, and I got a couple of other first editions from them as well today for gifts for Christmas. So, I can't reveal what they are because the recipients might be listening to this.
I think it's so fun about a new city and especially traveling abroad. I notice I find really, really interesting stuff in Spain and in the UK because it's just different. I'm sure how people feel coming to America and antique shopping. It's just different stuff. So that's always my first thing I do when I land somewhere is I'm like, "Where is the flea market? Where are the vintage stores?"
I've actually done my best designer vintage clothing shopping—wow, what a mouthful—in Milan. And I don't know. I didn't expect to have such luck with designer vintage clothing there, but that was the hot spot.
LA: Oh, I love that. When I mentioned that I'd just been on a flight. I was in Rome and the designer vintage there was extraordinary. I saw some beautiful things.
ER: I haven't been to Rome in 10 years, and I just remember my feet hurt so bad. No matter where I'm going, I packed the wrong shoes. It's just, it's my flaw in life. I don't get it. But I didn't bring any sneakers to Rome other than a pair of a designer I won't name, but my feet were bleeding and I couldn't find a sneaker store in Rome. So, I hope there's sneaker stores there now because there were none when I went there.
LA: You know what? I didn't see any sneakers. I saw some gorgeous vintage Pradas and no sneakers.
ER: Yes.
LA: A city that is also kind of filled with history, although not as old as Rome by any means, is New Orleans, where you lived for three years filming American Horror Story and Scream Queens. And from what I gather, you really enjoyed it. I mean, it's an incredible place.
ER: Yeah. I loved New Orleans. I would live there if I could.
LA: What did you love about it?
ER: There's a lot of places. Obviously you go with history. But there you can literally feel it in the air. And I just love that New Orleans is like a city that no matter what has always rebuilt itself again and again and again and again. Every story you hear about the city and the people is they just love it there. They will always be there. They're always preserving the history, but also reinventing themselves. And I think it's just such a beautiful place. I love it there. And I mean beautiful, like emotionally beautiful. And also there's just nowhere like it. I mean, I haven't been anywhere that looks like New Orleans. It's just so unique in its aesthetic and I love the people there. It's just so much fun.
LA: You must have kind of got into a routine. I mean, three years, you really were just living there. What was your day in New Orleans like?
ER: I mean, I think people think of New Orleans and they think of Bourbon Street, and it is a really wild, fun place to go out. And the kind of juxtaposition of the horse and buggy, but then with the new restaurants. It is a city kind of things that should not be in the same place are there, which I think is really cool. I mean, my life there, like you said, when you live somewhere, you get in a routine where I would go to Pilates, go to Whole Foods. It was a very normal day to day there.
But when I go back and visit, I love to go to all the restaurants. The restaurants are just absolutely amazing there. The food scene there. I like very unhealthy food, and they make unhealthy food very appetizing.
LA: They do it famously well, I'd say.
ER: Famously well.
LA: Are there any other places that are really close to your heart? I don't know. When I was in Rome, I was walking around just fantasizing about living there. I'd never been, and immediately I was like, "This feels like the city for me." And I didn't expect that.
ER: I'm trying to think, I mean other cities that have... I loved filming in Boston. I was there for a year and a half, and I had just had my son, and it was just such an amazing city to get to walk around in. And again, another city that's so steeped in its history. I gravitate towards places that feel like they have a past, and dare I say, air of even the spooky side. I feel like there is a side of New Orleans, the haunted New Orleans, which I always love to think about.
LA: And you were filming something spooky there.
ER: I know. Well definitely. But you can definitely feel, I don't know, there's some spirits in both those cities for sure.
LA: More on how Emma Roberts likes to travel when we're back.
I did read that you are not a big fan of flying.
ER: I'm not.
LA: But you travel so much. How do you manage that? How do you combat it? Because I mean, flying's hard even when you're not scared of it.
ER: Yeah, I'm not a fan of flying, and I don't think I've ever flown more in my life than in the last two years. But yeah, I read my books. I download some shows. I have a glass of Champagne. I just try to take my mind off of it. And I also, I try not to fly alone if I don't have to. I'll always try to drag a friend or a family member along with me.
LA: Having a buddy, is it a distraction? Is that how it helps or is it just like the comfort of a familiar face?
ER: I just like to grab someone's hand if we hit turbulence and preferably someone I know.
LA: Not the stranger next to you.
ER: No, but also, I mean, when you have a great travel buddy, it makes it fun. Some of my favorite travel memories are just feeling like you can't breathe because you're laughing so hard. For me, that's one of my best friends or my sister or my mom. You know, as everyone knows who travels, things will go wrong. Flights will be delayed. Flights will be canceled. Bags will be lost. So you kind of have to have someone there to laugh about it.
LA: That is so true. And sometimes I think it puts a pin in the anxiety where you've got someone and you look at each other and you're like, "It's going to work out. We have each other. This is a story."
ER: Totally. I know my mom would always be like, "Don't worry if your bag gets sloshed." She's like, "As long as you just have cash and clean underwear in your purse, you're fine." I'm like, "Okay, mom, great advice." But she's right. She's like, everything else you can just borrow, buy or figure it out. And I'm like, "Okay, you're right."
LA: It is true. And I mean, sometimes there might be something in your suitcase that is of value or you're emotionally attached to, but sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm like, everywhere has a shop, everywhere has a pharmacy.
ER: Yeah.
LA: I need to, I can just kind of reconstruct a packing list.
ER: Totally. Yeah. My issue is only because, as I told you, I'm such a big fan of vintage that there's been sometimes where I check a bag with certain vintage pieces in it where clothing items where I'm like, "Ooh, if that bag gets lost, I might shed a tear."
LA: Yeah. That thing is gone for good.
ER: Then they're like, "What was the monetary value on the items lost?" I'm like, "The monetary or the emotional?" Because I'm like the emotional value I can't place.
LA: Yeah, you're like, "Infinite."
ER: Yeah.
LA: Where is a place that you haven't been that's on your bucket list and why?
ER: That's such a good question. I mean, I want to do Italy, but the coast of Italy. All the pictures I see online of Italy, that's the Italy I want to go to. And somehow I have not made it to that Italy where everyone's jumping in a grotto and a little hotel owned by someone that's lived there for 50 years. I'm like, I want to do that Italy.
And then, I feel like for me, I would love to travel more by train. That is something that I'm really wanting to do. My mom is dying to do Ireland by train, so that's on our mother-daughter bucket list and let's pick one for fun.
Domestically. I haven't been to Montana. I would love to do a Montana trip. I feel like I haven't explored Americana America enough, and I do have an affinity for that kind of aesthetic. So, I would love to kind of road trip across America, which shockingly is something I have not done. I have never really road tripped, hardcore road tripped, so I would like to try that.
LA: I love that. Emma, this has been so great and you've got my wheels turning for trips that I want to do and things I want to read.
ER: I know. What's your bucket list trip?
LA: Oh my God, right now, my bucket list places are India because I've never done that, and also would love to see a lot of it by train. I feel like you can't go without experiencing it by rail.
ER: That would be fabulous. And I didn't even think about that. India by train, that's going to be on my list as well.
LA: That is top of mind for me. And one place that I have been and we've been talking about is New Orleans, but I'd love to go back. And for anyone who's listening that's planning a trip or has New Orleans on their bucket list, what's one book that you think they should take with them when they go?
ER: Okay. I mean, well, first of all, New Orleans has some amazing bookshops. There's a secondhand bookstore in the French Quarter that is amazing. Just make sure when you go to New Orleans, just type in bookstores and whatever comes up, wander in. Because whenever I went into the bookstores in New Orleans, people always have amazing recommendations there. They usually have some amazing books out about New Orleans or by New Orleans writers.
For me, I'm going to say my recommendation if you're going to New Orleans is the Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty. And she's a Southern writer and writes in this very kind of Gothic way that I absolutely love. And the novel is about a young woman who returns to New Orleans to be with her dying father. It's a classic. It actually won the Pulitzer Prize, so I highly recommend it.
LA: Perfect. Thank you so much for making the time on what seems like a crazy day. Enjoy your time in New York. I hope you find some more bookstores and some more beautiful manuscripts. Congratulations on that Joan Didion one. It is gorgeous.
ER: Thank you. I love talking to you and hopefully our travels will meet up one day.
LA: Yeah, maybe I'll see you on a train.
Thank you for listening to Women Who Travel. I'm Lale Arikoglu and you can find me on Instagram @lalehannah.
Our engineers are Jake Lummus, James Yost, Vince Fairchild, and Pran Bandi. The show is mixed by Amar Lal at Macrosound. Jude Kampfner of Corporation for Independent Media is our producer. Stephanie Kariuki is our executive producer, and Chris Bannon is Condé Nast's head of Global Audio.
