‘The Easy Kind,’ Based on Singer Elizabeth Cook’s Life, Releases After Eight Years
This Florida-grown country star has one hell of a life story, and she's making her acting debut to finally tell it.
Cult-favorite country singer Elizabeth Cook is well aware that she’s lived a very unique, slightly surreal but ultimately special life.
So it makes sense then that not only is there a semi-autogiographical movie based on her life, entitled “The Easy Kind” and co-starring Susie Essman, Karen Allen and even David Letterman, but that it’s a documentary-narrative hybrid in which she plays the lead character of EC, who is inspired by her career.
Cook was always destined to live a somewhat peculiar existence. The 54-year-old singer-songwriter—who was born and raised in Wildwood—is the youngest of 11 children. “I’m the only child of my mom and dad,” Cook tells Flamingo. “My dad had five children and my mom had five children before they met. They got married later in life, so I was bringing up the rear.”
Cook’s father, Thomas, perfected his own musical skills while playing upright bass in Atlanta’s Federal Penitentiary prison band. He was serving time there for running moonshine. After his release from prison, Thomas and Joyce—Cook’s mother—were in a bar band. They’d regularly take an infant Cook along with them to their performances.
Around the age of four, Thomas and Joyce started teaching Cook how to play songs and sticking her on stage as part of their act. By nine years old, Cook had formed her first band. In the mid-1990s, she moved to Nashville, signed a publishing deal, spent the next few years writing songs for other performers, playing live and working towards her own albums.
Cook became a beloved figure in the country music community. Since her debut at the Grand Ole Opry in March, 2000, she’s made over 400 appearances on the historic broadcast. She’s a firm favorite of Letterman, performing six times on his talk show. Meanwhile, she has released six critically acclaimed albums—her seventh, “Great Television,” is out August 14.
I’ve never really cared about the boundaries of genre.
-Elizabeth Cook
While sales figures might have fallen short of making Cook a household name, she’s built up a dedicated fan base, and her long-running stint as a SiriusXM radio host has only made the connection with her supporters stronger. Cook’s singular life-experiences, refusal to be pigeon-holed, defiant approach to her music and perennially warm demeanor means she was always going to be ripe for a documentary on her career.
When documentarian Katy Chevigny began work on “The Easy Kind,” she shot Cook working on songs, recording, playing live and relaxing at home. But when the cameras were off, Cook continued to tell honest and vulnerable stories as the crew enjoyed an end of the day cocktail or meal. Chevigny wanted to incorporate these tales into the film, and she became convinced that Cook should act out her frustrations with the music industry, rather than just regurgitating her past down the camera.
“That was more of a conversation that Katie was having with other filmmakers behind the scenes,” Cook says of the film becoming a documentary-narrative hybrid. “They told her, ‘Yes, this should be a narrative film.’ When she approached me with that idea I was over the moon excited. I’d done some minor acting before, but I always like to dive into the deep end with creative projects. It was just another opportunity to be creative and work with other actors. That was so cool and exciting to me. It also gave me sort of a protective layer from my real personal life as well.”
In “The Easy Kind,” Cook’s EC is a musician who has been through many of the same hardships Cook has endured. When pressed for how close EC is to her, Cook basically pleads the fifth amendment, and insists, “The point of doing it this way was to keep that private. It’s fun to blur the lines and have that creative freedom.” But looking back at her life through the character of EC did allow Cook to reconsider her own introduction to the music industry at such a young age.
“Honestly, to come back to it as an adult and as an actor, I had to blow up this box of early, core memories of being around performing, because it was a pretty rough place for a kid to grow up. ‘The Easy Kind’ was certainly part of that process. As you get older, you get more perspective, and things come into focus about the past.”
Cook still only has fond memories about growing up in Central Florida, around 50 miles northwest of Orlando and 75 miles north of Tampa. She recalls the beautiful landscape, hills, palm trees, Spanish moss and long country roads, all of which are set to a soundtrack of Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and Hank Williams. Around the age of 12, as MTV started to have more of an influence, she became infatuated with pop music. Her first ever concert was the Beastie Boys opening for Madonna in Orlando on The Virgin Tour, which she attended in between playing concerts with Ricky Skaggs, numerous other Florida country artists and appearing at events like the Zellwood Corn Festival.
I had to blow up this box of early, core memories of being around performing, because it was a pretty rough place for a kid to grow up.
–Elizabeth Cook
“I’ve never really cared about the boundaries of genre,” insists Cook. “It’s always subjective to begin with. I just like music that reaches people. In recent years, country music is reaching younger and younger people, and I love that people are exploring new sounds, instruments and phrasing with it. I think it’s just really fun.”
While she now lives in Nashville, Cook regularly returns to Florida to see family near Ormond Beach, Claremont and Tavares. When she’s home, she often reflects on how Florida has shaped her musical point of view and creative voice. “I’m always thinking about blue collar life in Florida. My dad had a mobile welding business called Cook’s Welding and my 2010 album was called Welder. I just remember the honky tonks in Wildwood where my parents played, and the cowboy, ranch and blue-collar culture that was the hallmark of country music.”
With “The Easy Kind,” Cook was adamant about showing how the country music scene is still full of musicians working regular jobs and the “struggle, strife and challenge” that comes with making it your profession. “Making business out of your art is just a tough space to work in. Regardless of what level you’re working at, everyone is trying to get a deal or an endorsement and just falling short.”
Cook’s life has had its own trials and tribulations. In 2010, she divorced her husband, guitarist and songwriter, Tim Carroll, while her father, mother, brother, mother-in-law and brother-in-law died during this period. She soon cancelled a tour so she could enter rehab. When Chevigny approached Cook about making the documentary in 2018, Cook was initially apprehensive because she wasn’t sure how the footage might be used.
It was only after meeting Chevigny—and learning that she was the Emmy and DuPont Award-winning filmmaker of over a dozen feature films—that Cook decided to proceed. Despite taking nearly eight years to get made and released, Cook couldn’t be prouder of what they’ve achieved with “The Easy Kind,” and she insists that it sums up the resilience she’s required throughout her own career.
“I wanted to show a lot of heart in the film and that there is always a struggle,” Cook says. “But at the same time, I want to remind people there is also triumph. Perseverance is always required when you are figuring out how you define success for yourself. It’s just been so rewarding. I’m really proud that we accomplished it, that the film exists, and I hope it’ll have great value to other artists.”
