Amanda Peet on Lice Checks, Life Without Christmas, and How Jon Snow Could Save Her Marriage

Amanda Peet, star of the HBO series Togetherness, has a new picture book, Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein, in time for the holidays. (Photo: Getty Images)

Amanda Peet is waiting for her lice check.

That is what’s happening when we reach the star of HBO’s Togetherness to discuss her new children’s book, Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein, about a young Jewish girl who is desperate to celebrate Christmas. The mom of three tells us this not because she has to — she doesn’t; we would never know — but because, in addition to being a self-deprecating person, funny remarks just seem to sort of tumble out of her mouth.

“We’re all getting checked for lice. Isn’t that awesome?” she says with a chuckle before adding, “It’s really not so bad. It’s just part of life. It’s going to be my turn next.”

It’s with that openness that the brunette with “big teeth” and “dark eyebrows” (her description, not ours) talks about missing Christmas now that she celebrates only Hanukkah with her husband, Game of Thrones showrunner David Benioff. Ditto about what her kids think of her new book (“boring”) and how, with three kids under 8, her house is an “insane asylum.” And don’t even get her started about her hubby’s killing off Jon Snow…

Yahoo Celebrity: When did you realize you had a good idea for a children’s book?
Amanda Peet: My writing partner, Andrea [Troyer, who is married to Game of Thrones writer D.B. Weiss], and I were in Belfast last summer, 2014 [where GoT shoots], when we started. We were Hanukkah shopping there, which isn’t easy, and we got the idea.

Peet’s new book centers around a young girl who is desperate to celebrate Christmas — even though she’s Jewish. (Photo: Penguin/Random House)

When did it go from idea to reality?
We’d already tried to write a few things. First, we wanted to write a book that would poof up Hanukkah and put it in direct competition with Christmas, but we couldn’t do it, because you can’t. So we decided to make it about a Jewish girl who wishes she could have Christmas.

What were the holidays like for you as a kid?
I had Hanukkah and Christmas growing up. David just had the Jewish holiday, so we decided to go with that.

So you weren’t the kid who ate Chinese food and went to a movie on Christmas?
No. Though my mom used to make us give away half of our presents. We thought she was kind of sadistic for doing that — talk about raining on someone’s parade — but now I think it’s really great. I love that she did that. It was very Jewish of her. The second you get something, you have to immediately think of the person who didn’t get something.

And what are the holidays like at your house now?
We just do Hanukkah. I mean, we celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Seder and everything, but, yeah, we do Hanukkah. Probably because of my inferiority complex about not celebrating Christmas, things get a little out of hand with the presents [laughs]. There are many presents. But I’m going to put a stop to that.

So you don’t stick to one gift a day throughout Hanukkah?
A little bit more than that [laughs]. David’s like: It’s not supposed to be like this, Amanda Peet! He’s always yelling at me. My sister and her kids come over, so it’s a big household full of children, which is the wonderful part.

Peet with her husband, David Benioff, at the Golden Globes in January. (Photo Getty Images)

Do you miss anything about celebrating Christmas?
Of course, I do! I miss the music, I miss the tree and the lights. It’s so romantic. I miss the stockings, and the piles of presents, and the smell. And did I say the presents?

But you still give presents — and apparently a lot of them.
It’s not the same.

If your kids [Frankie, 8, Molly, 5, and Henry, almost 1) could review your book, what kind of review would they give it?
They would give it a: “This is dull.” I’m being honest [laughs]! They’ve seen it so many times. They saw it when there were no pictures. They are sort of bored at this point.

What is bedtime like at your house these days? Is there group reading?
What’s bedtime like? I’m like a chicken with its head cut off — my glass of wine splashing as I run this way and that [laughs]. Get this one to the bath. Get this one to the book. Get this one to the homework. It’s because David’s shooting. David’s shooting in Europe. I have a lot of help, but somehow bedtime is still this animal that I cannot tame.

Well, you do have an 11-month-old.
When I had my second child, when I first had Molly, I said, “This is insane. It’s an insane asylum.” Running back and forth from the crib to the bassinet to the bed.

So you thought, why not add one more to this insane asylum?
[Laughs] A little bit, yeah. Now Frankie reads on her own though, which is a game changer. She reads to Molly sometimes actually. She is self-sufficient now — brushes her own teeth, gets dressed, reads, does everything.

Do you have any children’s books from your childhood that you still own?
Yes, I have my Eloise still. Sadly, I wrote in it though. It’s falling apart. I was practicing writing so it would say,“OOooooo I absolutely LOVE the Plaza!” And you would see me trying to write absolutely.

At what point did you and Andrea give your husbands a draft of Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein to read?
We gave it to them when we thought we were ready to go out with it. We tried not to waste their time and give them early drafts. We tried to wait until the last possible moment, after we’d had our disagreements and stuff, and then bother them at that point.

So you and Andrea are writing partners, but you must see each other often whether you’re visiting the Game of Thrones set or going to the same events.
It’s scary and incestuous. You’d think we’d all despise each other at this point but we don’t [laughs]. It’s like the kids — they have two sons — are sort of like cousins. [My children call them] Auntie Andrea and Uncle Dan.

Pete and Benioff are beyond besties with Andrea Troyer and D.B. Weiss (Photo: Getty Images)

Speaking of Game of Thrones, have you made any progress getting Jon Snow back on the show? We are counting on you.
I don’t know the answer to that question. He was my favorite character! Look, I once thought David was a great writer. I loved City of Thieves. At this point, [the show is] just too cynical. I feel deeply betrayed as a fan and as a wife. What I need is physical evidence that [Snow] is [back]. I need to know that he has dialogue — that he’s not just lying there on a funeral pyre. That’s what I need. Then I will cease and desist getting divorced.

Peet jokingly threatened Benioff with divorce after he killed off Jon Snow, played by Kit Harington, on Game of Thrones. (Photo: HBO)

What did your family think of those “Amanda Peet is getting divorced over Jon Snow” headlines?
They are enraged with [David] as well. You don’t understand how many times I made him promise me [he wouldn’t kill him]. There is a backstory to this! I’d say: “You can’t do that, and I’m not just saying that as a your wife. I’m saying that as a writer myself. You can’t do that. It’s just stupid.“ I made him promise me. I couldn’t talk to him — or Dan — [after it happened]. So I’m doing my best [to get him back on the show] for everyone’s sake.

Lastly, a portion of the proceeds from your book go to Seeds of Peace, which brings teens from conflict areas (including Palestine, Israel, and Egypt) to participate in a peace-building program at a camp in Maine. Why did you decide to do that?
The headlines there are so grim — and they were as well when we were writing the book, with the war in Gaza. [The Seeds of Peace camp] is such an amazing place and so hopeful, and I think parents would be very interested to know that they could send their kids there someday. It’s the only thing that makes me feel hopeful, honestly, is getting children together and hoping that if they play together and talk through their knee-jerk animosities, we may have peace in our future. There is no question about it. Even living in Belfast, they talk about that all the time. Nothing could change until they integrated the schools and the kids started playing together. That is when there was real substantive change.

Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein is on sale now.