Sit, Cinderella, Sit by Lisa Cheek

Lisa Cheek is an author and former film and television editor known for her humorous, candid writing about relationships and identity. Her debut memoir, Sit, Cinderella, Sit, was a People Magazine pick, an Amazon bestseller, and a Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist, and was named one of Zibby Media’s Most Anticipated Books of 2025. Her latest memoir, The Big Day, is a funny, unflinching look at love, marriage, and the complicated question of whether to stay or walk away. You can find her musings at One Minute Thoughts From A Pink Head on Substack. She lives in Los Angeles with two dogs, two cats, and her husband, Big Johnson, where she has several scripts in various stages of development while working on her next memoir.

First things first: you named your dog Ron Howard. I need the backstory​!! And more importantly, did Ron Howard have any idea he was living with a woman whose life was about to become its own movie?

Ron Howard came into my life when I turned forty. I met him online the first week of January. His profile read “He'd spent the holidays behind bars,” so I sprung him first chance I got.  Ron Howard had thick strawberry blonde hair like Opie in “The Andy Griffith Show” which was a show I watched with my father. Ron Howard played Opie and was such a cute little boy and so was this Poodle Pomeranian mutt I rescued. He went everywhere with me including work.

​At 45, you were essentially told you had “aged out” of advertising. Did you ever want to go back to those people afterward and say, “Just checking... am I still too old, or am I now interesting enough for a memoir?”

I am grateful now that I left when I did. It sent me down a path that completely changed the second half of my life. From the time I was sixteen palm and card readers told me I would become a writer. I just never believed them.  I loved my job as a film editor because I loved being on a team. Once they decided to let me go, I was on my own. Well, me and Ron Howard, which made me stretch into editing the Cinderella movie by myself in China, which ultimately led into writing a memoir about that experience. 

​Then comes the 2:45 A.M. phone call about going to China to work on a Cinderella movie. ​This will be the first full-length movie you edit by yourself. What did you learn about yourself by taking this risk? (as you know I read the book, i'm trying to get to the "fearless attitude" you have.​

I love traveling. I’ve been fortunate in being able to travel to quite a few exotic places, but nothing prepared me for rural China. First, it took four days to get to the first location. and our last location was an hour down the side of a mountain on a donkey carrying my editing equipment and the two dogs I rescued. 

Trust was the biggest lesson for me. Trusting when things went wrong that I would be okay. Even though I didn’t speak Mandarin and the crew didn’t speak English, heartfelt communication happened during these three months with this film crew.

You were editing a movie in a language you couldn't understand. How do you edit dialogue when you have absolutely no idea what anyone is saying? Were you watching faces, listening to rhythm, praying... all of the above?

I did have an assistant who spoke four languages. He was my window into communication throughout my journey.  But the first two weeks we were there, he was needed on the set, so I was left on my own in a tiny village to navigate my day, He did check on me every evening to make sure I had a cup of noodles while he sorted my film from that day’s shoot.

​You write about desperately missing ​two, maybe three things: ​Ron Howard, conversation and coffee. If someone had appeared with a magic wand and said, “Lisa, you may have only one,” which would you have chosen?

I would choose Ron Howard, but I wouldn’t have had the same experience had he been along. Same thing for the coffee and conversation. Besides I drink Jasmine tea every day now almost twenty years later from it being the only thing I wanted to drink there.

You go all the way to China and somehow start rescuing dogs. Be honest: were you there to edit Cinderella, or was Cinderella simply the cover story for an international dog-rescue operation?​ Or was that about "rescuing" Lisa and your sanity?

Such a sweet and funny question. I had no idea these dogs would come into my life. It never occurred to me. I think it’s one the reasons this memoir is so magical. Well, that along with so many other things that happened.

​For every woman who has ever been told she's too old, too late, too something to reinvent herself: if you could go back to 45-year-old Lisa on the day she lost her job, what would you tell her? ​

I was devastated when it happened. I had no clue as to who I was outside an edit bay. My life from the time I was twenty-four until then was work. And when I wasn’t working, I was looking for my next job. So I would tell my much younger self, “The best is yet to come. You won’t believe all the extraordinary adventures you will have."
​
SPOILER ALERT: You’re in a foreign country, you don’t speak the language, you have no money, and suddenly you realize your visa has expired. This is no longer Cinderella. This is a hostage thriller! What was going through your head, and how did you keep yourself from completely panicking?

The film “Midnight Express” looped through my mind. A dark rat infested dudgeon with daily beatings. And as you know from reading my books I am far from a dark person, but I was scared that I wouldn’t make it home to see Ron Howard again.

---

Website
Instagram
Facebook
LinkedIn​

Purchase the book HERE.