WEBVTT - Kathleen Turner 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.120 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:07.240 Kathleen Turner made her film debut thirty years ago in 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:11.160 the blockbuster thriller Body Heat. Since then, she's taken on 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:15.800 the female roles actress's dream about playing, a word often 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:20.599 used to describe her work brazen. On screen, We've seen 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:24.800 her in Peggy Sue Got Married, Precy's Honor, The Accidental Tourist. 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:28.400 On stage, she's earned Tony nominations for Who's Afraid Of 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:32.000 Virginia Woolf and Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. Yet, 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:35.680 her career has not been without disappointment. Her most recent 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:40.560 Broadway play, High closed last year after just eight performances. 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:43.840 Now she's taken it on tour. She's performing in San 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:47.440 Francisco later this month. I had lunch with Kathleen at 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:51.920 Telepan Restaurant on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The restaurant was 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:56.360 between shifts, getting ready for dinner service, vacuums blaring around us, 0:00:56.520 --> 0:01:00.560 dishes being stacked. As we talked Kathleen Turner, his mind 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:04.160 is always at work. Give her half an hour and 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:07.280 she'll solve the country's problems. So I've got an idea 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:11.880 if you want to hear it. I think we should 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:15.200 have a day when all women don't go to work. 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:18.920 If a handful of people in this country are going 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:22.560 to decide whether or not we will receive health care, 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:25.800 whether or not we have control over our bodies as 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:29.080 to when we wish to have a child, then what 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:35.560 would happen of the workforce one day, just with two 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:41.120 and reminded those people in Washington how important we are. 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:43.720 Do you think that for you? Because I know this 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:46.600 is true for me that at some point, maybe not 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:48.840 throughout your career, but at some point there was a 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:53.360 struggle to stay interested. No. I I think I was 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:55.919 brought up this way. My father was a foreign service officer. 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:00.600 We were always in a sense politically are you know? 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.160 Growing up? And I swear to gosh you when I 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:06.160 was about ten years old, my father we were at 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:10.440 some event, you know, like the fourth of July in Caracas, 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:13.360 Venice whatever or something, you know, and my father said, 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:17.959 please remember that you know your behavior reflects on your country. 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.600 And I can remember thinking vividly, oh my god, whatever 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:24.680 I do is going to be what people think of 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.919 the US, which is a heavy burden for a ten 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:30.080 year old. Let me tell you that might have been 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:31.919 unfair of him, It might have been a little rough. 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:38.120 He honestly believed it. And that sense of being part 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.840 of something and being responsible for something, I think was 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:46.320 instilled in meizens surely, very much so in some regard. 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:50.880 But at the same time, have you found it's been 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:53.640 hard for you to stay interested in this business throughout 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:59.160 you mean in the business of acting? Yes, no, No, 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:02.680 I certainly don't. I think make as much of a 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:05.120 priority of it as many other people I know in 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:09.200 the industry. But if I couldn't act, I just curl up, 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:13.200 shrivel up and die. Yeah. No, I can't live without it. Yeah, 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:17.680 has your attitude world have changed? It's gotten more passionate. 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:20.880 And well, I branch out now now because I've been 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:23.760 doing this for over thirty years now, and now I 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.760 can teach as well. Now I can direct as well. 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:29.080 But the but the reason I say this is because, 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:31.800 and I could be wrong, and this is my opinion. 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:36.000 This is the business, especially movies and television, the business 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:40.000 let's go of you or you let go of it 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:43.520 as interesting. And I wondered if at some point in 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:46.160 your career where you made films, especially there's a decade 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:49.840 where you make all these stones. Yeah, the world and 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:52.120 all this stuff is going, but you strike me somewhere 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:55.800 where you let go of it. I suppose so, But 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.440 did you lose interest? It was no. I never wanted 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:01.600 to live in Los Angeles. I had a daughter. I 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:03.480 was never going to bring up a girl out in 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:05.800 l A. Your daughter was born where here in New 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.560 York City, only raised her here. She has only lived here. 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:11.400 So from that period, the last movie you played like 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:16.520 a leading lady in Sereal mom My mom right, that's 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.800 when I got room with authorities. She's These things sort 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:23.760 of came around at the same time, a combination of circumstances. Yeah, yeah, 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:29.400 she was, and I got are A. She was in kindergarten. 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:31.359 So just all of a sudden, you just won't go 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.479 out there anymore. I couldn't fake it. I couldn't fake 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.400 looking and acting well, you know, there was I was. 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:41.120 It was very, very hard to to move at all. 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:43.800 We didn't really know what was going on for a 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.800 long time, you know. So I had all the fantasies 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:48.920 of some kind of dread disease that no one had 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:53.280 been able to diagnose that was killing me. And then 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:55.880 when they did diagnose it as all right, then they 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:59.080 started pumping me full of steroids and and you know 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.760 what that does, yeah yeah, And so at that for 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:06.200 about a year and a half, my entire woh, I'd 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:08.960 say longer, I'd say at least two years. My entire 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:14.600 focus was on being able to restore myself to some 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:20.000 normality of life. We lived in a brownstone when I 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:22.719 couldn't get up and downstairs, so we had to sell 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:29.640 that and move into once level apartment. You know. But 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:35.000 in the same way, I think I had always been 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:39.400 ambitious to it and working for growing up into a 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:44.239 full blown theater at coming home that happened in between films. 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:47.520 I would always go back to the stage. I met 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:51.320 too many actors in Hollywood, in l A film actors 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:54.360 who were terrified, I've ever going back to the stage. 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:59.160 They were afraid perhaps they had lost an edge or something. Secondly, 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.360 they were terrified that they'd be attacked because they had 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:07.560 been filmed successes, you know, that the critic unfair way, 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:10.760 somebody would be after them, you know, just because they 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:15.160 had the name yeah yeah, yeah, which I didn't, you know, 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:18.000 when I did Captain Hodgson Roof, which is my big 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:22.279 Broadway comeback in I remember I auditioned for and I 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.640 didn't get the part. I'm sorry, Okay, do you want 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:26.880 a break? No? No, no, no, no, it's okay. Who 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:30.880 was it? Danny Hugh Kelly? He was great, he was 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.919 so continued, yes, yeah, well okay, Well you didn't do 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.960 so bad, you know, I started along. Williams is a 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.320 good one to fall back. I'm not a bad one. Yeah, 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:45.080 so I did Captain hot Tin Roof. Honestly, Michael Das 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.160 was calling me up. Jack Nicholson was calling me up. 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:49.120 Warm Baby was calling up and saying, don't do it, 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:51.280 don't do it, don't do it. You know they'll just 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:54.440 kill you. And I said, you know, you don't understand. 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:58.680 I'm better on stage, and I think I am. But 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:01.960 I also found that making films for me. I had 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.720 an agent who once said to me, if you never 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:08.560 did another movie again, what would you be missing? And 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.400 at that point I was looking at the movies that 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:13.960 I could do, the ones I was doing, where things 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.160 were if we all went to work and everybody did 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:20.520 their job perfectly, if everybody was perfect, would change the world. No, 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.200 the best we can with mediocrity, even if we were. 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:29.440 It's a killer. You go into the script is like okay, 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:31.320 and we think we're gonna be able to maybe somehow 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:33.800 we're gonna be able to make it better. My problem 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:37.480 with film more now is that I find it's boring work. 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:39.920 I mean not. I'm not talking about the material. I'm 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.760 talking about the process of day acting for twenty minutes, 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.840 walking away for an hour we said everything, coming back 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:49.160 acting the same material, just from a different angle again, 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:53.480 maybe shooting to three pages a day. Right, it's so boring. 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.680 It's so boring. A TV show, You're wrong, a TV show. 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:04.240 Tell me, oh the coming back? About that? I just 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:07.640 hated the commitment. I hated the idea of being that 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:09.920 tied down. I thought, if I had to do the 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:13.360 same character year after year, I would definitely slip my throat. 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.960 Well yeah, because you think this mark on my throat here? Yeah, 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:19.960 I had sewed up. But I've been doing a TV 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:21.760 show and the thing I like about it, the thing 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:24.280 the thing I thought i'd hate about it. You know 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:28.040 what I like is I like being home in New York. Biggie, 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.280 I'm home. We shoot the show here. People think we're funny, 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:33.080 and as soon as they wrapped me. In the end 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:35.200 of the day, I wiped my cat makeup off my face, 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:36.800 and I'm at a restaurant with my friends in Manhattan 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.360 at eight o'clock every night. I have a life. I 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:41.480 have a great life from the shooting. But you never 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:48.400 do a serious really talking about oh what a hard breaker? 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:50.439 Does this ever happening? This is the first time it's 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:55.720 happened to me, I thought, so, I really did, and 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.360 you know, and the audience response, which I was never 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:04.160 entire really sure if the play was as strong as 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:08.440 it needed to be. However, you reach point in the 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:11.080 amount of work that you do and your willingness to commit, 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:14.840 you cannot have any doubts anymore. You simply say, I 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:19.079 absolutely believe in this. That's how you must behave Although 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:21.120 in the back of my mind there will retain some 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:25.400 doubts as to the the play itself, had no doubts 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:30.320 as to the performances, or the audience response or the 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:34.440 heart of the material about addiction versus faith, you know, 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:39.079 which is to me a fascinating kind of concept. What 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:41.720 did the place say about that that is a constant battle, 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.200 that there is no winner, that addiction has no cure, 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:49.079 and that faith can be part of of making life 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:53.360 livable again and breaking the bonds of addiction, but there 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.960 is no cure for either, which perhaps was not as 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:00.720 uplifting as some people might have voted on by Ashman 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:07.319 this is Broadway. But it never ever occurred to me 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:11.000 that we'd only be open a week. I mean the 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:13.920 first thing I did, of course, it was just getting 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:16.880 sick as it all. You know they only do this too, Boddy, 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:19.400 when when you finished a long run or a long 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.120 commitment to our season of something, you get sick because 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.679 you care, and you get you get so sick. I 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:27.400 remember I would be sick. I was doing a play 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:29.640 and I had the flu. You get to the Saturday 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:30.959 Matt May, and you know you have to do the 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:33.720 Saturday night show. So now you're rolling into your seventh show. 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:36.120 You did two on a Saturday, and I'd lay on 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.680 my bed in my addressing room and I'd say a prayer. 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:42.160 I'd say, please God, I hope people come and rob 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.160 the box office of the theater, and while they're here, 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:47.400 they come up here and shoot me in my bed 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:49.480 and kill me because I can't go down there and 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:53.680 do this goddamn show again. Is your daughter interested in 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:57.880 the business. She is a singer song right, with an 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:03.280 amazing voice and me easy ability, and her songs are 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:13.120 just I'm I'm stung, and she's this charming, compassionate, interesting woman. 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:18.360 I'm like, I like my daughter. Wow. But but well, 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:20.240 you know, there are a few years in there, in 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:23.320 the teenage years, when you really wonder how the heck 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:25.920 she's going to turn out. I mean you really, and 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:29.080 you feel it's outside your control. You did what's good 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:31.880 and all this stuff, and she just turned out so good. 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:35.600 There's my daughter's fifteen, and there's some days you don't 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:37.320 know yet. There's some days I want to send her 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.640 to Afghanistan. But without a doubt, there were many days 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:45.000 when I had that feeling when you look at your 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:47.160 career then, because this is something I do which I 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:49.439 don't do, I don't think back, I don't want, I 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:53.000 don't care. No, there is no museum of Turner in 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:57.600 my house or anywhere else, no shrines to her. But 0:11:57.640 --> 0:11:59.280 when you think about it, when you think of like 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:01.080 when I look back of myself and when I was 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:03.559 beginning in this business, I'm like that poor schmuck because 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:07.040 I didn't remember that if I only focused on my work. 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.319 I have to tell you something terrible. I agree with you. 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:14.440 You were often a schmuck. Yes, you were just very 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.200 full of yourself a lot of the time. Really, I 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:20.160 believe so. You think so much. Yes I do. I 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:24.719 think I was. I would say no, I did. I 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:26.840 didn't even get a bit of this one. But there 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:31.000 you go. I probably was too well. I was gonna say, yeah, yeah, 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:34.400 you call a spade a spade here. Yes, indeed, I'll 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:39.520 call you law turner for nothing. Don't. But anyone who 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.520 has worked with me, See, the only people who would 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.000 say that are people who have never really worked with me. 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:47.719 But when you look back, when you do look back 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:49.880 and think about what you were like, they're making films 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.240 to each other. Well, we can have more of that too, 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:59.800 in a moment, more in a moment. But make all 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:02.880 the film, these great films. When you look back at her, 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:04.960 what do you think of her? What was she like 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:07.480 to you? What were you like when you were first starting? 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:10.319 I make you did but naive? I think I was 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:15.600 very naive. Film kind of happened to me, you know. 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:18.400 I came to New York to be a Broadway starter. 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:22.560 I was always I grew up in London, great theater 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:26.400 shows and stuff. I never had any contact with film 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.720 or with TV making. Well. I first moved to New York. 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:31.760 I got a sup bumper. I was on the same 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:36.360 Yeah you would, because you were going on somewhere past 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:41.920 in the hallway. And then came buddy that I always thought. 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.280 I remembered you were shot body Heat and you came 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:48.040 back to say hello to some of those people, of course, 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:49.840 and came to New York and had a drink with 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:51.160 some of them, and I got to see so I 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:54.719 say hello, good body fleetingly and you were just shot by. 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.120 They all looked at you like you were you know, secretariats. No, 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:01.040 not just that people you say, you know, well, where 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:02.880 have you been you? I haven't seen you for six months. 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:05.599 I've been shooting a film, you know, a movie in 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:14.360 Los Angeles, like, oh, what's it called Body Heating? It went, oh, honey, okay, 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.240 I confess I went went out to be a porn star. Yes, 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:25.680 but then you made those movies in that. Was there 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:30.440 something you wish you did differently? No? No, I turned 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:32.680 out a lot of things. You know, it turned down 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:36.600 your basic body heat two three, four five. You know, 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:41.200 after romancing a lot of events. It seems as though 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:46.280 every time you have a success in one sort of genre, 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:51.000 then you're just supposed to do that. Yeah, but you 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:52.960 already did that. They want to make five of those 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:56.760 in a row because it proved successful. But it's not 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:00.920 interesting to me. I proved it was successful, thank you 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:03.400 very much, but just in a voyeuristic way for me. 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:05.800 Give me an example, what was it like working with 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:11.280 John Houston? Very interesting? Tell me because I idolized Houston. 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:13.520 I mean, you got to work with John was the 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:18.960 one before his last Pristine's Honor was his last Means 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:24.040 You film. You know, we had terrible, terrible Emphasema couldn't 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:29.479 move without oxygen tank. You know, he would see him 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:32.160 count the steps he would have to take to get 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:36.080 from one place to another, you know, sort of counting 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:40.920 the breaths that he would need. Didn't stop he's thinking 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:45.040 any but he would I think probably gave us more, 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:50.120 gave Jack, I mean, more more liberties than he would 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:53.360 have I think so, because he would have someone pointed 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:55.160 that out to you, to someone who knew his methods, 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:58.320 say that to you his daughter, and it's a different 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.040 Houston on his film. Yeah, he would say all right, 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.080 you know, you show me something and then we'll go. 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:08.200 So I'd look at Jack Nicholson go, well, okay, how 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:12.400 about we started the scene where like I'm face down 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:15.400 over the arm of the sofa and you're just pulling 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:18.760 away at the camera company, you know, and Jack goes, oh, yeah, 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:21.520 that's great. I mean we aren't. So you know, my 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.040 idea was the who's on top in the bed scene, 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:26.680 you know, when we've ultimately rolled off the edge of 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.560 the bed, with Jack going my back, my back the 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:35.000 whole the time anyway, So he would give us more 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:40.520 freedom I think than than yeah, and they come in 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:43.400 and say yes or no or you know, right direction 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:47.560 or whatever. But there was one day in particular when 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:49.960 it was a scene where the day where the character 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:53.000 really had to break down in fear of her life 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:57.440 because she'd been caught out, you know essentially, and we're 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:02.000 shooting in this terrible aclaustrophobic little house which made every 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:09.119 angle and lighting the issue impossible. And he would have 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:11.480 the camera and everything he's set up, I've waited four 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:16.040 hours coming. We'd be one run through and he'd say, no, 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:17.840 I don't like it this way and going and I 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:21.840 ain't taking another four hours, hour after hour after hour, 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:25.280 so you're ready to scream and cry and kick with frustration. 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:28.640 And I overheard him say to one of the first ads, 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:33.200 do you think she was ready? Now? Not the youth? 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:38.080 So I yes, I was ready. That was the only 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:39.760 time he really did that to me. Who was the 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:42.159 director that you think out to? Who was the director 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:49.720 you really admired Coppola? Coppola from yeah, tremendously. He had 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:54.399 such an extraordinary grasp of the possibilities of the images, 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:58.720 in of what the camera could do and when I 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:04.320 could see. And I learned so much from him. Bizarrely, 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:07.719 some of my best work, I think was for Ken Russell. 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:12.080 You know who's certifiable I mean, but then he's he's 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.840 certifiably a genius too. How many movies did you make 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:25.040 with only one? Oh? He had a way of For example, 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:27.800 in Crimes of Passion, there's a scene and she's his 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:32.320 fifty dollar hooker on Hollywood Avenue at night. The scene 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.520 takes place in this hotel room and the walls are 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:40.640 papered with this shiny, hideous pink and purple shiny wallpaper, 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:46.600 and he had a flashing neon light set over to 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:51.399 the side that was like the motel sign on the street. Yeah, 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.679 that was the only light. Are acting I had to 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:58.960 take place within the timing and the pulsing of that 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:03.639 neon lamp which he regulated, you know, and the reflections 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:07.960 that came off the wallpaper. It's genius. The older I get, 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:11.040 the more it's all technical to me. Now, I agreed, 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:13.640 you either have the inspiration or you don't. I don't 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:16.400 need anybody to inspire me to play the part. Typically, 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:18.720 But but in the theater where you've done all this 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:21.800 complex material, who were the theater directors who were the 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:24.639 most memorable to Who's someone who you just had loved 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:28.880 working with him in the theater cat Tin Rufe, whose name, 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:37.760 of course just left my head, British director, absolutely brilliant. Yes, 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:42.159 and then also with Virginia Wolf, which was some of 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:47.800 the most anthony page some of the most gentle misdirecting 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:52.800 directing I've ever had. I mean, you didn't really realize 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:56.840 until much further into the process how much he was 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:01.160 actually giving you. You know, when you did that part, 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:05.000 I really got to the end of Martha finally you did. Yeah, 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:07.399 but it took that whole time. Was it tough? To 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.960 do that. No, it was glorious. It was glorious to 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:16.240 feel so used up. It was so satisfying. You understand, 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:20.160 there's a thing that that's happens, and then you don't 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:23.080 have to share this opinion. I understand. But like Elizabeth Taylor, 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:26.840 like Bacall, like Stock or Channing, you're asked to play 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.920 women who have a lot of authority. You're asked to 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:32.920 play women who straightened people out a lot in the show, 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:37.120 or don't depend very independent woman and and and there's 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:39.680 a kind of a forcefulness to that. Do you find 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:42.479 that you would rather play the other side of him? 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:46.640 You can't play the weak women. You'd victim, you know. 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:50.800 And I think that's a real limitation. Yeah, something in 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.760 me would just kick and scream and come out. I 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:57.080 just know that if I actually said, okay, okay, okay, 0:20:57.119 --> 0:21:00.199 I'm gonna do this poor help us little woman who 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.840 doesn't fight for anything, I would betray it somewhere down 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.440 the line, I know I would. What do you want 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:09.320 to do next? What's the part you having done in 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:13.320 the theater? I just got a whole slew, which is 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:18.239 always nice. Having just lost my job. You know, they 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:22.080 lost you? Yes, thank you a couple of interesting ideas 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:25.560 you've come up. One is o play called The Killing 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:28.920 of Sister George. Do you remember this? Oh about a 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.880 pretty stradio drama. I'm not sure how I feel about it, 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:36.080 which is very intriguing to me. There's a great deal 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:38.920 of humor and everything. At the same time. The woman 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:44.760 is absolutely wretched, awful, abusive, you know, qualities that I 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:49.520 truly despise. The other side I just adore. So I 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:51.199 gotta have you know, we're gonna sit down and have 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:53.399 a reading on that one. Is there other alb you 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:57.600 want to do? Well? He's writing a new one, yeah, 0:21:57.760 --> 0:21:59.760 which is interesting. Was that experience like working with him? 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:03.159 Very hands on, he's very press he's very very present. 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:06.120 At the time though his partner of thirty or five 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:09.680 years was dying. In fact, it was a race between 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:13.080 whether we open on Broadway first or his partner would 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:16.879 would breathe his last So I'll be probably gave us 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:20.679 less attention then he has in many, many, many years, 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:27.080 which I rather liked, because he can be difficult. He's 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:30.960 very very controlling about the interpretation of material. Yes, and 0:22:31.040 --> 0:22:32.919 he's not as good a director as he thinks he is. 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:36.760 Do you go to the theater much you watch a 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:39.960 movie goer and a theater goer. I go to theater 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:43.720 more than films. I always have. You know, when your 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:46.920 show is canceled, you say, and the idiots put money 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:50.119 in that, you know, which just makes you angry, because, 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:54.720 of course there's no rhyme or reason. I liked Good People. 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:59.399 I was interested by the play. It's intricate, interested in writing, 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:04.840 and I think that Francis McDormand it's lovely, lovely work. 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:09.159 Then of course that was the Book of Mormon. Honey. 0:23:09.240 --> 0:23:12.600 I don't usually laugh out loud and public, and I 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:16.399 was simply cowling. And at the end of the show, 0:23:16.880 --> 0:23:19.960 this guy in the aisle behind me had his phone 0:23:20.000 --> 0:23:23.280 out and he said, I'm tweeting Kathleen Turner, Pete and 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:25.960 her partents. I said, go right ahead, go right ahead 0:23:26.000 --> 0:23:32.200 on um how I'll be very honest with you about something. 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:35.600 I've been in tremendous physical pain myself for the last 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:39.240 couple of years, very bad back from doing a play 0:23:39.400 --> 0:23:42.080 on a raped stage when we did street Car two. 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:44.960 I never had one back problem in my life, and 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:47.560 I was fairly young that I was thirty four. I 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:51.200 did that play in I was thirty four. My back 0:23:51.240 --> 0:23:53.520 has never been the same. Now I can't take anything 0:23:54.119 --> 0:23:58.080 because I can't work in my business. In this business, 0:23:58.119 --> 0:24:03.800 I can't be high. I used to make that mistake. 0:24:03.880 --> 0:24:06.400 I made it bad, you know. In terms of when 0:24:06.440 --> 0:24:08.520 the r A was at some of its very very worst. 0:24:09.440 --> 0:24:11.960