WEBVTT - Judith Light Once Told Her Agent, "No Soaps, No Sitcoms" 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.240 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:12.920 Judith Light maybe among the world's most versatile actors. Her 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:16.280 big break was Ibsen on Broadway, but she got famous 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:21.200 as a housewife prostitute on One Life to Live. Shixes 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:25.440 and Zionists, victims and villains, had a gabbler and Who's 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:28.840 the Boss. Light is a living lesson in following the 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:33.599 work wherever it takes you. She's got two featured actress 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:38.440 Tony's and eighteen credits in made for TV movies. There 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:41.960 was one period of her life when she couldn't multitask 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:44.919 on One Life to Live. She was churning out an 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:48.599 hour of melodrama every single day, and her life was 0:00:48.640 --> 0:00:51.960 the set and her fellow actors. That's how my husband 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:54.240 Robert and I met. They saw the chemistry between us 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:56.480 and they wrote he was on the show thirty seven 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.320 years later, we're still here. Yeah. I know you went 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:01.920 to Carnegie Yeah, and and and and before you got 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:03.040 on One Life Till if you did a bunch of 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:06.360 other things prior to One Life theater, right, and so 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:08.640 when you and you said to your agent, no sub 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:11.479 snow sitcom. That's right, and you had a multi year 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:14.560 both I'm not a person work and you want to 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:18.520 hit sitcom. Yeah, that's the way it happened. But what 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:22.360 what what happened was I realized that I was really 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:26.760 being very part judicial about those two forms of work. 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:29.480 You want one life for how long? Five years? And 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:32.920 and how would you describe those five years? Well, you know, 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.759 it takes up your whole life. And that's what it did. 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:37.319 It took up my whole life. And because I had 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:39.240 a big story a lot, it took up a lot 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:41.080 of my life. And the script in my pocket going 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.560 out and that's right, that's right on the subway next 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:45.399 to some guy who probably had a gun in his pocket, 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:48.400 and sure going I love you, Gret God, great, I 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:50.840 love you. I love you. Don't you know how much 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:52.760 I love you? And some guy next to me was like, 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:55.840 you know, you better shut up. I stab you. This 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:59.320 writing is terrible. I might tell me about it, but 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:02.400 they started to write. I mean, you know, that's an 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:06.320 hour of programming every day. How do you mean? People 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:08.800 told me be gentle with them, but it's the toughest 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:12.000 job in show. There's no question and daytime acting. If 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:14.400 you're in a lot and also you know for directors too, 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:16.720 it's like, you know, you don't have you don't have 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:18.839 a life. So the five years was basically no life. 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:20.680 And finally Robert said to me, he said, you have 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:22.560 to leave. He said, if you don't leave, and he 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:24.360 had been out in California. He said, if you don't leave, 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:26.239 you're going to be here forever. And I said, I 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:28.639 don't want to leave. I love my part, I love 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:30.880 this show, I love these people, I love New York. 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:32.280 I want to be in New York. And it's like, 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:35.079 he said, you're going to be here forever. He said, 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:39.640 you've got to get up the got so when the 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:42.359 soap is over and you decide you're gonna move to 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:45.960 California right away? Right? Whose decision was that? Well if 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:50.000 ultimately became mine. I mean, Robert really was the point 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:52.480 person for getting me to get that it was time 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:56.240 to go, and that he know he had been on 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:58.400 the show, went to l A, did a couple of 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.080 pilots and then he said, you know, you really need 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:02.840 to be out there and I said, why why do I? He? 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:04.360 I said, here, I can do theater, I can do 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:07.160 this show. He said, you'll work out there and I said, okay, 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:10.000 so we go. So it was really him kind of 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:12.959 before he worked well. I did a movie of the 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:19.320 week first, and what was that? So awful? In this 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:21.240 this is probably one of the worst things I ever did. 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:28.679 It was called Intimate Agony. Stop stop leaving at me, 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:35.600 Intimate Agony, the Herpies story. I'm telling you that was you. 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:39.560 I remember that it was intimate. They were going to 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:42.120 call it Love Sick, but Dudley Morre's movie had come 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:44.800 out and we couldn't call it Love Sick. It was 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.080 I had to tell somebody who I was about to 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:52.080 sleep with, I think that I had herpies? Can you 0:03:52.120 --> 0:04:01.920 recreate that? Now? I cannot? I cannot steve so anyway, 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:06.680 So yeah, I did that, and then I did Saying Elsewhere. 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:09.120 I did an episode of Staying Elsewhere. I played a very, 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:11.880 very pregnant woman who went into the operating room to 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:14.160 shoot the doctor who was supposed to have given my 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:18.000 husband a vastsect to me because I ended up pregnant. 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:24.160 Were you about to break so? Well, I guess the 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:26.599 idea was you molded over and you didn't want the 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:28.560 baby to know this. I don't want the baby to 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:31.960 see this. This was my back story. This is very good. No, 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:35.200 that was not the back story. But what happened after 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.560 that was I didn't get work for a long time. 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.160 My agents called me and said, oh, they want you 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:44.719 for this pilot for this series. And then they called 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:46.400 me back five minutes later and said, oh, we called 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:52.160 the wrong person. Good times. So I was like, okay, 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:55.839 it's like my mom bought me a snow globe and 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:57.560 I'm home and someone walked up and pulled up in 0:04:57.560 --> 0:04:59.520 a car, came into my house, grabbed my snow globe 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.880 and smashed and on the floor. Does that sounds well? 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.640 But it's those things that hurt in that way. I 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:10.480 always wonder how people, in particular people now of your 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.720 stature and everybody's like everybody wants you that there's this 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.960 place where we go to where you got to get 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.480 rid of that stuff quickly. You can't let it best. 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:24.440 You have to let it well. Now you know, you 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:27.080 have a family of other things that you you focus on, 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:30.400 but there's some there's some way in which it's really 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:32.880 important to let go of it and not hang onto it. 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:35.320 I find I always want to know from people who 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:38.120 are really successful, how how of course they have those 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:40.480 things happened to them, and how do they let it go? Well, 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.799 it's like it's like years ago networks and movies, they 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:46.920 everyone really knew where they were going to go. They 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:48.560 sit there and say, we're gonna make this movie, whether 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:50.479 the movie was worth it, whether it was good, whether 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:52.400 it was going to succeed. They called you up and 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:54.280 say we're gonna pay you this fee. And here's the 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:56.320 dates that we all went. It's not like the independent 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:59.800 world now where people line everybody up and then we 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:02.040 go if we can get the money, and if we 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:04.840 don't get the money, sorry, And so you don't really 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:07.520 know what you're gonna do. And I've talked to people now. 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.640 I wouldn't say anticipating problems, but I would be talking 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:14.560 to somebody these days and I'd say, and listen, Bob, 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:17.000 if you're financing the film and you find out that 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.800 someone else comes along, who's better for you to obey 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:22.480 his money than me, don't worry about it, like just 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.559 I'll walk away. And if I do the movie, great, 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:27.800 And if I don't do the movie, I couldn't care less. 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.400 That's really kind of you. I don't get attached to 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.440 any of the projects and know that that's the that's 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.400 I think the larger point about our business in life 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:40.800 is that once you're attached to something, there's this sense 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:44.000 in which we hold on the things and we don't 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:46.280 let them go. This is a business for that. It's 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:48.320 a really bad business for that, and I have to 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:51.200 It's sort of like, if you're in it, find a 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.680 new context, find another way of operating within it, because 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:58.839 that's a really gorgeous gesture that you make. And I 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:01.400 think it's really wise people to know that that there 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:03.760 are people of your stature who are willing to say 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:05.599 that to somebody. It's like if you could give that 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:08.880 information to people who are young and starting out. It's like, 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.200 I think from this mind, because it spend a lot 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:13.680 of time, waste a lot of time. I think, I 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:16.320 know I did just sort of wanting it and needing 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:19.240 it and and just let it go. How long were 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:21.400 you out there and living out there before you did 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:26.840 the sitcom? We went in January and I got Who's 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:30.880 the Boss was the first pilot that I made um 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:35.280 shooting the series nine months after you got there. Yeah, 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:37.880 you didn't really stress too much in l A. No, 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:39.840 but I did. I did. I kept going up for 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:42.520 all these auditions. I kept going for nine months. Yes, 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:45.480 but but but wait what I where I was coming 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:48.360 from was, hey, I just got two Emmys for a 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:50.680 soap opera. I mean I had a lot of this 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:54.360 kind of you know, Where's mine? Which is a really 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:56.840 bad ademt you realize how lucky you are that I'm here? 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:01.200 And yeah, no, that was that was what was going 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:05.160 on underneath covered over with Hi, how are you just 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:08.119 want to be here? And you know that real bull 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:10.920 and people feel it. And I said to my manager 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:13.040 at the time, who's no longer alive, I said to her, 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:17.760 what's going on? He said, you're enraged? I said, I'm sorry. 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.040 What And he said, you're you're furious. You have an 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.320 expectation that people should just be giving you stuff, And 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:26.160 he said it's untenable. People feel it. You walk into 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.000 a room and nobody wants to be around you. Do 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:30.080 you think he was right? I know he was right. 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:34.079 Why because he knew he could see something that I 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:36.680 wasn't that I was that I was in denial about that. 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.839 I was unwilling to see that about myself. And so 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.120 when I walked into the audition for Who's the Boss? 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:44.680 I was in a very different who created that show, 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:47.959 Blake Hunter and Marty Cohen. I love talking to you 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:50.920 because you remember all this history. Remember when you would 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:52.920 go up for a network and you would have different 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:55.720 shows that people were interested in you for, and you 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:58.120 would have to put them in different positions, like for 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:00.559 a second, third position. Well, I was up three shows 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.120 at one time at ABC, and the first one, because 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.079 I had just gotten off the soap, was a thing 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:08.000 called Staff of Life, and it was about soap opera writers, 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.480 and so I put that in first position, and I 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.040 put this thing called You're the Boss in second position. 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:14.880 And then I said to her, I'm not going to 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:17.880 go in for your the Boss. He said, why wouldn't 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:20.079 you go in? I said, well, you know. I put 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:21.719 the other one and it was Jay san Rich, who 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.400 was a wonderful director. I said, I want to work 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:27.520 with j. This is good. He said, you're terrified. He said, 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:31.079 you're afraid. I said, no, I'm not. He said, you're afraid. 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:34.600 Pack up your stuff and go do the taped audition 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:38.920 with Tony Danta. Just get your ass over there. And 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:40.559 I was like, all of these things that were coming 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.720 up about my myself and the things that I hadn't 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:46.920 really looked at before in a really deep way. We're 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:50.840 all surfacing and he was calling me on them. And 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:53.160 I went in and I auditioned with Tony and we 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:55.719 had the most fabulous chemistry, and it was just when 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:59.679 it was camera, yeah, in front of a live audience. 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:02.120 But when I did that, I came back home and 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:04.960 I said to her, but I said, oh, dear God, 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:08.960 I put the wrong thing in first position. And he said, well, 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:10.680 you're just gonna have to live with it. You're gonna 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.120 have to live with that choice. And what happened was 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:15.920 the executives at ABC saw the tape between Tony and 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:17.959 myself and they said, were They took care of it. 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:19.319 They said, we're going to put her. She doesn't know 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:21.040 what she's doing. So they called the head of staff 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.800 from Life. They were sorry, and they said, putting her. 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.679 We're putting her. Let go. Had you done the live thing, 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:31.080 the four camera thing, done theater? Obviously? What was that 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:35.079 like for that transition? It was fantastic. It's the most fun. 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:37.880 It's fun. It's like doing theater. And Tony was so 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:39.599 great because Tony said, we're going to do this like 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:41.400 a theater. Piece. It's going to be one act play, 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:43.200 and that's how we're going to do it. So we 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:47.440 didn't go back and do a lot of first series, 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:50.320 went back then when it was a real audience. Yeah, 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:54.760 exactly exactly, And we came on and they put where 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:56.800 they put us was opposite the Cosby line up on 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:00.640 Thursday nights. That's where we started. Not a good place 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:02.640 for us to be. So they kept moving us around 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:04.600 all year because they had tested it. Remember when they 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:06.959 used to really test shows, and the audience would tell them. 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:09.440 They said, it tested off the charts, so we're going 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:11.320 to find a place for it, and they did, and 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:13.560 people found us in the summer rerun. That's how they 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.319 found it. Came back the second says that he did 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:19.120 a year or two years and they weren't doing well. 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:22.199 Then finally some famous show got canceled and they gave 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:23.960 them that slot. And then it was just like everything 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:26.679 just same with Everybody Loves Raymond. It was the same thing. 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.200 Phil Rosenthal talks about it all the time. It's like 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.400 they just they knew they had something and they if 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:34.600 you would stick with it, and today they don't really 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:37.040 stick with anything, right, So you know, you go to 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.800 carne email in grade school. You're a very bright woman, 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:41.839 very serious about your queer. When you win to Tony, 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:47.200 did that feel good? It did? Ivan Ivant won twice. 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:51.080 I won first for other Desert cities and then I 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:59.160 won for the Assembled Parties. Yeah, esecutive, it felt well. 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:02.560 I mean, I mean, when I want to win one day, 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.679 you probably won't. But you win an Emmy, you win 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:10.120 in a golden globe whatever. SAG awards all lovely, very grateful, 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.160 not to diminish, but there was something about winning a 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:14.880 Tony where you're like, you know, here's the thing. You 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:16.840 know what it's like to work in the theater. You 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.880 have this family, and so it expands out. You have 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:22.920 this extended family of people that really are rooting for you. 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:24.959 I was away from the theater for twenty two years. 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:27.480 I came back and did WIT, which is where I 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.160 was naked and shaved my head. So wait for I 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:32.400 want to get back Tony Dan. But now we're here. 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:35.480 What when you do the when you when you come 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:37.840 back to the theater after twenty two years, how does 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:40.920 that decision happen? Well, it happened out of the fact 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:44.120 that people only thought about me as an actor who 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:46.800 could do the soap op or the sitcom, the blonde 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:48.600 girl with the big shoulder pads and the you know, 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:52.480 fourteen pounds of blonde hair and extensions, and so it's 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:54.520 like and it's funny and it's great and it's an 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:58.880 incredible working ex turned a lot. Tony taught me so 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:01.760 much about comedy rething practically that I learned I learned 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:05.480 from Tony. And then it was like people didn't know 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:07.640 where to put me. I didn't all these movies of 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:09.080 the week, I've done all this stuff, and it was 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.920 like nobody could quite get me. They didn't know how 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:15.520 to get me. And I had to come back and 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.080 show people I'm willing to be here. I want to 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:22.240 be happened. Um, I auditioned who directed Derek Anson Jones, 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:24.880 who was quite ill at the time, and Leah Gardner, 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:27.840 who was his friend at Yale, actually took over and 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:30.880 helped to put me into the show. And um, it 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:33.559 was one of those things. It was Bernie Telsey and 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:36.559 Daryl Roth and I, you know, I came into audition, 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:40.760 I had if memories, so into one else explaining the park. Yes, Kathleen, 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:45.400 she was, I was, you know, I came, She's just 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:48.880 Angels with the originally so did I write Amazing and 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:54.440 Joe Mandela, you know, merely the Music Center before they 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:57.080 moved to Broadway, I know, running the gauntlet of gay 0:13:57.120 --> 0:13:59.440 men massigns saying I'm dying of AIDS. Can I have 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:04.040 your ticket? I'm not kidding. Last weekend at the Music 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:06.079 Center before they they were closing, I'm going to move 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:07.800 to New York. It was. It was horrible. I mean, 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:11.560 the zeitgeist of AIDS and angels. It was that time. 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:15.000 And I said, I so appreciate that you have that 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.920 as part of your context in life and what that 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:20.880 was for all of us, what we were doing, and 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:22.760 we're talking about the theater and how people are. So 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:24.880 I didn't. That's one of my shames that I didn't 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:26.280 pay enough attention to it at the time. And a 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:28.840 couple of my friends died and I really didn't. I 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:30.680 didn't really get. I was like, you know that somebody 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:33.160 said he's sick, and I was like, oh, well, god, 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:34.840 I mean, what can I what can I possibly do 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:36.760 for him other than just you know, fly back and 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:39.880 see And they had two dear friends of mine who 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:41.520 died of AIDS and it was all of a sudden 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.360 they just died, and I was like, what that was? 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:46.320 What we were all ready? Then they had a cancer 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:48.720 that was treatable. Then they had that cancer and they 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:53.960 were gone and and quickly to very ravaged in rabbage 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:57.000 and ravaged the whole community. And that's why GOODN organization 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.400 like Broadway Cares, Equity Fight AIDS came into being a 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:03.160 really took over and really helped. So when you step 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:06.960 out there two years after and you do that, how 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:11.160 did you feel? I was terrifying. I thought, truly terrible. 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:12.840 What do you do? What did you do to overcome that? 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:15.880 I didn't. I just accepted it and included it in 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:18.320 everything that I was doing. There was nothing else to do. 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:20.080 I mean, it's like, if you're going to take the 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:21.960 chance and do that, I mean I hadn't been in 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:24.000 front of the New York critics and twenty two years, 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:26.200 I hadn't been on a stage. I needed to go 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:28.760 back and take take voice lessons. Again. I've been in 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:30.200 a studio. You know what it's like to be in 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:32.920 a studio. So so I went to an opera teacher 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.240 and she never let me say. She just taught me 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:40.000 how to read again, and it was just this terrifying experience. 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.160 I mean it was almost I was almost apoplectic. And 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:45.960 I just said to myself, you get out there and 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:47.880 you do this. And how long did you run? In? 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:50.760 With almost a year? Where was it? It was here 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.880 at the Union Square Theater, which is no more downtown. 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:55.640 And they wouldn't let me do it in New York 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.480 unless I did it on the road. You've been on 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:00.760 the road. I did it in Austin. I did it 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.520 at the Kennedy Center in Washington. Then I did in Florida. 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.280 You want to try doing a play like Wit in Florida. 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:10.320 One night, Herb was there and I said to him, 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.400 what's going on with the sound system? This is what 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:21.880 was happening all through the play. He said, what's going on? 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:25.800 And he said, all the people with their occident tanks 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:28.160 were in the first row and that was the sound 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.040 that I was hearing. It was really it was that 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.200 was Florida was a rough place to do it because 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:35.400 I think they thought, oh, this, it will be cute. 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:37.920 It's called Wit. It's the girl from Who's the Ball. 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:40.720 She's very funny. And they would get up in the 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.840 middle of the show and it had continental seating, you 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:46.360 know continental seating, there's no isle in the middle, and 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:50.560 I would hear people say, Okay, come on, she's throwing up, 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:52.920 let's go. She thought she was being quiet, but it 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:55.560 was he is a hearing problem. Just really to let him. 0:16:57.600 --> 0:16:59.920 And the other thing that happened was like this character 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:02.000 has new tropinia. I mean, she's sick and she's dying 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:05.320 fourth stage ovarian cancer. And so the nurse puts me 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:07.800 in the wheelchair and between the wheelchair wheels me over 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:10.520 to the bed and she covers me over and I 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:14.360 hear somebody scream from the theater given the other blanket. 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:19.600 That was what it was like. What was that day 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:21.320 like for you? Like you get to the theater when 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:26.280 describe your process doing a play, a heavy play. Oh, 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:31.080 that's a really great question. I walk from the east 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:35.400 side where I am across town, and purposely i'm there 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.000 so that I can walk cross town. So I dropped 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:41.000 the day. I gotta drop the day and start going 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:43.320 over the plane in my head. I usually get to 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:46.640 the theater about two to two and a half hours early, right, 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:52.439 you do exactly right. Well, if I have to have 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:56.160 a wig or such a good idea right, and then 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:59.720 you get there and you say hello to everybody, greet everybody. 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:02.639 There's the whole thing, and then just get in the 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:06.119 place of the play. Have to be in that space 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:09.399 you said, I have to drain the day out of me, 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:13.240 exactly what you talked about, holding onto whatever you do 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:15.680 to just get neutral. That's right, and then you begin 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:18.400 the process of thinking about the entrance. That's right, that's right. 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:21.359 I would do yoga exercises. I would do a quick meditation, 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:25.240 something that would not put me out but really put 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:31.000 me into a centered, active place, and remembering that it 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:34.800 is my service. You give a performance. We are in 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:37.320 the business of giving. That's our work. The way I 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:45.800 hold it. The very versatile Judith Light another actor who 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:49.399 has appeared on successful TV shows, but has also left 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:52.840 her mark on the stage. In fact, she prefers it 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:55.600 is Laurie Metcalf. I feel more at home. I feel 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:58.560 like I know the craft better. And I still to 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:02.720 this day, even all those tapings of Roseanne and the 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:05.639 movies that I've done, I have a phobia of the camera. 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.600 The rest of my conversation with Lorie can be found 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:13.560 in our archive that here's the thing, Dot Org. Judith 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:30.560 Light is back after this. This is Alec Baldwin and 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:35.679 you're listening to Here's the thing. Judith Light's first Tony 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:38.679 was for her role as the depressed and very funny 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:44.440 failed screenwriter Silda Grauman in John Robin Bases Other Desert Cities. 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:48.639 It came just two years after her return to the 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:53.080 stage following twenty two years of work on screen. That 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:57.280 first role was her brilliant, devastating turn as a professor 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:04.240 dying of cancer in Wit Off Broadway. They were both parts. 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:08.359 Her manager, Herb Hampshire, encouraged her to take on. He 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:12.000 guided Light as a career adviser, but also as a friend. 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:16.359 Hampshire was a clinical psychologist who never worked as a 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:20.600 manager before she came along. Despite the professional risk, he 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:25.680 supported Lights going all in on theater after sitcom stardom. 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.760 Other Desert Cities. Was how long after Wits? Oh, it 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:32.640 was quite a while afterward I had done. In between 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:34.880 the two, I did a bunch because I came back 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:39.560 to Broadway. Tommy Klee, director of Hamilton's, I auditioned for 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:43.080 him for this play called Lombardi, which was about Vince Lombardi. 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:45.440 Everybody said to me and I don't think you should 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:47.600 go up for this, it's too small a part. I'm 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:49.960