Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing.
Speaker 1: Actress Elaine Stritch has been performing for nearly seventy years.
Speaker 1: No matter the medium, she brings her characters to life
Speaker 1: with a playful ferocity that naturally leads to scene stealing performances.
Speaker 1: Despite her enviable career in film and television, Elaine Stritch
Speaker 1: is a self professed Broadway baby. A big break came
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty when she was hired to understudy ethel
Speaker 1: Merman in Irving Berlin's musical Call Me Madam. She scared
Speaker 1: me to death. She's a tough When I got to
Speaker 1: the end of Call Me Madam, it was mine. It
Speaker 1: is not so surprising that you feel very strange. Elaine
Speaker 1: Stritch remained on stage for much of the fifties and sixties,
Speaker 1: playing such iconic roles is Martha and Who's Afraid of
Speaker 1: Virginia Woolf both Vera and Mame in the musical Mame
Speaker 1: and Amanda in Private Lives by Noel Coward. In venties,
Speaker 1: she originated what was arguably the role of her career,
Speaker 1: the acerbic Joanne in Stephen Sondheim's Company and Here's to
Speaker 1: the Girl who Just Watch Aren't the Best? In a
Speaker 1: TV documentary about the cast recording of that production, we
Speaker 1: meet Elaine's toughest critic, herself. Here she is listening to
Speaker 1: a take of that song she made famous, Ladies Who
Speaker 1: Lunch Rong, And of course I'm smoking a nice cigarette
Speaker 1: which helps the situation. Yeah, just to be clear, that's
Speaker 1: Elaine yelling at the sound of her own voice. That
Speaker 1: was over forty years ago. But Elaine Stritch has continued
Speaker 1: to hold herself to impossibly high standards, and she stayed busy,
Speaker 1: at least until recently. Earlier this year, she announced that
Speaker 1: she was leaving New York for her home state of Michigan.
Speaker 1: In April, at Elaine Stritch performed her last cabaret show
Speaker 1: at the Carlisle Hotel. About a month ago, I really said,
Speaker 1: I'm I want out of here. I want out of
Speaker 1: New York. I don't I shouldn't live in New York anymore.
Speaker 1: It's not for me anymore. It's too fast for me.
Speaker 1: Or no, it's not too fast. And I changed my
Speaker 1: mind about that. It's not this. It's not that it's
Speaker 1: just not for me. This is this is New York
Speaker 1: Taxi low and it's dinner and tonight and tomorrow and
Speaker 1: and I can't handle it anyway, because I'm not interested
Speaker 1: in handling. You just don't want you could do it.
Speaker 1: You just don't want to do it. Doesn't give me
Speaker 1: any satisfaction. I don't go home and say, I guess
Speaker 1: I told them so about a month ago. It had
Speaker 1: been an idea, and then a month ago you went,
Speaker 1: I'm doing it. I called up my nephew, who is
Speaker 1: a great buddy of mine in Birmingham, Michigan, and I said,
Speaker 1: I'm coming home. What do you think you're going to
Speaker 1: do there? Oh, you have no idea. I'm just saying
Speaker 1: a very active life. First of all, nothing. I'm really
Speaker 1: going to do nothing. I'm gonna wake up and go
Speaker 1: back to bed and go back to bed. That's exactly right.
Speaker 1: I want to do it. I want to sleep a lot.
Speaker 1: What's wrong with us? I would like to wake up
Speaker 1: and have my oat meal and read the paper and
Speaker 1: go right back to you, right back to be until
Speaker 1: about noon. So you're gonna go there and do nothing?
Speaker 1: And I like to go to dinner. I like to
Speaker 1: meet my nieces, my nephew's, my cousin's, my you know
Speaker 1: your relations there by way of who you're two sisters?
Speaker 1: Your two sisters I had two sisters, were three sisters.
Speaker 1: I was the baby and they kids in bedroom Detroit.
Speaker 1: You were in like what Bloomfield Hills or yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah your dad. But your dad was someone not
Speaker 1: in the car business. Daddy was, well, yes he was.
Speaker 1: He was the BF good ridch rubber. He was in
Speaker 1: the time. My mother called it the g DBF good
Speaker 1: Rich Rubber. You got it. What are your two sisters?
Speaker 1: What kind of lives did they have? No show business?
Speaker 1: Very very chic, very normal. Normal. Georgine had four kids
Speaker 1: and Sally had three seven seven guys running around and
Speaker 1: they're all crazy about me. Why shouldn't I go home?
Speaker 1: There's nothing to tie me here. It's not the same
Speaker 1: My career tied me here. I talk career, I talk
Speaker 1: I part and play and plan and plan and make plan.
Speaker 1: What am I doing next? What am I going next?
Speaker 1: And when you get off that merry ground, it gets
Speaker 1: you get a different stop. What to stop? It is
Speaker 1: the merry go around broke down? Why do you say
Speaker 1: that you could keep working but you don't want to? No,
Speaker 1: I don't want to find parts and look for him,
Speaker 1: and and and I said the other night, when is
Speaker 1: pretend going to end? Right? Slowly but surely, alex Is
Speaker 1: I'm starting to say I don't want to pretend anymore.
Speaker 1: I want to get up in the morning and I
Speaker 1: want it to be real. I don't want to I
Speaker 1: can't believe you're saying this, because it's so I am.
Speaker 1: It's so much. Maybe as a result of my getting older.
Speaker 1: I turned fifty a couple of weeks ago, and my
Speaker 1: wife I got married again, and my wife we're having
Speaker 1: a baby. And because of all this stuff, I realized
Speaker 1: I want to be me for change. I want to
Speaker 1: wake up and I want to say my words and
Speaker 1: have my thought or not say anything. It's such a
Speaker 1: self involvement. This, it is. It is. Why do you
Speaker 1: think you've lasted this long? You know what talent is?
Speaker 1: Why have you lasted all this time because you're talented?
Speaker 1: Certainly isn't because people think you're an easy time of it?
Speaker 1: Because I have to accomplish something in that department almost
Speaker 1: every day of my life. I have to You've never
Speaker 1: stopped trying to prove yourself. That's the key, isn't it. No,
Speaker 1: I got to go and do that part in that soap,
Speaker 1: in that smoke, I don't care what it is. Or
Speaker 1: I'm with an old coward on the West End, or
Speaker 1: I'm with how Prince on Broadway. I'm with all the big, big, big,
Speaker 1: big shots, and they're directing me well and guiding me well.
Speaker 1: And I'm I'm. You would approve you belong there with them, yes,
Speaker 1: And I'm being directed in the way of the big shots,
Speaker 1: and I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine. I'm I'm, I'm
Speaker 1: doing fine. But you but there's a point, I'm assuming
Speaker 1: when did you feel that you're in the room and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden it's like, I don't need anybody's advice.
Speaker 1: I know what I want to do. Here's what I do.
Speaker 1: Was there a time you remember in your life when
Speaker 1: that changed? I got self satisfied about the parts that
Speaker 1: I played. For example, well, like I was the I
Speaker 1: was the funny, kind of offbeat girl. I wasn't. I
Speaker 1: was never the romantic lead. I wasn't good that kind
Speaker 1: of looking girl in the movies. I couldn't be that
Speaker 1: kind of looking girl I was. Well, you could, you
Speaker 1: could have been look spised, but you just don't want
Speaker 1: to play it becauseose we're dull parts. Well, yeah, they
Speaker 1: weren't as good at parts, But I you're a sassier woman,
Speaker 1: and you played those parts. But I didn't want to
Speaker 1: be eve Arden. I really didn't. Okay, Okay, that's a
Speaker 1: good point. Why. Well, because I don't want to be
Speaker 1: a funny girl that's just cracking wise cracks, or staying
Speaker 1: up with the you know, with the rollers in her hair,
Speaker 1: or driving the car while the two leaves make out
Speaker 1: in the back of the car. You don't want to
Speaker 1: be that. No, what did you? What did you? I
Speaker 1: don't want them to make up in the right? What
Speaker 1: did you sprinkle on top of what might have been
Speaker 1: eve Arden for you, which it very easily could have been.
Speaker 1: What did you sprinkle on top of that to make
Speaker 1: sure that it wasn't eve Arden? What do you do
Speaker 1: that Eve Arden didn't do. I get dramatic or frightened
Speaker 1: or reel about something or pain. Yeah, there's a pain.
Speaker 1: It's not in Arden's work. Something dramatic happens to me
Speaker 1: in the course of a comedy, right, I don't know.
Speaker 1: But were always that way? What was I always? What way?
Speaker 1: Complicating things with the pain of your existence? This thing
Speaker 1: you tap into. Did you do when you were very young?
Speaker 1: I think so. I think I did. Were you the
Speaker 1: complicated one? Oh? I think so. I mean there's very
Speaker 1: often I would hear around our house where is he lane?
Speaker 1: And then my mother was and they say oh, and
Speaker 1: I'd say right here. They were worried about you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody was worried about me, because when I wasn't accountable,
Speaker 1: I was. I scared him and I didn't mean to.
Speaker 1: When did performing begin? For he was a were performer
Speaker 1: As a child, I was laughing. I was born laughing.
Speaker 1: And you were funny. Oh god, I was funny. I
Speaker 1: really was funny, and I made everybody laugh and I
Speaker 1: wasn't conscious of it. I want to tell you something.
Speaker 1: I'd love to tell you a line from my life
Speaker 1: to see if you get this, and I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell it to you. My mother and dad, as a
Speaker 1: present to me when I was six years old, took
Speaker 1: me to Niagara Falls, which was very close to Birmingham, Michigan.
Speaker 1: And I kept hearing about this, and I was going
Speaker 1: to wear my new pink coat and hat and I
Speaker 1: was going to Niagara Falls. And I kept hearing it,
Speaker 1: and you know Christmas morning, Christmas morning, whatever it was,
Speaker 1: and and I never said a word. I just sat
Speaker 1: in the backseat and I just waited. They pulled up
Speaker 1: Alec to the parking lot in Niagara Falls, and here
Speaker 1: we are. We're here, Landy, We're here, Come on, get out.
Speaker 1: And it was just me, Mom and dad. So the
Speaker 1: two sisters, the old your sisters, you know, the hell
Speaker 1: with them. And I got very teary eyed and pulled
Speaker 1: my mother back from the car and said, Mama, what
Speaker 1: what We're going to go see Niagara Fall? And I
Speaker 1: asked her if Niagara Falls had a baby? And to
Speaker 1: me and to my mother and my father, it was
Speaker 1: one of the most extraordinary dramatic lines of all time.
Speaker 1: All I was interested in is did this woman Niagara
Speaker 1: Falls have a baby? Because then I could play with her.
Speaker 1: And it was the I think, an absolute proof of
Speaker 1: how lonely and sad I was as a kid. I
Speaker 1: didn't know what the hell artistic was all out. I
Speaker 1: really didn't. I knew I had to express myself. I
Speaker 1: knew I had to express myself, and that's all there
Speaker 1: was to it. So when you left Michigan, when you
Speaker 1: left home, you lived at home in Michigan. Your family
Speaker 1: lived in Michigan until you left home. Did you go
Speaker 1: to college? No, I didn't go to college, which I
Speaker 1: graduated from high school where Sacred Heart Convent. You went
Speaker 1: to a convent. I went to a convent the soccerquer
Speaker 1: highly educational, big scholastic, scooby doo. You went there for
Speaker 1: what twelve years? That was your high school? When you
Speaker 1: left there? Where'd you go to Deshen Residents which was
Speaker 1: also the soccer cur but it was a residence finishing
Speaker 1: school for what it was like, um after school stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, Like I'm trying to think of one of
Speaker 1: the courses that we took, current events, isn't that? I
Speaker 1: guess how long were you there? Uh? Two years? Two
Speaker 1: years after and I went out and majored in dramatics
Speaker 1: at the new school in Greenwich Village. The finishing school
Speaker 1: was in the city when you were back in Michigan,
Speaker 1: Greenwich Village. Slim in New York and you went to
Speaker 1: finish your school in New York absolutely on ninety one
Speaker 1: and fifth Avenue. Oh my god, yeah, and I uh,
Speaker 1: I took these three courses at the school, which is fine.
Speaker 1: I had a roommate from Chicago who was majoring in journalism,
Speaker 1: and we were all very sophisticated broads. You went to
Speaker 1: New School for drama. That was your first acting exposure.
Speaker 1: What do you think about it when you first I
Speaker 1: loved it. I sat next to Marlon Brando. That was
Speaker 1: didn't hurt at all. I don't get you through class. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Walter Mattha was on the other side of me at
Speaker 1: the New School. Yeah, we had a very stellar cast.
Speaker 1: I was getting along fine and having the most fun
Speaker 1: I've ever had in my what's the first job you
Speaker 1: ever got? Well, first of all, I was at the
Speaker 1: studio theater at the New School and we had our
Speaker 1: own theater and Piscatter directed and Stella Adler directed, and
Speaker 1: we had all those Stanislavski people. We had more fun, Alex.
Speaker 1: You couldn't believe it. It was Stella like as a director,
Speaker 1: heaven she was what made her so very insight, all
Speaker 1: this kind of dramatics, you know, Laine and Malon and
Speaker 1: Wolf and you do it. She screamed her head off
Speaker 1: at us. She was crazy woman, absolutely divine. And when
Speaker 1: you left that program, what was your first job? Job?
Speaker 1: Summer stock, Westport, Connecticut, Do you remember what you did? Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: Craig's wife. I think I did. And people let me say,
Speaker 1: years ago, they go, what show did you too? And
Speaker 1: your name a show people have just never heard of.
Speaker 1: They go, Craig Craig's wife, would you play the saucy nurse?
Speaker 1: Would you play? I played the aunt, the ant that
Speaker 1: visited and told craig wife she was full of ship.
Speaker 1: You started as an aunt, and you're going to finish
Speaker 1: as an ant. That you're going Now you're an aunt.
Speaker 1: That's your next that's your that's your role. Now you're
Speaker 1: an aunt. They're not allowed to call me in because
Speaker 1: it's so boring. They call me Toddlane because my mother
Speaker 1: is French. I think they were going to call you
Speaker 1: lady stretch. I would have them call you her highness.
Speaker 1: But I just had the most wonderful time in dramatic school.
Speaker 1: And then what about your first job, Douglas? I did
Speaker 1: my first play with Kirk Douglas Craig's Um. Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, I'll tell you in a minute. You
Speaker 1: and Kirk Douglas, you're on a stage in New York.
Speaker 1: And also, where is my black bag? Alec Hunter? I
Speaker 1: need I need orange juice. Hunter, come in place. Can
Speaker 1: we send Hunter in here plays with the provisions. Hunter
Speaker 1: Ryan Herdlika, who accompanied Elaine to the studio, came through
Speaker 1: the door juice in hand. I need some orange juice.
Speaker 1: Beanies is kicking up, Hunter, My good man, hunters here.
Speaker 1: All's right with the world. Okay, Well, how about a glass. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's a clean water. We'll get him a clean we'll go,
Speaker 1: We'll go get a clean all right, it's all right
Speaker 1: if you just empty that glass, it's heaven. I need
Speaker 1: some orange juice. You know that I'm diabetic. Yes, of
Speaker 1: course I need. The world knows by now, the world.
Speaker 1: It's okay. You know what I cooded other day. The
Speaker 1: line of my father's it really is so naughty and
Speaker 1: just so much fun. Here's looking up your old address.
Speaker 1: Isn't it a great line? And he said it with
Speaker 1: no he used that was it. That's right? All right,
Speaker 1: I'm going to drink this being the oranges now, so
Speaker 1: we don't have some event here. That's cool, okay, alright,
Speaker 1: So now that you've had your orange juice and your
Speaker 1: brain freezes over, Kirk Douglas, what was the show? Do
Speaker 1: you remember? Now? Woman bites dog that orange juice it's
Speaker 1: a miracle. Elck, sir, I want to be a case
Speaker 1: of that orange juice. It's dog, woman bites dog. What
Speaker 1: did you play in that? If you say his girlfriend
Speaker 1: but he lived with I didn't even know what that
Speaker 1: phrase meant. You were a floozy? Well, no, I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I just but I lived with him and I wasn't
Speaker 1: married to him. I didn't know what that meant. What
Speaker 1: do you remember about Kirk Douglas. Oh my god, I
Speaker 1: loved him, Oh god, I loved him. And what an actor.
Speaker 1: And he's one of the few men who was as
Speaker 1: great an actor as he was a star. He was
Speaker 1: a great actor. He was a great actor. He was
Speaker 1: a great actor. I loved him, and he loved me.
Speaker 1: He flipped over me. I've known him for years, and
Speaker 1: he took me halfway away for the weekend, and then
Speaker 1: I discovered that I shouldn't go. He took you half
Speaker 1: way away to Palm Springs and then I said I
Speaker 1: shouldn't be going. So what did you hit like? I
Speaker 1: don't know. We were halfway to Palm Beach, Palm Springs things.
Speaker 1: So you're driving east, we were driving for the weekend,
Speaker 1: and you decide you didn't want to. Well, I said,
Speaker 1: I'm getting nervous, because what do you want me to
Speaker 1: do when we get up here? Oh, Elaine? He knew
Speaker 1: I was a virgin, so he was ing with that.
Speaker 1: So what was the first leading role you had on Broadway?
Speaker 1: Big roll? Take more orangs you so you can remember
Speaker 1: the big part, big big part I had was Angel
Speaker 1: the Wings, which was a review, hardest thing in the
Speaker 1: world to do a review, and that kind of review,
Speaker 1: like New Faces, was like Leonard Sulman's sketches, And I
Speaker 1: was the big busted you know, girl in the in
Speaker 1: the bedroom. I was the I was the piece on
Speaker 1: the side. Yeah, where are you? Isn't amazing you with
Speaker 1: this virginal You went to suck or cur and you
Speaker 1: went to finishing school, and as soon as you're out,
Speaker 1: God is just tempting you. He's taking Marlon Brando on
Speaker 1: one side of you, and Kirk Douglas is reven up
Speaker 1: the convertable to take you to Palm Springs, and you're
Speaker 1: the flu he here and the piece on the side,
Speaker 1: the bust defend the towel. But what I was really
Speaker 1: doing is learning my lines to the play or to
Speaker 1: the television or to the I was really loving acting.
Speaker 1: I loved it. I loved pretending. I just loved it.
Speaker 1: Was being somebody other than I was was my idea
Speaker 1: of a good time? Was part of that process for you?
Speaker 1: Learning from people you work with, it you admire. Did
Speaker 1: you look at other people and say, because I've had that,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not going to say I had it
Speaker 1: well like Merman? When you worked with Merman, did you
Speaker 1: learn from Merman? Did you did you know you didn't?
Speaker 1: I did her part right. I did her There's no
Speaker 1: question everybody loved everybody, but I know how to do that.
Speaker 1: And I was so frightened and so terrified, and I
Speaker 1: was so good in it. Did you feel that she
Speaker 1: was of that type where just Mermin as Mermaid, she
Speaker 1: goes out into stuff. She made, you know so long.
Speaker 1: She'd say goodbye to me from the wings on my
Speaker 1: opening night and then go sit in the first row.
Speaker 1: She scared me to death. When I got to the
Speaker 1: end of call Me Madam, it was mine? You felt that? Well?
Speaker 1: When do you think you became you? The moment I
Speaker 1: started to rehearse Mermaid's part, I was doing the new Mermaid,
Speaker 1: the new everything. That's when you became you. So doing
Speaker 1: the piece doing Call Me Madam is when you felt
Speaker 1: things changed for you, You felt you were You're not
Speaker 1: necessarily now everything I did, everything I did was you know.
Speaker 1: But when you do a show Elaine Stretch at Liberty,
Speaker 1: when you do a show that as a memoir of
Speaker 1: your career, oh yeah, and it is enormously successful, When
Speaker 1: did you think in your life, when did you reach
Speaker 1: a point in your life that you felt you were
Speaker 1: someone who could write a memoir about your life, that
Speaker 1: you thought it was interesting enough. When did you cross
Speaker 1: the line and say, yeah, I was convinced by this
Speaker 1: producer who said, who saw me perform at a Judy
Speaker 1: Garland special at Carnegie Hall? And what I did was
Speaker 1: tells Judy Garland stories And I told her was a
Speaker 1: tribute to Judy. She's gone by this, yeah, and oh boy,
Speaker 1: I really did know her very well. From where did
Speaker 1: you first meet her? Party? At a party someplace I
Speaker 1: don't know. And I loved her. So when I tried
Speaker 1: out one of my stories on Judy Garland, I mean
Speaker 1: she tried out one of hers, I said, Judy, I've
Speaker 1: got an idea, and I sincerely did. I said, I've
Speaker 1: got a great idea. Why don't we tour Maime, I
Speaker 1: said to Judy Ghan and she SAIDs divine. She said
Speaker 1: that sounds great. I said, but here's the good idea, Judy.
Speaker 1: When I do meme, I go to bed early, and
Speaker 1: when you do me, you go to bed early, and
Speaker 1: then the other one does vera. She wan to switch
Speaker 1: on and off. She bought that idea. She's listening now
Speaker 1: and she's saying okay, okay, okay, and she's counting up
Speaker 1: the songs, what songs she has? What you know? And
Speaker 1: after this long pause she looks at me and said,
Speaker 1: what about Matteni's And I thought it was one of
Speaker 1: the on these things I ever heard in my whole life.
Speaker 1: That Judy Garland wanted to know what about mannis? That's
Speaker 1: how she carefully. She wanted her her career planned so
Speaker 1: she could be able to get loaded when she wanted to.
Speaker 1: And you know it was her way of treating a
Speaker 1: very serious discuss. So you did a tribute thing where
Speaker 1: you told stories about her. And that's when someone pitched
Speaker 1: the idea to you of doing a memoir of your career.
Speaker 1: That's right, what vaguely said, you tell a story to
Speaker 1: an audience the like of which I have never heard.
Speaker 1: That's true. I was that the opening night at the Public,
Speaker 1: when that Liberty opened at the Public, and everyone who
Speaker 1: was had a pulse in New York. Everyone who was
Speaker 1: alive that night came to that opening at the Public.
Speaker 1: Everybody in the theater came. They went crazy, They went crazy.
Speaker 1: It's lovely, God, it's lovely. Success is lovely. It's so hard,
Speaker 1: and it's such hard work, but it's so gratifying. What's
Speaker 1: the hardest thing about it for you? What's been the
Speaker 1: hardest thing? Do you find it hard to fear? The
Speaker 1: fear of what that you won't be able to perform,
Speaker 1: the fear that I'm just going to forget and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna not not so much forget. But it's the fear.
Speaker 1: It's the fear. And that was when I was not
Speaker 1: drinking at all, and I didn't drink anything to get
Speaker 1: my talent out, but all my life I had. Have
Speaker 1: you ever done a show, I'm sure you've done countless shows.
Speaker 1: You ever done a show where you're sitting backstage thinking
Speaker 1: what am I doing here? How did I get myself
Speaker 1: into this? Or were you always engaged by what you
Speaker 1: were doing. I was always engaged always. You never took
Speaker 1: I was leading up to it or coming down, you know,
Speaker 1: I I was trying to get it behind. You never
Speaker 1: regretted doing anything? Never? No, Wow, that's incredible. No, I
Speaker 1: never never regretted doing anything on the stage. You never
Speaker 1: How was that possible? Because I just one every time
Speaker 1: I walked out there, you know, that old expression of
Speaker 1: that I own the stage. Elaine Stritch has never regretted
Speaker 1: anything she's done on stage, but there are many who
Speaker 1: regret not seeing her one woman show, Elaine Stretch at
Speaker 1: Liberty on Broadway in two thousand two. News Week called
Speaker 1: it abiding hilarious, even touching tour de force tour of
Speaker 1: Stritch's career and life. In a minute, Stretch tells me
Speaker 1: a secret and very personal moment she had on stage
Speaker 1: during the run of Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? This
Speaker 1: is Here's the Thing by Alec Baldwin. In the past
Speaker 1: twenty years, TV and film have introduced Elaine Stretch to
Speaker 1: a new audience. She garnered Emmy's for her performances in
Speaker 1: Law and Order and in Thirty Rock, where she played
Speaker 1: Mike Charagor's mother, The Irascible Colleen donahe well, wo whoa, whoa, whoa?
Speaker 1: This must be the one. Uh Phoebe welcome? No, no, no, welcome, mother,
Speaker 1: this is not pee, this is not Phoebe. Well, why
Speaker 1: the hell not? I mean, just perfect. I ended up
Speaker 1: liking Tina Fey an awful law and very quietly all
Speaker 1: by myself. Did you enjoy doing the show? No, you
Speaker 1: didn't know why. I didn't have any fun with with comedy.
Speaker 1: I did with you for a while, but then it
Speaker 1: got a little bit too routine for me and I
Speaker 1: wasn't challenged. I didn't have a challenge with it. But
Speaker 1: I mean I was fine, but u oh, I don't know,
Speaker 1: Alexi just wasn't. Would you think TV is not your No?
Speaker 1: I think TV is fine with me. I nothing's nothing's
Speaker 1: wrong with it. I love TV, I love comedy. I
Speaker 1: loved working with you. It was almost like we need
Speaker 1: It was something that I did two weeks ago at
Speaker 1: the Carlisle when they said challenged me to do a
Speaker 1: show and just go out there and do a show
Speaker 1: for an hour and a half. And I accepted the
Speaker 1: challenge and did it. And how did it? I didn't
Speaker 1: have any rehearsal or anything how did it go? Fantastic?
Speaker 1: And Warren Baby people like Warren and and it came
Speaker 1: I adore both of them. And he said, I've got
Speaker 1: to get three cameras on this. This is terrifying. You
Speaker 1: know the fact that I did it with no rehearses.
Speaker 1: Winged it exactly. It's a good way of putting it.
Speaker 1: But you don't want to wing it anymore. It's so hard,
Speaker 1: My god, is there any place you can perform if
Speaker 1: you have a notion? If you're sitting there in Birmingham, Michigan,
Speaker 1: and you decide you want to get up and you
Speaker 1: want to do a show, you want to do an
Speaker 1: hour and a half, like you are their facilities there
Speaker 1: that you're dialed into the you can go. I go
Speaker 1: up to ann Arbor and I rehearse it. But I
Speaker 1: wouldn't I just say, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm
Speaker 1: going to learn three songs. I have to learn them
Speaker 1: sort of. And if I go up in the lyrics,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter who's your piano player, your company, and
Speaker 1: he's feeding you the lyrics all the time. Well, he amusingly,
Speaker 1: that's part of the act. Well, I've never heard a
Speaker 1: laugh like this but the other night when I said, Rob,
Speaker 1: what is that and I'm out of control, I don't
Speaker 1: know that's what it is, and he was and I
Speaker 1: was hit, you know, like I said, okay, but I
Speaker 1: mean we got to start over then, don't we? Alec
Speaker 1: I mean Rob? And he said yes. So we went
Speaker 1: to a new song and I sang it straight through
Speaker 1: with no mistakes, and they went crazy. I sang a
Speaker 1: Sunheim song. Um, everybody says don't. Everybody says don'tbody says don't.
Speaker 1: It is said right that song. God, it just goes
Speaker 1: so fast and furiously, and then they went nuts. I mean,
Speaker 1: when you do know something by heart, they really go
Speaker 1: give him one. Yeah, that's it, that's it. So we did.
Speaker 1: So we with the with the the Are you okay? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think so. Um, did you ever want to do
Speaker 1: a drama in your later years? I mean in the
Speaker 1: last years, I was just cut out for it, cut
Speaker 1: out for it. Were what's the less drama you did
Speaker 1: on stage? Edward All be Um lady from Dubuq No No, No,
Speaker 1: Three twelve Women No. I was asked to do that.
Speaker 1: I didn't do it. It's too much to learn. M
Speaker 1: A delicate Ballot, one of the best players ever written
Speaker 1: in the whole world, and also a play for me.
Speaker 1: What did you like about the part? What did you
Speaker 1: like about it? Was very quiet and very subtle, subtle,
Speaker 1: like forget about it and just and I just went
Speaker 1: about my business on that stage and I did everything.
Speaker 1: I drank too much, I talked too much. I I
Speaker 1: did exactly as I pleased. I went upstairs when I
Speaker 1: want him to go upstairs. I was absolutely all over
Speaker 1: the place and not promising anything to anybody. It was unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Who directed Jerry Gutierres, who is the best director with
Speaker 1: aside from George Wolfe. The two of them were what
Speaker 1: does it? No? No? No, help illuminate this for people,
Speaker 1: because this, to me is a very important question for you,
Speaker 1: and that is you're so self directed. You know you've
Speaker 1: got the talent, you've got to feel good, but baby,
Speaker 1: you got so many bullets in your chamber, it's not funny.
Speaker 1: And you come out there you're loaded. And what does
Speaker 1: the director do for you? How does the director help you? Oh,
Speaker 1: he makes me feel comfortable about myself. For instance, George
Speaker 1: Wolfe when he did my one woman show. He has
Speaker 1: a way of laughing that he had. When he laughs,
Speaker 1: he falls on the floor. He throws himself on the
Speaker 1: floor because he's got to do that. He's got to go.
Speaker 1: He goes crazy when he laughs, and he's laughing and
Speaker 1: he's and that will make me listen to a director
Speaker 1: that will that will tune me in. Isn't a nice one.
Speaker 1: A director gives you confidence, Oh my god, I've worked
Speaker 1: with so many of them. Were not that they undermined you,
Speaker 1: but they certainly didn't give you any confidence. They they
Speaker 1: almost resented the implication that they do that. They kind
Speaker 1: of looked at you like, well, you're getting paid all
Speaker 1: this money, you just get up there and do it.
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not here to help you know. They
Speaker 1: don't help you at Oh there's no mentoring or care
Speaker 1: or whatever. It's very very strange. But Wolf you loved,
Speaker 1: and Gautier as you love. Oh God, Now tell me
Speaker 1: about performers in the latter part of your career that
Speaker 1: you worked with. It you love? Did you love Bernadette?
Speaker 1: I am assuming you just love adored here and I
Speaker 1: and I kind of ran her. I was her older sister,
Speaker 1: her older everybody, and I made her laugh until she
Speaker 1: just went crazy and vice versa. I want a little
Speaker 1: more orange juice, Gang Hunter Hunter. That beeping sound we've
Speaker 1: been hearing periodic? Is that a glucose meter? What's that?
Speaker 1: What's that thing that went off? Where's mine? It's ducks
Speaker 1: com it's telling us to enter the blood sugars. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, I forgot all about them. We're done with
Speaker 1: Oh are we? Okay? Do you want to take a
Speaker 1: break and do it now? A minute? Go right? A hell?
Speaker 1: Please do it now? We should wait. I wouldn't want
Speaker 1: it in the post that you were hospitalized on my
Speaker 1: account because Alec Baldwin refused to allow me to administer
Speaker 1: my diabetes treatment. Oh boy, okay, this is right away.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do it now. Okay, there we go.
Speaker 1: I don't have my ladies and gentlemen. Okay, Elaine Stretch
Speaker 1: and Hunter, the ever trusty Hunter are squeezing droplets of
Speaker 1: her blood onto a device, so I know to tell
Speaker 1: us that we've nearly killed her here, okay, okay, and
Speaker 1: then it's done. And then and you want to keep
Speaker 1: it at what number? It's not a matter of keeping.
Speaker 1: It's just entering them. What they are now? That are
Speaker 1: two hours after I'd love to do mine too. While
Speaker 1: we're at it, Let's have a let's have a prick
Speaker 1: our finger and squeeze it on the glucose meter. Party
Speaker 1: stop that, Alex, Listen, there's another BB. This is why
Speaker 1: you're so glad we're not doing this on television because
Speaker 1: to see this happening, it's really unsettling. And we've done
Speaker 1: both of them. Now, done both of them. And what
Speaker 1: number you have any where do you want to be?
Speaker 1: Doesn't have to be That's fine, that's good, it's cool. Okay,
Speaker 1: she's cool. Oh oh, I know what I wanted to
Speaker 1: tell you. I want to tell him something that I
Speaker 1: that I got the nerve to tell John to tourists. Now,
Speaker 1: when you told John to touro what you wanted to
Speaker 1: tell him, it's something that meant a lot to you,
Speaker 1: Because we will edit that you called him to tourists.
Speaker 1: A lot of people have. Alex Baldwin called John to tourists.
Speaker 1: What did you want to tell John to? Trying to
Speaker 1: tell somebody something about me and acting that sort of
Speaker 1: I thought kind of represented something about me that I
Speaker 1: had had courage to tell. And the thing was that I, Oh,
Speaker 1: how can I tell you this. Will you tell me
Speaker 1: that your secret and I'll tell you mine? All right?
Speaker 1: My secret is is that? How can I put it
Speaker 1: to you? Yeah? My secret is in Virginia Wolf. When
Speaker 1: I was playing Virginia Wolf, I am sometimes I get
Speaker 1: fuzzy when I'm telling a story. Now and it's we
Speaker 1: had in comment go ahead. I wanted to tell something
Speaker 1: intimate about myself to John about when he was interviewing me.
Speaker 1: I told him that when I was doing Virginia Wolf,
Speaker 1: and when George and Martha had their scene together and
Speaker 1: George said, our son is dead. You know the big scene.
Speaker 1: Our son, he yells in my faith is dead, and
Speaker 1: I went no. At the height of my force, I
Speaker 1: said no to him, and I had an orgasm for
Speaker 1: the first time in my life. Yes, really, so, so
Speaker 1: this is this is how important that moment was on
Speaker 1: stage to me. This is unbelievable, you know. So it's
Speaker 1: safe to say this is a very I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sound like I'm making a joke here, but
Speaker 1: I'm only half making Honey. I just think it speaks
Speaker 1: volumes about you, about what a real uh creature of
Speaker 1: the theater? You want that the only time you ever
Speaker 1: had an orgasm, was saying the words of a homosexual man.
Speaker 1: I mean it this far from a heterosexual orgasm as
Speaker 1: you could possibly No. I think I'll be very particular
Speaker 1: about who he casts very Did you have a good
Speaker 1: relationship with him? You're close. He's very tough, but he's
Speaker 1: and he's very fond of me. I got two last
Speaker 1: questions for you, and I want you to give me
Speaker 1: a simple answer to this first question. I've met a
Speaker 1: lot of people in this business, and I've worked with
Speaker 1: a lot of people who were powerful. Julie Harris played
Speaker 1: my mother on a TV series, and I work with
Speaker 1: I work with some great people, you know, great great people.
Speaker 1: So I'm not so great, but some great ones. And
Speaker 1: you're one of the great ones I worked with you.
Speaker 1: But just give me a yes or no if you're capable.
Speaker 1: And that is, do you realize what you mean to
Speaker 1: other people who were in this business, how much they
Speaker 1: love you and how much they admire Do you know
Speaker 1: I'm beginning to do you into the mic place. Don't
Speaker 1: talk to you. I'm beginning to because in this business,
Speaker 1: as you know, especially for people who themselves are very
Speaker 1: talented and or successful, other talented people, that's like um
Speaker 1: an aphrodisiac to them. Talent is the greatest aphrodisiac. And
Speaker 1: everyone basically says, there's no one more talented than you.
Speaker 1: You're an immensely, immensely incalculably talented woman and people, and
Speaker 1: you're a gigantic pain in the ass. Sometimes you're a
Speaker 1: legendary pain in the ass. You're a gigantic pain in
Speaker 1: the ass. But people don't, you know, they joke about
Speaker 1: that because they love you. And why do they love you?
Speaker 1: Because you're so talented, you're so funny, you're whatever. Your
Speaker 1: timing is impeccable. Now, what are you gonna miss about
Speaker 1: New York? The personality of human beings in New York?
Speaker 1: They are so opened and second, they're not watching what
Speaker 1: they're doing. They're not you know, they're they're not watching
Speaker 1: their language, they're not watching anything. They're just going through
Speaker 1: life's day. What yeah, all right, fuck you, you know,
Speaker 1: and everybody's and they're engaged by every day is an
Speaker 1: event to New York. Elaine Stritch says she's going to
Speaker 1: miss New Yorker's and I can tell you that we
Speaker 1: will miss her too. But she's not out of the
Speaker 1: spotlight just yet. Elaine Stritch Shoot Me, a documentary about
Speaker 1: her life, which I helped to produce, recently premiered at
Speaker 1: the Rebecca Film Festival. The film has been picked up
Speaker 1: by Sundance Selects for a wider distribution. Are you there, Alex? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I can hear you, sweet, So you're in the kitchen.
Speaker 1: I called Elaine up to ask her how the transition
Speaker 1: was going from New York City to Birmingham, Michigan. I
Speaker 1: did the right thing moving away from the Carlisle. You know,
Speaker 1: you get hung up on perks. You live with perks,
Speaker 1: and then your perks run out because you fall and
Speaker 1: break your hip and you blah blah blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: and then you have no um, you have no deal card.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. I'll go down and talk
Speaker 1: to the audience for an hour every night, and you
Speaker 1: give me my cleaning. Now, that would be a funny
Speaker 1: TV show to have you be this famous broad, this
Speaker 1: famous cabaret stage actress, award winning actress. And she moves.
Speaker 1: Of course, it's a fish out of water story. She
Speaker 1: moves back with the cousins and the nieces in Birmingham,
Speaker 1: Michigan and what you're used to is bartering with people.
Speaker 1: You're walking up to some dry cleaner there and saying,
Speaker 1: we'll tell you what do I want you to clean?
Speaker 1: My coach to me and I'll come sing at your
Speaker 1: kids bar mitzvah. And they look at you like you
Speaker 1: gotta screw loose, like you want to work. The guy
Speaker 1: says that'll be sixty please, and the well listen, um,
Speaker 1: I love it and I miss your humor, like, well,
Speaker 1: listen to you. I'm not sure I want to work
Speaker 1: with you again. Yeah, I definitely don't want to work
Speaker 1: with you again. Definitely don't want to work with me.
Speaker 1: I think we agree. Yeah, I've been Upstay, there's enough
Speaker 1: leading ladies and men. Talk to you later. Goodbye, goodbye,
Speaker 1: my darling, Bye bye. This is Alec Baldwin and you're
Speaker 1: listening to here's the thing.