Kathleen Turner - Kathleen Turner on Acting: Conversations about Film, Television, and Theater

Copyright 2018 by Kathleen Turner and Dustin Morrow

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Brian Peterson

Cover photo by Carol Rosegg

ISBN: 978-1-5107-3547-7

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-3548-4

Printed in The United States of America

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

When you meet Kathleen Turner in person, you notice her eyes first. They are piercing and deep, deep ocean blue. Sparkling, in fact. Shes far more beautiful in person than she appears on the screen, which is saying something. And its a beauty supported by a strong sense of self and a defined, palpable confidence. Shes supremely confident, in fact, but somehow her confidence isnt off-putting. Its magneticit draws you to her. Its the difference between cockiness and charisma.

Kathleen Turner rocketed to stardom in 1981 with the release of the classic film noir Body Heat , a role that inspired in the press uncountable comparisons to Lauren Bacall. That film began a decade of box office dominance for Kathleen. The success of her films made her the top-grossing actress of the decade, through such monster hits as Prizzis Honor , Peggy Sue Got Married , The Accidental Tourist , The War of the Roses , Who Framed Roger Rabbit , and the blockbuster Romancing the Stone and its sequel, The Jewel of the Nile . After some time away from cinema, during which she became one of the grande dames of the American theater, she returned to roles on film and TV with the indie comedies The Perfect Family and Another Kind of Wedding, the big-budget comedy Dumb and Dumber To , and the acclaimed Hulu series The Path .

In 1985, Kathleen won the Best Actress Golden Globe for Romancing the Stone . One year later, she won the award again for Prizzis Honor , making her one of the only actors in history to win back-to-back Golden Globes. Shes also picked up a Grammy and awards from film critics societies, and has been nominated for Drama Desk Awards, Drama League Awards, Tony Awards and an Oscar. Among her leading men have been Jack Nicholson, Steve Martin, William Hurt, Sting, Gabriel Byrne, Dennis Quaid, Christopher Reeve, Nicholas Cage, Jude Law, Bill Irwin, and her partner in three films, Michael Douglas.

Arguably the biggest cinematic sex symbol of the last three-plus decades, she has inspired songs like the Austrian pop singer Falcos The Kiss of Kathleen Turner, and even an entire band, the legendary Toronto punk rockers Kathleen Turner Overdrive. Such cultural tributes elevated Kathleen from the status of respected actor to an enduring iconic role as a larger-than-life stage and film star on the order of Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn, and Barbara Stanwyck. In some scholarly writing, shes been examined as the last great movie star, in the classic Hollywood conception of the term.

In the Nineties, while still taking the occasional lead role in some acclaimed independent films like the cult classics Serial Mom and The Virgin Suicides , Kathleen largely turned her attention to her first love, the stage. She has played the lead in a number of the most successful and well-regarded Broadway productions of the last few decades, including Jean Cocteaus Indiscretions , Tennessee Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , and Edward Albees Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She originated the roles of Mrs. Robinson in the stage version of The Graduate , and Tallulah Bankhead in Sandra Ryan Heywards celebrated one-woman show, Tallulah.

In the 2000s, Kathleen continued her great work in the theater while adding television to her resume. Shes had memorable guest spots on The Simpsons , King of the Hill , Law and Order , Nip/Tuck , and in her recurring, scene-stealing roles as Chandler Bings transvestite father on Friends and as the feisty, man-eating Hollywood agent Sue Collini on Californication .

A lifelong advocate of causes championing freedom of speech, and the rights of women and children, Kathleen generously gives her time to such organizations as People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood, Amnesty International, and Citymeals-on-Wheels, for which she has personally delivered meals to elderly people who arent able to leave their homes. In recent years, she has become a champion of new playwrights and their work, including Margaret and Allison Engels Red Hot Patriot and Matthew Lombardos controversial play High , which Kathleen took to Broadway in 2011 and on a national tour in 2012.

Not content to coast on her fame or her prior successes, Kathleen is always in search of new challenges as an actor and an artist. She recently starred in her first musical, Mother Courage and Her Children , and is preparing her own cabaret show. Shes earned her status as one of the finest actors the stage and the screen have known, and she continues with each passing year to do bold, daring, risk-taking work.

Kathleen has been interviewed thousands of times throughout her career. I did not want this book to be just another interview. I wanted it to be a conversation. I wanted to speak with Kathleen, not to ask Kathleen to speak at me. This approach stemmed from my experience as a university professor. The most rewarding courses Ive taught have always been the ones where I conversed with the students, where I asked questions of them and they asked questions of me. We explored the course subjects together. I may have guided the conversations, but the students had every opportunity to inform the content and participate in the learning process. And we learned together. I will take that approach over my lecturing at a group of blank faces any day.

The conversational format of this book was also informed by what I knew of Kathleen before beginning the process of speaking with her. While shes perfectly comfortable being interviewed by the press about her plays and her films and her activism, shes less comfortable talking at length about her craft. Her approach to acting, as she stated at multiple points in our conversations, is to stop talking about it and to just do it. The name of the course shes taught at New York University is Practical Acting: Shut Up and Do It! So a formally structured interviewing approach would never have achieved the results that we got through having more naturally flowing, give-and-take conversations. My experience working in documentary filmmaking has taught me that a conversational approach will relax the subject in ways that formal interviewing will not. I also anticipated that Kathleen, like most actors, would be a born collaborator, and that an in-depth exploration of her craft would emerge through her collaboration with me. She needs a sounding board, someone to bounce ideas off of. She doesnt like to work in a bubble.