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

400 Pages·2018·4.19 MB·English

by  Kathleen Turner

Copyright © 2018 by Kathleen Turner and Dustin Morrow All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief
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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
THE CONVERSATIONS
Working with the Script
Directing Yourself
Working with Directors
Collaborating with Other Artists
In the Beginning . . .
Lessons Learned from Working in Television
Choosing Roles
Body Heat
The Man with Two Brains
Romancing the Stone
Crimes of Passion
Prizzi’s Honor
Peggy Sue Got Married
The Accidental Tourist
The War of the Roses
Serial Mom
The Virgin Suicides
The Perfect Family
Working with Edgy Material
Acting in Film
The Stage Versus the Screen
Acting in the Theater
The Intimacy of the Theater
Camille
Reading Reviews
The Graduate
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Indiscretions
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
High
Red Hot Patriot
Mother Courage and Her Children
The Year of Magical Thinking
The Life of an Actor
Fame, Aging and Vanity
Using the Voice
Advice for Developing Actors
Studying Acting
The Process of Auditioning
Dealing with Rejection
Working in the Industry
Teaching Acting
Acting and Daily Life
Looking Ahead and Moving Forward
A Closer Look at the Film Performances
Selected Stage Credits
Selected Film Credits
Selected Television and Radio Credits
About the Authors
Sources
Acknowledgments
FOREWORD
When you meet Kathleen Turner in person, you notice her eyes first. They are
piercing and deep, deep ocean blue. Sparkling, in fact. She’s far more beautiful
in person than she appears on the screen, which is saying something. And it’s a
beauty supported by a strong sense of self and a defined, palpable confidence.
She’s supremely confident, in fact, but somehow her confidence isn’t off-
putting. It’s magnetic—it draws you to her. It’s 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 Prizzi’s 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 Prizzi’s Honor, making her
one of the only actors in history to win back-to-back Golden Globes. She’s 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 Falco’s “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, she’s 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 Cocteau’s Indiscretions,
Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid
of Virginia Woolf? She originated the roles of Mrs. Robinson in the stage version
of The Graduate, and Tallulah Bankhead in Sandra Ryan Heyward’s celebrated
one-woman show, Tallulah.
In the 2000s, Kathleen continued her great work in the theater while adding
television to her resume. She’s 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 Bing’s 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 aren’t able to leave their homes. In recent years, she
has become a champion of new playwrights and their work, including Margaret
and Allison Engel’s Red Hot Patriot and Matthew Lombardo’s 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. She’s earned her status as one of the finest actors the stage and the