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I dont want anyone to ever wonder who I am, she says.
Im not interested in fooling people.
He sat in the class and I met him afterwards.
It was also fun to have a close encounter with straight-up comedy again.
The most heavily fictionalized part in the film was the mother character.
Were generally not playing real people.
This is his milieu.
He sets an unbelievable stage and then develops it unfolds, digs, and pulls back more layers.
Its also incredible to be around so many diverse, highly skilled actors.
And working with Tim Robbins again is a joy.
We played brother and sister once in a movie calledMiss Firecracker.
Can someone raise a child from another country?
Are there going to be disappointments?
Are love and generosity enough to overcome those challenges?
We have a lot of issues with division right now in our country, feeling alienated from each other.
But we always have.
Weve all at some point experienced name-calling, being ostracized and excluded.
you’ve got the option to walk down the street and be scorned merely for being a woman.
But my mother was quite strong and my sister had a huge influence on me.
While we were outnumbered, the female thing was potent!
My thing was all about moving around invisibly.
When was the first time you performed and felt, I want more of this?
Were your parents encouraging?When I was in fifth grade, I did a scene fromThe Miracle Worker.
I played Helen Keller and I was like, Oh, this is it.
She throws this huge tantrum and tears the room apart.
Then I started doing plays in high school, which I loved.
It felt very free playing a grandmother when I was 13.
Oddly, my parents were very encouraging.
Then I found acting and it was like a personal jackpot.
Ive read that you also judged poultry as a kid.
How did your interest in theater figure into your wanting to attend Carnegie Mellon?Exclusively.
I went to my high-school counselor and asked, How can I get into Carnegie Mellon University?
And he was like, You cant!
You didnt have to have fabulous grades unless you were applying as an engineer.
If you applied as an actor, all you had to do was audition.
So I went to Pittsburgh with my father and did a two-day audition process and I got in.
Im entitled to audition.
Im entitled to ask for stuff.
Acting is a tremendously insecurity-making profession.
I always feel insecure and I always feel confident.
Theyre slammed up against each other and its a constant balancing act.
He said, Hey, my best friend is going to Yale, lets visit.
And his girlfriend was Fran.
The four of us hit it off, and we all moved to the North Bronx.
We got two apartments, one for each couple.
Then we broke up with our boyfriends and Fran moved in with me.
What was she like to live with?Fantastic.
Frans as fabulous as she seems.
We had a blast.
We stayed up there for a couple years, and then she didBlood Simple.
After that, [writer-director] Joel Coen sort of moved in with us and they eventually got married.
It was a great chapter.
Speaking ofBlood Simple, your voice is used in the film in an answering-machine message.
Did the Coens pay you for that?No.
Its been 31 years sinceRaising Arizona.
Is it true that the Coen Brothers wrote the part of Ed for you?
I thought the script was brilliant; there isnt a syllable you want to change in the Coens writing.
You want to memorize it absolutely as its written.
Their stuff leaps off the page and enters a realm cinematically that I didnt even know existed.
But I dont think IreallyunderstoodRaising Arizonauntil I saw it with an audience.
it’s crucial that you see a comedy with a crowd.
It has a different life with an audience that alchemy is what seals the deal.
I felt the same way after seeingThe Big Sick.
How many were on set at a given time?I think we had like 18.
They had to discourage the babies from walking!
By the way, Nic was incredible.
He continues to be, to me, a thoroughly surprising actor.
His interpretation of H.I.
defied what was on the page he took it to another stratosphere.
Raising Arizonaopened in April 1987.
Ed just wanted a baby.Yeah, I thought that obliterated the criminal aspect.
Her being a good cop I thought evened things out, too.
Ive heard that you replaced Debra Winger inBroadcast News.
Also, I knew that Jim was looking for someone tall.
Was that because William Hurt was so tall?I dont know!
Ive never thought of casting an actor based on being small or large.
Size is such a nonentity.
The stage also normalizes people to a degree.
Mostly, Jim was looking for an actress with great experience.
But after six months, he just said, Let the floodgates open, and I came in.
I watched the movie recently and it feels even more timely than it did 30 years ago.
Also, your chemistry with William and Albert Brooks is staggering.
Its hard to imagine anyone but William playing that role.
He had the difficult task of being simultaneously endearing and loathsome.Yes, it was a near-impossible part for anybody.
Bill Hurt is one of our great actors.
He was a mentor to me, whether he knew it or not.
There is no one Ive ever worked with before or since who has so much clear-sightedness.
That was the most scared Ive ever been!
He said, You are afraid.
And you will always be.
Embrace that fear and treat it with the same respect that you have for your approach to a character.
Ill never forget that.
You earned your first Oscar nomination forBroadcast News.
What do you remember about attending the Academy Awards that year?Our limo broke down.
They also didnt have the whole drop-off thing figured out, either.
I thought, This is so not good.
Then, I didnt have my tickets for some reason and they wouldnt let me in the door.
I was like, Im nominated!
That was pretty funny.
Yes, the Bob Mackie dress.
Remember the headdress?Oh man, and it was all so trippy.
She was the only person there in an actual designer gown.
If you have to lose, its best to lose to Cher.Yeah, you gotta lose to Cher.
In 1993,The PianoandThe Firmnetted you two more Oscar nominations, and a win forThe Piano.
You should read it.
And it was the greatest script Id ever read.
The way Jane writes is so visual and visceral, you canfeelthe movie.
Had composer Michael Nyman scored anything at that point?No.
Jane asked her, Why dont you audition too?
She was 9 and living in New Zealand.
And Anna was a piece of magic, as she is.
HerOscar acceptance speechis also one of the sweetest TV moments of all time.Yeah, the best ever.
What was the most grueling part of that shoot?
There was a lot of rain and a lot of mud.Those were fun things, actually.
The hardest part for me, again, was negotiating with my fear.
Playing piano in front of people was paralyzing.
I love to be onstage and perform for the camera, but playing piano isnotfun.
And I had to travel with that piano!
That was my biggest challenge the piano was a broken-down piece of shit.
It was built in 1850.
When I first arrived, Jane said, Heres the instrument!
Im like, What?
So the piano stayed in my apartment.
That was another nightmare.
Now I have to play with an orchestra?
So, I took the Valium they gave me and also a good German brew.
Do you know where the piano is today?Jane has it.
I really hated that.
I thought he was so brilliant.
For three women to have had such an impact at the Oscars in 1994 feels especially poignant today.Totally true.
It was a richness Ive never experienced before to be photographedanddirected by a woman.
We need more of that.
I lovedThirteen.I love Catherine!
You remind me a lot of her, actually.[Laughs.]
We hit it off.
Shes unbelievably gifted and joyful.
Also, the script forThirteenwas so exotic.
It was co-written by a 13-year-old girl and you could feel that.
It was like, Wow.
And then I met Catherine, who brought a sense of mischief to the movie.
The movie was an embodiment of her rawness and her intuitions.
She knows exactly what she wants to see and then she sees it.
Is that rare in a director?Yeah, very.
I didnt have kids at that point.
I was never around 14-year-old girls.
I didnt remember being like that!
And I have a lot of energy.
But compared to them, I was dead.
Did you feel your career shift again after that?
AfterThirteen,I did theSaving Grace.
The character was so full-bodied and lived an incredibly sexual life.
Her age was never once mentioned in 46 episodes.
I was having sex with busboys.
I was having sex with CEOs.
And that was really fun, fun, fun.
She was acting like a man.She was, but she was all woman, too.
And it was a real shock when the show ended.
It felt like diving into the deep end of really cold water.
Welcome back to the real world of feature films.
This is gonna be tough.
By then, there was no real use for me in a leading role in features.
I learned that, unlike sometimes in film, TV isallabout the writing.
You mentioned having doneThirteenat a time when you didnt have children.
I ask this of male performers too: Did becoming a parent change your relationship with acting?
Somebody give me a glass of wine!
Its an imperfect thing.
If youre waiting around forThe Pianoto show up, youll never work again.
Thats kind of miraculous.
An actors career is in a constant state of metamorphosis.
I dont know what Ill be doing in two months.
Where will I be?
Geographically, I live in New York, but maybe I wont be there!
I love theres a part of my life thats uncertain and unknown.
Theres a part of that that I resent, but Ive learned to live with it.
More than anything, I wanna keep it real.
I wanna keep my face real.
This is hard, particularly for actresses as they get older.
I want people to understand my face.
I dont wanna do stuff to my face where people dont recognize me anymore.
I dont want anyone to ever wonder who I am.
Its a totally practical concern.It is, and its something I feel at home with now.
Im not interested in fooling people.
I want to connect with desire, loss, need, fear, love, and rejection.
I feel privileged thatThe Big Sickconnected with an audience.
Thats all you want as an actor and its all you want as an audience member, too.
To have that hook up, you know?
Its cool to think that Ive put in almost 40 years in an industry.
Theres something durable about my career that Im very pleased with.
Its like, Wow, how lovely.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
