Had a great time talking with Australian film critic and radio talk-show host Jason Di Rosso, on ABC Radio National, broadcast out of Sidney. Di Rosso hosts a weekly show called The Final Cut and he had me on to talk about Gena Rowlands, in the wake of her Honorary Oscar.
You can listen to our chat here.
In case that doesn’t open, you can see the Table of Contents for the whole show here. Barbara Stanwyck, Maggie Smith, and Gena Rowlands. A Trifecta of Greatness.
That was great, Sheila. I loved hearing you talk about Gena. She mesmerizes me….every time. To me, she’s like a truly great jazz musician–they feel it, and it just flows out of them. It can be confounding and hard to grasp for many, and it can leave you breathless. I don’t want to overstate it, but she is life. There have been times when I’ve been overcome with emotion watching her—just the power and beauty of the whole human experience….now, who else makes you feel like that? Not many. She would be a fascinating person to know.
// To me, she’s like a truly great jazz musician–they feel it, and it just flows out of them. It can be confounding and hard to grasp for many, and it can leave you breathless. //
I love this analogy so much! I agree!
// now, who else makes you feel like that? Not many. //
Totally. And it can be confrontational: she goes so far into it that you (audience member) may feel assaulted by it. It just doesn’t “look like” other acting. It doesn’t leave you breathing space. The other actresses, in my opinion, who did that on a totally consistent level – as opposed to having it show up in one really good role – are Isabelle Huppert, Liv Ullmann, and Anna Magnani. To me, they are so unlike other actresses – even super-talented ones – that it actually looks like a totally different profession.
I also love how PRACTICAL Rowlands is, any time she talks about her work. She’s not airy-fairy or New Age-y. One of my favorite comments from her was from a conversation about Opening Night – years after the fact.
She didn’t say “Myrtle is faced with her mortality.” “Myrtle is haunted by the ghost of her younger self.” (These things may be true, but that’s not how SHE boiled it down – because, honestly, those things are un-play-able, for an actress. No, what SHE said was: “I think Myrtle just doesn’t want to be in a lousy play.” I laughed out loud when I heard that – laughed in sheer delight – because THAT’S an actress’ mind-set. It’s up to the director to show how “Myrtle is faced with mortality …” But what Gena is DOING as the character is resisting, as hard as she can, what Myrtle assesses to be a terribly-written play. She’s trying to save herself as an ACTRESS, not as a person – she’s trying to figure out how to play that damn role and make the whole thing better.
Gena is so smart that way. She doesn’t get distracted. She never gets “abstract.” And – like a jazz musician, I imagine: she is always always aware of the underlying theme. It’s IN her, she doesn’t have to PLAY it.
Sounding good Sheila. Neither here nor there but someone described Australia upon returning from a trip there as “Canada in a thong” . Not sure if that’s true or not but thought it was very funny.
Thanks for listening! It was fun!