10 Things I Learned About Kathleen Turner This Week
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 8:02PM 
Kathleen Turner as Molly Ivins
Those of you in the Los Angeles area have two enticing theater options coming up. The first -- an absolute must see -- is the Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies. It's coming to LA soon from Broadway intact but for Bernadette Peters who will be replaced by another major but less famous talent, Victoria Clark (The Light in the Piazza). The other theater option is currently playing. I can't vouch for since I haven't seen it, but it's the one and only Kathleen Turner playing Molly Ivins in the one woman show Red Hot Patriot.
I have however seen Kathleen Turner live on stage twice (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and High) and she doesn't lose even one ounce of her charisma or gift on the stage the way many screen stars do when they attempt the transfer. Earlier this week she had a live chat at the LA Times Culture Monster and, though I've never participated in one of those before it was my darling Kathleen (she along with Pfeiffer and Streep is how I became such an actress-obsessive in my formative years) so I had to!
I told her I missed her onscreen and her response went like so.
I have a film coming out called A Perfect Family sometime this Spring. I still enjoy camera acting, but it's not as exhilarating to me as being on stage."
Ten other things I learned during her chat with fans after the jump...
10 Notable Bits From Kathleen Turner's Live Chat
10. Her favorite actors are Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Judi Dench. How strange is that? MOMENTS before this live chat we had just made a major plea for them to present at the Oscars together. This is empirical evidence that Kathleen was reading the Film Experience as she answered questions! ;) But in all serious lord knows if she ever googles herself, she's seen the site.
"PUSSY WILLOW"
09. Her favorite of her own films is Serial Mom because she has so many wonderful memories from the set ("most laughs") and she is still close with John Waters. This movie prompted the funnest questions from her gathered fans. Had she ever made a prank phone call "For heaven's sake, no! Nor will I". One fan said the house the real Serial Mom lived in in Baltimore was for sale. Should he buy it and give tours? "Good luck!" was her perfect succinct response.
08. What she remembers most about The War of the Roses.
My most vivid memory is the two weeks Michael and I spent up in that damn chandelier."
07 The most recent movie she saw in theaters was Sherlock Holmes: A Games of Shadows. "had a ball! I think those two make a great team." (Oh Kathleen, really! Shouldn't you be seeing the Oscar movies you need to vote on soon!?)
06 There was never a sequel to Body Heat because she, the director and William Hurt signed an agreement on a cocktail napkin one night that they'd never make one.
05 Thinking about The Virgin Suicides makes her sad.
04 She still has her sense of humor. When asked what Jessica Rabbit would be up to now, she said simply
Probably have about 102 babies."
LOL
03 She still seems fond of her frequent co-stars William Hurt and Michael Douglas but questions about reuniting with Michael Douglas were deflected in an "Ask Michael" type of way. Hmmm.
02 I asked a few questions during the event but my favorite moment was this:
01 Though she did not attempt to pretend that awards mean nothing to her "They are important. But, not more important than my own feeling about the work itself", she clearly does not like to be asked about the Oscars.
The tragedy of March 30th, 1987 illustrated
So she probably wouldn't have enjoyed that post I did about it years ago (my photoshopping you can see above). The exact exchange went like so:
Marc Israel: How was your Academy Awards experience that night you were nominated for Peggy Sue Got... I was actually present there and I thought you should have won instead of Marlee Matlin that night.
Kathleen: Oh for heaven's sake, get over it."
Kathleen. Still a brassy diva to this day.
Reader Comments (7)
Just saw Body Heat the other day and it was great. Really loved that opening shot of the inn burning in the distance. It was weird to see Kathleen Turner looking so hot naked. I still think of her as Chandler's transsexual father on Friends. I guess not all actresses can age like Pfieffer.
I NEVER get tired of that Oscar photoshop post. Yes yes, we accept your love...brilliant!
I love her! We all know she's been very sick and certainly that puts things into a different perspective but... a few of us CAN'T and WON'T get over that night!
PS Go see her on stage.
A nice piece on an under-discussed acting great (or at least to my dismay, as she's rarely even talked about online anymore). Long live Kathleen, may she live the rest of her days happy and healthy (and a couple more films hopefully wouldn't hurt :D ).
You also forgot, for us SoCalers, Helen Hunt in 'Our Town'.
Teehee.
Steven -- You're so right. Apart from this blog (thanks Nathaniel!), I usually only find nasty comments online about her looks and not her talent which is discouraging.
Has no one thought of kt for osage county.