Interview: Ann Dowd on 'Mass' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' and staying humble when the offers come.
Sunday, January 30, 2022 at 6:00PM by Nathaniel R
As Ann Dowd and I sat down to talk about Mass, we talked briefly about some work she'd been doing with acting students (not as much as she'd like) and reminisced briefly about the time she guest blogged for The Film Experience seven years ago. In one piece she wrote for the site she doled out advice for young actors about "attending to your life" as she puts it and seeking help if it's needed rather than purposefully 'Suffering for Art'. I reminded her of her own words:
This advice seems especially relevant today given the heavy themes of her current drama Mass which is about two married couples meeting for the first time years after a tragic school shooting has permanently altered their lives. [This interview has been edited for length and clarity]...
a shattering scene in "Mass"
NATHANIEL: How do you even approach material this heavy? You've got to be feeling the pain in some way while you're performing it and yet...
ANN DOWD: Well, that's the joy of what an actor can do, right? I mean the privilege, frankly. When we go home at the end of the day, we do not carry the consequences. So we can do the deep time. I wish I had a more, descriptive way to say it, but it's imagination. It begins always with the text. Where does it connect? Where does it land? You let it take on a life of its own. It can be challenging but it is not painful.
I know that this character stayed with me for a very, very, very long time. It's difficult to talk about, actually. It's an emotional thing to talk about.
It must be a different feeling if not a difference acting process than, say, doing a comedy.
ANN DOWD: Comedy [Laughs] The character's consequences are not as intense! I haven't done a ton of comedy, but you're all in either way, you know what I mean? The whole process is mysterious and wonderful! That's why I love doing it [pretends to open a script] Oh, who is this?
Because Mass has just four main actors and one setting, were you able to shoot it more like a play, to get the momentum of emotions?
Everything in the room was shot chronologically beginning to end. In the first four days of the shoot, we shot everything that did not occur in that room, which is to say the beginning and the ending.
That's interesting because the end is such a culmination for your character. You're going to have to be playing everything building towards that underneath... and yet you actually shot it later.
Well, it depends on how one interprets that. This woman's life was shattered, right? And along with it all defenses, all expectations -- it's all gone. And so there's a part of her, which is almost childlike. I don't know how quite to describe. But it's like 'I'M SORRY' might as well be something she wears at all times. She's carried these thoughts with her for a long time. Will she share this story? She doesn't know. She doesn't know. I think what happens when she leaves is ...'I want to tell this'. It's happening in the moment.
All I know is I felt like she was holding something back the entire movie until her final scene.
That's because you're very astute. I'm not joking. [Thinking as Sarah] 'How much can I say? Will they understand what I mean?'
It's such a shattering moment when... [well, spoilers].
I think she carries it all close to the chest and then realizes I can and want to say this out loud.
Martha Plimpton is one of my favourite actors and she's great in this.
Yes she is. Isn't she wonderful?
You were also back on stage last summer but without co-stars! I'm so upset that I missed your show at the Armory.
A solo performance in "Enemy of the People" at the Park Avenue Armony in the summer of 2021
ANN DOWD: That was scary and thrilling. Robert Icke, who put it together, he is beyond. We were on zoom for months together. It was extraordinary, the whole process.
It must have been strange to go from something so interactive like Mass to this where you're totally alone on stage.
ANN DOWD: Daunting. I think actors are built for ensemble work to be honest. So it is a shift, but then what you find yourself doing is building the ensemble with the audience, if you will. They take on as much meaning as a scene partner because you're looking them right in the eye. I think without that connection, what do you do? Human beings naturally connect.
So you seem like a very grounded person. And I'm so pleased to have witnessed your career grow in real time.
Thank you, thank you.
When we first met in 2012 for Compliance you weren't famous. You hadn't won an Emmy. You weren't inundated with offers. How have you dealt with the success?
Well, it inspires more humility.
Really?
with Ann Dowd at the 2021 Middleburg Film Festival. We first met in 2012
ANN DOWD: Oh yeah. Because you can't get over your good fortune. I remember thinking with the Emmy... I'll never get over that. It was a shock and I'm like, 'Whoa, who are you talking about? Who are you talking about?' I wish everybody could have this just for a few minutes. When someone says 'the work you're doing is good.' It's very humbling to me. You see other actors working so hard. Actors just want to work. When you have an option to say yes or no to something? Gosh!
You're reminding me of when Frances McDormand kind of shouted "I love to work" when she won her third Oscar.
That was great. She's something else.
When you teach I know you have impress on students that acting requires commitment and discipline even when there is no work. Were auditions always easy for you?
When I first auditioned, and I'm not joking, I'm sure people wondered 'is this poor thing special needs?' And I don't say that disrespectfully as I have a special needs child. But literally I could barely get a word out. The terror!
But you learned how.
You have to learn to deal because this is how you get roles. I remember my manager saying to me 'You have to talk in the room when you go in. You don't just have your scene.' I can't imagine myself not wanting to talk back then because it's all I ever do now. I talk way too much as you've learned!
But I grew to love it, The audition process. I read this once, and at first I was like 'yeah, right' but some actor (forgive me for not knowing who), said 'When you're in the room, you have it. The role is yours'. If you go in with that mindset, you're not asking for anything. That's a very powerful thing, to say 'It's mine. I'm here and I have this. Thank you.' It's not arrogance or anything resembling it.
And now to be in a privileged position where you just get offered something. At first I was like 'Offered? What? You don't know if I can do it or not! Don't you wanna see some proof?! '
[Laughter] "Offer only"
Well, I'd go into any room. And I think sometimes you're really ought to. I haven't in a while but there's no rule on my end, I'll tell you that much. Because that, to me, travels into arrogance and then you should go and sit down on a corner and get it together.
You've being doing a lot of TV recently and it must be so different. In that, when you start building a character, you have just one episode worth of information.
Well, let's put it this way. You know enough. For instance, Bruce Miller, wonderful showrunner of The Handmaids Tale, he had thought Lydia was a teacher. Wow. so ideas begin to come to mind. Mm-hmmm, so you imagine what the rest would've been. Very religious family. Very strict. Sex is the Antichrist. Yeah. You can imagine her a teacher in an all girls school. These things begin to present. Mmm. She was not good at relationships because the sex part was too shaming. Whatever it may be. And, of course, in the case of The Handmaid's Tale you have the novel.
But you've taken it further than the novel.
ANN DOWD: It's really quite extraordinary to have four years with a character. Because she'll teach you things you didn't even see coming. 'Whoa, thank you for that.' I always wanted her to progress more quickly. But that's not what happens. That's not the truth. And the writers know what they're doing. She's gonna go where she's gonna go. The writers have a sense of timing. And how long it takes for a person to shift, if that's where they're going to shift to. It's been great.
With a long running show do you feel like you're contributing to the writing since they're writing the character after you've performed it so indelibly.
I would imagine it's a collaborative thing. Mm-hmm I think so. I like to think so. I think the writers have painter's eyes.
That's a beautiful way to put it.
They just see things and where they might go. The backstory for Aunt Lydia -- oh, I had tons of ideas. Thank God, I didn't write any of it! What that gorgeous writer wrote? Just fantastic. Lucky me!
Best Supporting Actress Oscar Race
More on Mass
More on Ann Dowd
Other interviews
Ann Dowd, Mass, Sage Advice, The Handmaid's Tale, auditions, interview
Reader Comments (6)
A truly wonderful and gifted actor. Her performance in Mass is heartbreaking.
I wish there was more attention for Martha Plimpton - I feel the movie's soul rests on her.
The overlooking of Mass and all it's actors but the ladies are something special is the biggest disappointment this year,what a really nice interview and nice to hear from a character actress and how she deals fame with bigger success late in her career,well done.
Such a shame the MASS cast were never able to break through more.
Hope she works forever like a British dame.
Love Peggy Sue's comment. I hope she's an Oscar nominee some day soon.
I think I've said this before on here, but she and Denis O'Hare do some of the best acting I've ever seen on the Law & Order episode "Pro Se". One of the best episodes of the series.
She's getting more opportunities and has the right career momentum for an Oscar nom in the next few years. I can definitely see it happening. Regardless, she's fantastic.