BWW EXCLUSIVE: Elizabeth Ashley Talks ME, MYSELF & I and More!

 

Today we have Part I of the BWW Exclusive two-part InDepth InterView with legendary stage and screen actress - and, bar none, the greatest Tennessee Williams actress alive - Tony-winning star, and a legend in her own time: Elizabeth Ashley! In this first part, we talk her early stage career from TAKE HER, SHE'S MINE directed by George Abbott and produced by Hal Prince in the 60s up to AGNES OF GOD opposite Amanda Plummer and Geraldine Page in the early 80s continuing to Tracy Letts' Pulitzer-prize winning opus AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY in 2007 - to say nothing of the central focus of our extended conversation: her most recent role playing the mother of twin sons named Otto (and/or "otto") in Edward Albee's newest absurdist masterpiece, ME, MYSELF & I, which can currently be seen at Playrights' Horizons! From the grande dame of Williams, to life with Orson Welles, to living on the road (by choice), and a life in the theatre (no choice), Ms. Ashley is a fabulous, veritable walking, talking history of the American theatre in the last forty years and no one - I repeat, no one - can tell a story better than she can! From Mohammad Ali to Edward Albee, this interview has it all! She is one of the greats, onstage and off. There will never be another Liz Ashley and this first part is just half the reason why!

Ashley of God (aka Albee)

Elizabeth Ashley is in a class of her own, on a planet of her own. Read her autobiography ACTRESS for proof. She has been called "a diva," "outrageous," "ferocious," and "spellbinding". She surely is all of those things - and many more - and she'd be the very first one to tell you exactly what, who, how and why she is that way. She's authenticity personified in a fake, prefab world and perhaps that's why she always comes across so real and so in the moment on stage and on screen. She pulls no punches. Plus, no one has had a life quite like hers, and no one ever could. A true original, in the American (and even Southern) sense of that term. The appearance of her 1963 Life Magazine cover on a recent episode of MAD MEN is just one example of the cultural impact she has had over her nearly fifty-year career in Hollywood and on Broadway. She started her career with a bang - and a Tony Award - in George Abbott's TAKE HER, SHE'S MINE, and continued her stage hot streak with Neil Simon's BAREFOOT IN THE PARK opposite a then-unknown Robert Redford. Of course, then Hollywood came calling, and while THE CARPETBAGGERS nabbed her a lot of attention, she hung up her acting shoes to play wife for the better part of a decade as companion to Hollywood star George Peppard who made her choose between wife and life. Ten years later, she rose like a phoenix from the ashes with a string of highly lauded performances, the most memorable of which was undoubtedly Maggie the Cat in Tennessee Williams' CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF in the mid-70s, the first time the real text (read: non-censored) had been used on Broadway. Williams himself rewrote the text to suit her every movement and it fit like a glove - or, should I say, the cat's pajamas. Many Gen Y-ers may know her best from the early 90s sitcom EVENING SHADE co-starring Burt Reynolds and Michael Jeter, but Broadway babies - in New York and around the country - have had the special thrill of seeing her in any number of roles over the last few decades. Most recently, she set fire to the stage yet again with a stirring and unforgettable turn in AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY following her work in DIVIDING THE ESTATE (which, coincidentally, played across the street). Now, her career has come full circle and she is creating a role in a new Edward Albee play - then the unquestionable master playwright on Broadway (with that fact remaining so ever since) thanks to WHO'S AFRAID OF Virginia Woolf and A DELICATE BALANCE when she was a fresh-faced ingénue from Louisiana when she first arrived in New York. We talk Ali to Albee, Welles to Williams, and touch upon all of these exciting moments - plus her personal recollections and stories about Williams that are a true thrill in and of themselves - in the complete interview, which will be available in full next week. For now, enjoy Part I and a discussion of her stage work, early career and everything you need to know about Edward Albee's ME, MYSELF & I!

Also, stay tuned to BroadwayWorld all this week for more with the cast of ME, MYSELF & I, including exclusive conversations with her co-stars Brian Murray and Preston Sadleir!

 

InDepth InterView: Elizabeth Ashley - Part I

Note: I spoke to Ms. Ashley by phone the week following the opening of ME, MYSELF & I at Playwright's Horizons and even through her sneezes and sniffles ("I‘ve sort of got a really bad cold, so I‘m sounding kind of screwy!") - clearly in the throes of influenza - she stated her intention to give me an A+ interview as well as go on the stage that night and give an A+ performance. She surely came through on both counts. Our conversation starts there.

PC: So, you're still going to go on tonight? How can you possibly do that when you are clearly this under the weather?

EA: One has to do it, doesn't one? Anyway, fire away!

PC: I read your book ACTRESS - which coincidentally begins with you going on in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF against all odds - tell me about writing that book.

EA: It's probably older than you are!

PC: It is. I was born in ‘84.

EA: So, it is! It is!

PC: Yeah, it was in ‘78 that you wrote it. What was it like to write? It really captures your spirit and vitality. To hear about Hollywood and Broadway the way you tell it is just fascinating.

EA: Right. It was with this brilliant guy Ross Firestone. I mean: he had been one of Lenny Bruce's record producer, he was a professor of English Literature at Columbia, he was one of the founders of Grove Press, he wrote the Encyclopedia of Jazz. He had done a long interview with me for THE FAME BOOK or something. They called me up and said, "Do you wanna be in The Fame Book with Muhammad Ali and Mario Andretti?" and I said, "Sure. Those are my kind of guys!"

 

PC: You love bad boys!

EA: So, I did this long interview and off that, the publisher called and said, "Essentially, we are calling this a taped book." He'd done a lot of books, so this was something different. So he followed me on the road when we did CAESER & CLEOPATRA and a bunch of other things.

PC: You were super-busy during that period.

EA: Right. Anyway, we ended up with stacks and stacks - like a dozen New York City telephone books - of raw transcript of just taped stuff. That was in like late ‘75-‘76. Then he would send me 200 pages a day all put into 3 pages. There was a certain integrity to the book, though. I don't consider myself a writer, but there were parts I wanted to rewrite and he said, "No, it has to be exactly as you said it!" Then, we put it all together so it goes backwards in time. I haven't read it in a thousand years.

PC: I'd love to update it, you've done so much in the interim!

EA: Thank you so much for saying that!

PC: Actually, I just talked to Hal Prince yesterday. He gave you your first job on TAKE HER, SHE'S MINE.

EA: Right! Right! Yeah, George Abbott! I remember.

PC: What was it like working with Prince and Abbott?

EA: Hal was like his assistant. It was like Bobby Griffith and George Abbott and Hal Prince was like the young kid in the office. (Pause.) The very bright kid in the office!

PC: Definitely!

EA: Of course he grew up to be one of the great producers and directors of the theatre. He's a terrific guy. A great artist. An amazing man. He's done some of the best ever in the theatre.

 

PC: Speaking of which, what's your take on musicals? Are you a fan of any?

EA: Some. You see, show tunes aren't really my thing. Gotta understand, I grew up on the Louisiana Gulf Coast. You know, Fats Domino played at my high school prom!

PC: Wow!

EA: The three local bands were Fats Domino, Little Richard and Bo Diddly. And for an extra hundred bucks you could get Ray Charles to come over!

PC: That's incredible!

EA: So, I mean, show tunes just never were on my radar. (Pause.) But, something like the Sondheim stuff... some of it is just wonderful. Generally, musicals aren't particularly my thing but there are always the great exceptions.

PC: As with all things.

EA: There's a WEST SIDE STORY. There's a SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. There's a SPRING AWAKENING. There's a JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR.

PC: Oh, yeah!

EA: There's stuff like that that's quite remarkable. I must say that I'm not a big fan of jukebox musicals but, then again, I am not a fan of theme park theatre. Do you know what I mean by that?

PC: Yes. Tell me about BROADWAY: THE GOLDEN AGE, which tackles that topic.

EA: Oh, I love it. I love Rick McKay. Aren't those things extraordinary? He's working on the second one now!

PC: I've spoken to him. He's an amazing guy.

EA: Anything you want to know about me you can ask him. As I said, I've never had a press agent in my life, I never participated in that aspect. But, Rick probably knows more about me professionally than I do!

PC: I just interviewed Diahann Carroll...

EA: I love her!

 

PC: Tell me everything! I just interviewed her and we talked about AGNES OF GOD and her replacing you. She loves you too!

EA: I've known her... oh, God. I came to New York in ‘68. I met her when she was doing a gig in the nightclub room at the Plaza Hotel and we sort of became friends back then. And then, a thousand years ago, when I was doing AGNES OF GOD [in the early ‘80s], and it was running for a long time on Broadway and I wanted to leave the Broadway production to take it on the road - because I've always liked the road -
It was my idea to have Diahann come in.

PC: How wise of you!

EA: Believe it or not, in those days there wasn't the same kind of "rainbow" casting. We really campaigned. She, of course, took over for me in AGNES OF GOD on Broadway and was...(Dramatic Pause. With Emphasis.) Brilliant.

PC: What a cool concept to introduce into the play, the colorblind casting. A black female chain-smoking psychiatrist.

EA: It was my idea, but no one fought it. It just took awhile to have it sink in with the producers. It brought an aspect to the play that was just astonishing and she was just brilliant in it.

PC: What was it like hosting SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE around that time in the early 80s?

EA: I promised Terry Southern that I would host it. It was utter madness. I knew Terry and he wanted me to do it so I promised him that he would. He and Bill Donahue were two of the head writers there. I think it was Eddie Murphy's second season.

PC: What was Eddie Murphy like back then?

EA: He was just astonishing. Astonishing.

PC: I bet! He was so young.

EA: It's just madness, though. A week of utter madness.

PC: Tell me about how the producers fired Lee Remick and put you in the show on the road before AGNES OF GOD came to New York.

EA:I had come back from somewhere in the deep Caribbean and while I was in New York I got the telephone call that nobody ever admits gets made!

PC: Uh oh!

EA: It comes at like two o'clock in the morning. It's usually a producer or a Broadway press person or somebody and they say, "This call never happened, but...."

PC: So that's how it happened! Or, I guess, didn't!

EA: Yeah, I think Lee just didn't like the play. God knows, she was a marvelous actress. I remember thinking... you see, I'm dyslexic. You have to understand. So, I had read the play read to me and thought, "Four nuns. A psychiatrist. A room. So what?"

PC: Right.

EA: But they needed someone who could learn the part and be ready to open it on Broadway in something like fourteen days.

PC: Wow! Two weeks?

EA: Or they were going to have to close. They had to either feel they could come in with Lee, which wasn't happening, or I don't know what. (Pause.) When peoples' backs are up against the wall like that, you do not negotiate. These are people I knew. These were people I worked with before. So, I thought this is what you do: You take the best clause of Lee's contract and the best clause of my last Broadway contract and use the best of both.

 

PC: Best of both worlds!

EA: Yeah, but listen to this, three guys that I knew really well were rock n roll roadies. We got two hotel bedroom suites. One was set up sort of like the set of the play. We did that round-the-clock thing of just cue-ing every few hours. I can't memorize off the page. So we'd do it back-and-forth, back-and-forth. So, we'd act for four hours, sleep for two hours. The guys would bring me food or whatever. That's how we did it.

PC: And when you got onstage?

EA: It was Geraldine Page and Amanda Plummer! Geraldine Page is an acting god and she was certainly one of mine. She and Kim Stanley were my great idols.

PC: Tell me about being on Broadway in the mid to late 70s, when A CHORUS LINE was being written and all that.

EA: I think A CHORUS LINE came along a little later than CAT, but a I just remember a number of kids I knew were involved in this workshop thing. They were workshopping it near where I lived. It just sounded extraordinary. The creative imagination involved in that was just astonishing. It is that we should devoutly wish for at all times.

PC: Tell me about Tracy Letts and AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTRY. He's a genius.

EA: You got that right.

PC: Best play of the new century.

EA: That too. Absolutely.

PC: Wow, what a play! What a role!

EA: Isn't that a great play? (Pause.) I had never replaced anybody before. I was still in DIVIDING THE ESTATE. That was across the street, we were in the Booth and they were in the Music Box. So, I was rehearsing AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY during the day and playing DIVIDING THE ESTATE at night.

PC: Double-duty!

EA: I had never replaced anybody so I had to try to sort of fit in to everyone else's stuff. But, Mattie Fay is such a great character and they let me have a hand in reshaping her. And, again, I got to work with the great Estelle Parsons... it's like playing tennis with the greatest tennis player in the world, you only get better. You may suck, but you'll play better on that day!

PC: What a great way to put it. Mike Nichols is directing the film. Who'd you cast?

EA: Faye Dunaway would be great.

PC: Maybe Meryl Streep?

EA: They're probably going to go younger. Wouldn't Meryl play Viola? Of course, Meryl Streep can play anything, what do I know!

PC: I also just interviewed another great lady of Albee, Kathleen Turner, who said she is a fan of yours.

 

EA: Kathleen is terrific. Kathleen is the best of breed. She's just a great woman. Kathleen is one of those people who will always come to see your show. When your show sucks, Kathleen will still come. She's just a great person like that.

PC: What do you think about being a grande dame of Albee?

EA: Oh, I think of Irene Worth and Elaine Stritch and the great British actresses... but, anybody who gets to be onstage in an Albee play is lucky.

PC: Tell me about being in this new one, ME, MYSELF & I. I loved it. It fits so well in his canon.

EA: Of course, it got very mixed notices, but that's because it makes people mad! It's so edgy, it's so absurdist, so Dada.

PC: Precisely. Ahead of the curve.

EA: Look, the thing is... remember, when rock n roll first assaulted the world, people didn't just not listen to it, they hated it! They hated it! So, there are people who feel that way about absurdist theatre.

PC: Including Ben Brantley.

EA: The theatre does tend to have that mindset. You sort of have to drop-kick it into the present, much less the future!

PC: You got that right!

EA: This play is very futuristic and very strange. It's like, there's no one way to understand it. I tend to look at it as absurd, vaudeville fun. Audiences fall over laughing and cackling, so it works. What can I tell you?

PC: He's writing plays like a young man again! He's writing plays like someone my age would write... or you'd think!

EA: Absolutely! Absolutely! And probably with a little more finesse!

PC: A lot more, a lot more!

EA: He's a master. He's the greatest living playwright in the English language.

PC: Unquestionably.

EA: What can I say? It's a privilege.

PC: I bet!

EA: It's a privilege to be onstage every night with somebody like Brian Murray.

PC: Another Albee regular!

EA: And I love those young kids. And Emily Mann is the director of one's dreams! She's graceful and smart and kind and exact and sure of herself. She's everything you want as a director.

PC: There haven't been that many rewrites since you became involved with this show, or have there been?

EA: Edward had rewritten the script extensively after they had done it at McCarter a few years ago.

PC: With Tyne Daly in your role.

EA: Yeah! Who I can only imagine must have been terrific. Tyne is a brilliant actress. She has a certain kind of rye, dry intelligence and humor that I think is original and unique. I think she's on tour in something else right now, anyway.

 

PC: And QUEEN OF THE STARDUST BALLROOM coming up. You seem more suited for the role based on the text as it now stands.

EA: When playwrights do a shakedown cruise of the play, like they did at McCarter, you go away and make cuts. That's what you do. He did very few rewrites. He cut the stuff that was charming and funny. But, if it does not move the play forward - and Edward is a proponent of this - you cut it. It had to keep going. But, there were no problems.

PC: You doing a new Albee play, coming from being the Tennessee Williams goddess...

EA: Oh, please! (Laughs.)

PC: ... is like a perfect convergence of worlds. Have you spoken to him about your relationship with Tennessee?

EA: Oh, of course. Often. Listen, one of the things I admire, revere and love about Edward is that Edward is a warrior. I mean, he is a champion. And he is a warrior.

PC: He's had to fight!

EA: Even in those years when mongrels and de curs were chewing on Tennessee, Edward fought for him. Edward fights for writers. He fights for that which is fine and good in art. He fights for the excellence. He demands it. Even writers who are overlooked like Horton Foote, he brought those writers to the attention of generations who may not have necessarily otherwise understood the greatness of them. And Edward is responsible for so many writer's work that was overlooked. Or work that wasn't understood at the time for whatever reason. I respect artists that love and fight to protect their fellow artists and colleagues more than anything.

PC: And the theatre is falling apart. We all have to stick together, from the press to the performers.

EA: I agree with Edward in that the economics in the commercial theatre are just absurd. No one should have to pay that much for a ticket. Don't get me going on that! I have a bad cold and I have to work onstage tonight!