Photos: Jessica Lange & More at THE GREAT LILLIAN HALL New York Screening

On Thursday, December 5, Academy Award®, Emmy® winner, and Tony Award® winner Jessica Lange (Lillian Hall, Executive Producer), and Michael Cristofer (Director, Executive Producer) came together for an exclusive FYC screening and Q&A of HBO’s THE GREAT LILLIAN HALL. Take a look at photos below!

Earlier in the day, the HBO original film received two nominations at the Critics Choice Awards for Best Movie Made For Television (The Great Lillian Hall) and Best Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television (Jessica Lange).

Following the screening, In Creative Company’s Mara Webster moderated a discussion between Lange and Cristofer. Michael and Jessica were greeted by a standing ovation from the audience.

Michael started by talking about his decision to move the opening night of The Cherry Orchard to the end of the film rather than the middle. He said it was instinct, and added both tension to the story and made it a more universal story about human triumph in the face of mortality. It’s “one of the great beauties of the human condition.”

There were a lot of parallels between the character of Lillian and her character in The Cherry Orchard, Ranevskaya. Jessica said it was a very interesting experience, it’s “not often you get the chance to play two characters.” She also added she had never done Chekhov before, which prompted Michael to say it’s now time for her to do The Cherry Orchard and the crowd applauded. 

Michael specifically chose for Lillian’s character to have Lewy Body Dementia, and it made it much more physical for Jessica to play. One of her favorite scenes was when Lillian turned to Edith Wilson (Kathy Bates) and asked her - “Will you remind me who I am?” It was such a heartbreaking line. 

It was important to make the film a “valentine to the theater,” shared Michael. He joked that he had been fired twice before for directing a play, so he was happy to do it again without that fear. 

Lillian had always been a professional, and Lillian said that showcasing her dedication to the theater turned into a “wonderful exploration of who she is as a woman, who she is character and who she is as an actor and how all of that is now going to be stripped away.”

Jessica noted Michael put a lot of trust into this cast. He said it’s important to “create all the specifics of an environment and keep manipulating what’s on the page so that everything an actor might need is somewhere in the vicinity.” Jessica added that you need to believe and trust the people that you’re working with so when something happens you are reacting, not acting. That’s what makes it thrilling. During the scene in the hospital, Lily Rabe was like a “raw nerve,” which was very exciting. 

For the end, Michael added that was another kiss to the theater and he wanted that to have the energy of an opening night. In that moment, Lillian has totally married the character and herself. Michael said “the house is the theater, and she’s saying goodbye to it,” which was met with a loud round of applause from the crowd. 

Photo Credit: Marion Curtis / Starpix for HBO’s Original Film