Interview conducted by Josh Horowitz
January 30, 2004
In Bed with Patricia Clarkson
Think of Patricia Clarkson as sort of the indie Meryl Streep. Talk to other actors and Clarkson’s name comes up an inordinate amount of times. She is positively revered. This year, audiences and award institutions like SAG, the Golden Globes, and even the Oscars, have joined the bandwagon.
With roles in ALL THE REAL GIRLS, PIECES OF APRIL, and THE STATION AGENT, Clarkson inherited the indie queen mantle of Parker Posey last year at Sundance. Now she’s reaping the rewards with plenty of quality time on red carpets and even a supporting role in a studio film, the Kurt Russell starrer MIRACLE.
I spoke to Clarkson on a frigid day in New York City last week as we were both struggling to keep warm in our respective apartments.
Josh Horowitz: Are you keeping out of the cold today?
Patricia Clarkson: You know I had to walk my poor dog. It is freezing. It is unbearably cold but I worry more about my dog with the salt and the snow and his paws. It kills their feet. Putting booties on his feet, forget about it.
JH: I don’t know. Whenever I see a sweater on a dog…
PC: Well I put a coat on him but it’s quite macho. It’s like a little Viking coat.
JH: Well if he can pull it off…
PC: Yes, it’s black and it’s quite understated.
JH: Well I have to say that I regret to inform you that as of 12:32pm eastern standard time today, I don’t think you’ve been given another nomination or award today.
PC: (LAUGHS AND WHISPERS) Thank God.
JH: Are you alright? Do I need to talk you through this?
PC: Oh Josh! (LAUGHS) I’m always wary when my phone rings. I’m like, “oh God what was announced today?” See, the SAG awards caught me totally by surprise. And because it was two films I had two sets of people calling like crazy. My phones were truly off the hook. I ran out the tape machine. I ran out the voicemail.
JH: You need the award answering service. “Ms. Clarkson cannot take your call. She appreciates your well wishes…”
PC: “But please please go away!” (LAUGHS)
JH: I’m resolving not to take the easy way out and make the headline of this interview: “Patricia Clarkson: Indie Queen”
PC: Thank you!
JH: So by the end of this I want your help in coming up with something else.
PC: (LAUGHS) Ok.
JH: Last year you were the belle of the ball at Sundance with four films, this year you’re skipping it. Is it work for you when you’re out there?
PC: I’m so happy I’m not in Utah. It was brutal! It was exhausting beyond belief and that’s how my year started and I haven’t stopped since. And that’s why right now I’m lying in bed talking to you. I am not kidding. I am lying under my comforter. (LAUGHS)
JH: No worries. It’s our little secret. And this all goes back even further to FAR FROM HEAVEN…
PC: Yes, I had craziness from FAR FROM HEAVEN into Sundance into a year of shooting movies and this Kurt Russell movie MIRACLE. But these two small films are still standing. Two movies with a combined budget of under a million bucks is like yahoo!
JH: And THE STATION AGENT is still playing after months…
PC: And you know the Angelica [theater in New York]. Nothing lasts more than a day there. Every time I open up the New York Times and I see that it’s still playing there I just have to smile. And PIECES hung on for a while and it might get re-released.
JH: We’ve all heard the old adage from people who have gotten the bulk of their success in their 40s that they wouldn’t have been able to handle it in their 20s. Could you refute that for me and confirm that you would have been able to handle all this 15 or 20 years ago?
PC: (LAUGHS) Yes! It’s maybe a little sweeter now. Maybe it’s a little easier now because I have a life and I hopefully am more secure in mind and body and spirit. But no, had I been successful in my 20s I would have been just fine. But it is nice to defy the odds. The odds are not in your favor the older you get, especially if you’re a woman in this business. But I’m hanging in there.
JH: So I’ve been talking to a lot of awards contenders in this season. I talked to Maria Bello who refused to trash-talk you.
PC: Oh God! Thank you!
JH: No one is willing to start the trash talking. Could you say one horrible thing about one of your competitors?
PC: No! My God! Holly Hunter has been doing great work forever. Renee Zellweger has been giving great performances. And Maria Bello hasn’t been doing film as long but is still wonderful.
JH: What’s the biggest consequence of all this awards stuff? I read that you consider yourself a news junkie. Are you able to get your fix in even with all this craziness?
PC: Yes, I always have to get my fix in. I have to watch the news or my day is not complete. I’m obsessed. I’ve always needed to know what’s going on but now it’s a must.
JH: I relate completely. I was always the freak in school that brought in all the newspapers under his arm because I just had to read everything.
PC: (LAUGHS) I love that! That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. That’s so yummy.
JH: Were you ever interested in journalism?
PC: No, but I love journalists. I love writers. All of my best friends are writers. I just have a thing for writers. Maybe it because I’m just so not a writer. (LAUGHS) I mean writing a postcard is painful. But I do really love watching the news and going back and forth between all the news channels. That’s really just kind of the highlight of my day.
JH: There’s something really telling I think about three of your films this year, THE STATION AGENT, PIECES OF APRIL, and ALL THE REAL GIRLS. The first two were
directing debuts and David Gordon Green was 25 when he directed the latter. Do you think you are just monumentally lucky or do you have the greatest judgement in the business?
PC: I think I am monumentally lucky but I do have the good fortune to have these great young directors offering me parts in their scripts. Maybe I have a certain amount of smarts to say yes because I don’t care if I’m not going to make any money because I love the part. That’s always what’s driven me. And it’s not that I haven’t taken a money job here and there but for the most part I have been driven by the need to work on a great script. I’m really a director’s actor. I rely heavily on a director.
JH: What strikes you first when you meet a director? Is it their passion or their vision?
PC: Yes, it’s both of those. I also love one voice. I love working with one person. It’s a singular voice and that also attracts me. I think they end up being better films.
JH: Let me ask you specifically about a couple of your characters. In PIECES OF APRIL one of the things that struck me about Joy was her complexity. Usually a character dealing with cancer is portrayed as a saint and their humanity is almost taken away from them when they’re dealing with the most human of things.
PC: Yes and that’s the beauty of [writer/director] Peter Hedges. He took a woman at the darkest and gravest moment and it is imminent death and yet what is thriving is her wicked humor. I just kind of fell in love with her. I didn’t even finish the script before I called and said I have to do this.
JH: I’ve heard you say that you come at parts from an emotional level.
PC: That has to be there first and foremost. I always try to approach character first and foremost viscerally. All of your actions are dictated from the pit. It all comes from that. It’s never easy with characters in these dark and grave circumstances but that’s my job.
JH: THE STATION AGENT had an unusually long gestation period over a number of years. Your character and Peter Dinklage’s are strangers to each other in the film. But you all were extremely familiar with each other after working on this for a long time. Is that difficult to set aside?
PC: No, it ultimately helped in the end. I think it’s always harder in a film to convey intimacy. By the time we arrived at shooting this script, me, Peter and Bobby had that. A real intimacy formed between us and I don’t think you can fake that. It’s easier to convey newness and awkwardness.
JH: Going back, your film debut came in one of my favorite films, THE UNTOUCHABLES. Did you audition for [director Brian] DePalma?
PC: Goodness, yes. I was just out of drama school but I was actually doing a play on Broadway. I went in and read for a great old casting director and he said, “I think you might be right for this but that dress you have on is too sexy. Come back in something plainer and read for Brian.” And I did and that was it.
JH: At the time, did you think you had this all figured out? You were out of Yale; you had a part in a big Brian DePalma film…
PC: Yeah, but remember it was a very small part. I wasn’t like “whee hee, I got the break!” I mean it was cool and I love Brian DePalma and I do to this day. I adore him. You never forget your first. He gave me my first movie job in my whole life. He was amazing to me. But I still had a perspective out of it.
JH: I always followed your career since then if only because you made the line, “now shoo”, compelling.
PC: (LAUGHS) That’s so funny. Some people still quote to me “why don’t you come up and brush my hair.” (LAUGHS)
JH: Along the way were there times when you felt you were a role away from gaining more stability in your career?
PC: Yes. And there were many parts I didn’t get. I was always kind of grasping at things. It’s kind of what can happen in this business. You’re always close and you never get that big romantic lead. Now I can be philosophical about. It was always a struggle for me to be an ingenue. It really was. I’ve always wanted to be leading lady/character actress. I think it kind of took being a character actor to kind of now enter into leading ladies. But now I can do both and now people see me as both very clearly. I no longer have to be the sparkly romantic girl/woman. I was never girlish. My sense of humor was never quite the fit. My voice was never high enough. I was never sexy in that way. And now oddly I’m getting sexier parts than I’ve ever gotten. THE DYING GAUL is maybe the sexiest part I’ve ever played. It’s this sexy white bikini wearing woman. (LAUGHS)
JH: Do you hit out of the park?
PC: Oh, I have no idea! I’m still traumatized that I’m going to be on a big screen in a white bikini and naked so who knows!
JH: Whose opinion do you trust more than anyone’s when it comes to this business?
PC: I have great people around me. I have great writer friends. And I have a really great agent and I know it’s almost an oxymoron to say you have a smart agent. But she is and she has a beautiful aesthetic and she has guided me. She doesn’t give a shit about the money. She just wants me to do good things.
JH: Let’s talk about some of your upcoming work. I’m looking forward to MIRACLE if for no other reason than seeing Kurt Russell in that horrible haircut.
PC: Ok, but wait. You are going to die when you see Kurt Russell in this movie. He is out of the park. I’m not going to say anything more. Just wait till you see him in this.
JH: Well, I’m tearing up during the trailer so I think it’s probably going to get me.
PC: This is a little bit of UNTOUCHABLES territory for me. I do not have the biggest part in the film. But I took it because I love Kurt Russell and I love [director] Gavin O’Connor. It wasn’t the biggest part in the world but she’s got a couple nice key scenes and it’s also good for me to studio films from time to time. And Gavin wooed me. He sat me down at dinner and said, “there ain’t much there but what’s there is choice. Come on board.” He has delivered a film that is aesthetic and commercial for Disney. I don’t know how he did it. And I did want to work with Kurt Russell. Who doesn’t want to work with Kurt Russell? He’s a great fuckin’ actor and all my scenes were with him.
JH: And speaking of interesting directors, how was your time in Sweden with the notoriously eccentric Lars Von Trier working on DOGVILLE?
PC: He’s an eccentric odd man and I went kind of filled with trepidation. But I love the way he works. I can do a very structured script. But then there’s that other side of acting when it’s really thrown to the wild and that’s Lars. It’s very improvisational. He’ll ask you to do wild, crazy stuff, but I love that. Like we’ll shoot the script and then we’ll throw it all out. You have to be able to let go of a lot of stuff. You have to really be open every day you come on the set. That can be exhausting but I like the way he works. He’d shoot you sometimes when you didn’t know it and I love that. It was a great learning experience for me. And I liked working with Nicole [Kidman]. Sweden can be dark and depressing. I will say that. But we all kind of bonded.
JH: And you’re going to be returning to SIX FEET UNDER?
PC: I will I think. If we can work out the schedules I’m going to do one more episode this season.
JH: So finally…you went through this whole roller-coaster ride last year with FAR FROM HEAVEN and I appreciate the fact that you were up-front about wanting an Oscar nomination. Have you come to some kind of zen philosophy for however this turns out this year?
PC: Yes. If my gravy train stops at SAG, honey, it’s been a great ride. Any further recognition is great because it always brings attention to the films and I just want people to see the movies. But yeah, I’m a little bit more calm about it this year. I have a somewhat devil-may-care attitude.
[Editor's note: Clarkson received an Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for PIECES OF APRIL.]
JH: Have we come up with a name for this interview?
PC: (SIGH) I don’t know!
JH: The gravy train?
PC: Lying in bed? Patrcia Clarkson under comforters? Come on Josh! You’re the writer, not me!
JH: Well, best of luck.
PC: Thanks. This was fun!
THE STATION AGENT and PIECES OF APRIL are currently in theaters.
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