It’s easy to see why Kathy Bates has sustained a career that’s passed the half-century mark and shows no sign of slowing down. Check out her latest ‘Home,’ a master class in characterization in a low-key examination of life’s journeys in a small California desert town. Bates is Bernadette, dying of lung cancer and facing a discomforting reunion with the son she hasn’t seen in 20 years. It’s heartbreaking and splendid, the writing-directing debut of Germany’s Franka Potente (‘Run Lola Run,’ the Bourne movies). In a recent phone interview Bates discussed different ways of making movies and a future project that might finally be made.
Q: One of the things I marveled at in ‘Home’ is we’ve heard about your diagnosis and you take walks with your son. But you have these violent, racking coughs and I said to myself, How does she do that?!
KATHY BATES: Well, actually, I have a racking cough myself. I think I’ve had a racking cough since I was 7. I just actually had an X-ray and am physically fine (I’m glad to know the answer to that). But yeah, I guess I have sort of borderline asthma. That part was not the challenge.
Q: You’ve got an incredible filmography. But I bet you could count on one hand, the number of films that you’ve ever been able to do in sequence as you did with ‘Home.’ How does that change things for you as an actor?
KB: I think it’s the closest that film becomes like theater. It just gives you a sense of the history. This was an opportunity in a way to let that story happen to us as we were moving through it. Now we don’t often have that opportunity. What I find most difficult in working on films is the fact that the schedule is driven by the location — when you can get into a particular building or an apartment complex or whatever. And you may end up doing the most difficult scene first which often happens and I find that really, really distressing. In many cases, you don’t even have an opportunity to rehearse with each other except on the day. So you have to do all of that work by yourself before you get there. The rehearsal is done alone and you just have to be ready to hit the ground when you’re going. I mean, Jessica Tandy [the Oscar winning legend and her co-star in ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’] used to call it our ‘kitchen work.’ In some films, I’ve been lucky to have a long period of rehearsal, like ‘Dolores Claiborne,’ to really build a character in the look and the movement. That’s what I was trained to do. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to do that as much as I would like in my career. So this was a real plus for us.
And I loved working with Jake [McLaughlin, who plays her son] as we got to know each other. He’s a wonderful actor. When I saw the film I was incredibly impressed by his performance. But I wasn’t surprised because when we did the scene in the church when he stands up and speaks to everyone, I was just so moved. I’ve worked with a lot of wonderful, wonderful actors over these years. But that moment — I left that just feeling what a privilege that was to be to be there and to witness that and to feel that. We’re very, very proud of him. He was so wonderful.
Q: I couldn’t agree more. I looked him up — I’d never heard of this guy and he’s just magnetic. But when you were talking about hitting the ground running and no rehearsal, I couldn’t help but think of Clint Eastwood. I remember walking out of the Hudson Yards Warner Bros. screening room after I saw ‘Richard Jewell’ and I just said, Kathy Bates is getting an Oscar nomination. This is sublime stuff. How was it with Clint who’s got this reputation as ‘I shoot the rehearsal’?
KB: Well, no. There was a scene that wasn’t in the movie and I remember we shot it until we got it. You know, he’s not gonna move on to something else if he doesn’t know he’s got it. And the whole path for that film was just amazing, with Paul Walter Hauser and Sam Rockwell. I mean, everybody. Clint has a very laid back set. Everything’s handheld. So all of that combined into a feeling of being really comfortable and solid. I got to meet with the real mom who I hear liked the movie and the performance. I hope she did. I know it’s always got to be very strange to watch somebody play yourself and maybe they’re not like you want them to be.
Q: There is ‘The Miracle Club’ listed as being in post-production on your upcoming credits. Have you filmed that?
KB: No. I just finished shooting ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ for Lionsgate and Gracie Films, the Jim Brooks company. We did that in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was able to get out in June before the Delta variant. I’m hoping to do ‘The Miracle Club’ in Ireland in March with Maggie Smith and Laura Linney. That’s been around since I can remember — when [Robert] Altman was doing ‘Gosford Park’ at the Academy Awards where I ran into Maggie. It’s been that long. So finally we’re going to try to get it done this March. The challenge there will be the working-class Dublin accent because for my money, the Irish actors are the best in the world. I’m sure there are many, many wonderful Irish actresses who can play these roles. So the pressure will definitely be on.
NEW DVDs:
A QUEST IN ASIA Exotic, fantastical and sumptuously mounted, ‘Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon’ (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Code, Disney, PG) is a classic hero’s journey where the hero is Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) the warrior princess searching for the last dragon Sisu (voiced by Awkwafina). Bonus: The theatrical short film ‘Us Again,’ outtakes, deleted scenes, a dinner roundtable with Tran and the filmmakers, a discussion of the cultural influences. Also a look at how the pandemic meant ‘Raya’ was made in over 450 homes when the studio was shutdown.
NOT BUGS BUNNY An instant classic, the 1988 Steven Spielberg-produced, Robert Zemeckis-directed ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital Code, Touchstone Pictures, PG) is an early example of digital movie magic. It was a blockbuster and won a special Oscar for its still-lively animation as well as 3 others, including Best Visual Effects. On 4K for the first time, there is an audio commentary, Roger Rabbit shorts, deleted scenes, ‘Before and After,’ ‘Behind the Ears: The True Story of Roger Rabbit.’
LYNCHIAN DREAM LOGIC Perhaps his greatest film, certainly among his most popular, ‘David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive’ (4K UHD + Blu-ray, 2 discs, Criterion Collection, R) is now in 4K, supervised by the filmmaker. Here also: 2015 interviews with Naomi Watts, Justin Theroux & Laura Harring, composer Angelo Badalamenti, the casting director and production designer Jack Fisk. Also: on-set footage, a deleted scene. Plus a 2005 Lynch interview.
CULT CLASSIC Because of its pedigree – an original script by the legendary Elmore Leonard (‘Out of Sight,’ ‘Get Shorty’), direction by the popular Hollywood auteur Richard Fleischer (‘The Narrow Margin,’ ’20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,’ ‘The Vikings,’ ‘The Boston Strangler’) and starring Charles Bronson at the peak of his international stardom – the 1974 ‘Mr. Majestyk’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, PG) is revered by a cult that recognizes this story of a little guy – a Colorado melon farmer! – standing up against the mob is indeed special.
You can take your pick from the Special Features whether Bronson is one really cool superstar or a defensive bully. Lee Purcell, here in an extended interview, was a protégé of Steve McQueen who at 26 when she made ‘Majestyk’ had already starred opposite Michael Douglas and Dennis Hopper. She took the part of the villain’s girlfriend, a role she had originally rejected. Purcell raves about how when an unnamed actor on the set verbally attacked and insulted her, Bronson who had witnessed it all, stepped up and gave him the kind of dressing down you’d want to see in a movie. We also hear Bronson postponed filming in the summer so that he could spend the time with his kids – he had 6. A fanatic for fitness who really did do all his stunts, Bronson worked out daily and refused sweets except for a weekly QUARTER – not half, not whole — donut. But in the audio commentary we learn of how Bronson humiliates a local businessman who had the gall to tell Bronson he’d be glad to help him use the local private golf course. He was also hated by the crew over a first week incident they never forgave. We also learn about the self-destructive ‘Godfather’ veteran Al Letteri, the mighty villain. A hit in the summer of ’74 it was immediately overshadowed by the month later release of Bronson’s ‘Death Wish,’ one of the era’s defining movies.
TOOTHY WHODUNNIT High spirited and funny, ‘Werewolves Within’ (Blu-ray, IFC, R) takes the classic Agatha Christie premise — a swarm of suspects locked in a house as a brilliant detective solves the case – and upends it as Finn (Sam Richardson of ‘Veep’), the newly arrived forest ranger, teams with the local mail carrier (Milana Vayntrub). Who is the horrible creature killing with such impunity?! Cheyenne Jackson shines among the large crew of suspects.
JUST ONE TAKE? The concept behind the military rescue operation that anchors ‘One Shot’ (Blu-ray, Screen Media, Not Rated) is clear from that title: Like the Oscar-winning ‘1918,’ the effort here is to seamlessly tell the story in one long take. That’s of course an illusion – a series of lengthy takes is seamlessly stitched together to tell its story. Alfred Hitchcock with ‘Rope’ was among the first filmmakers to try this. Scott Adkins, the British martial arts movie star, is Lt. Jake Harris who leads a squad of Navy SEALS intent on removing a detainee from a remote island’s CIA black site (it’s not Guantanamo). Before that can happen, terrorists intent on never letting the detainee leave arrive. The SEALS are under siege, outmanned and determined. Bonus: Making a Movie in One Shot, Behind the Scenes.
HITCH UP WITH HITCH Alfred Hitchcock’s early ‘30s British films show the development of the Master of Suspense, now regarded as the movies’ greatest ever filmmaker. Hitch’s strange, weird, 1932 surreal comedy ‘Number Seventeen’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) looks better than ever in this Blu-ray 4K restoration. There’s an audio commentary, a documentary on ‘The Early Years’ and the audio concerning the film in the landmark Hitchcock/Truffaut interviews. There’s also an introduction by Noel Simsolo.
GENIUS. GIANT. Now in a 4K restoration, the 1956 ‘The Mystery of Picasso’ (Blu-ray, Milestone, Not Rated) is a collaboration between 2 friends. French filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot (with a pair of 1950s French classics to his eternal credit: ‘The Wages of Fear,’ remade by William Friedkin, and ‘Les Diaboliques’ which has had many remakes) photographed Pablo Picasso in the act of creating 20 artworks, including sketches and widescreen color paintings. Clouzot filmed from the underside of Picasso’s work on paper. Strangely by today’s standards, nearly all the works were reportedly destroyed by an agreed upon contract. Special Features: audio commentary by Peggy Parsons, the former National Gallery of Art film department chief; an audio commentary by Archie Rand, CUNY professor of Art at Brooklyn College; and an interview with Picasso’s daughter Maya Picasso. In French with optional English subtitles.
BAWDY BRANDO The 1964 Hollywood comedy ‘Bedtime Story’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) paired Marlon Brando, once America’s great actor seemingly in career decline, and Britain’s suave, urbane David Niven. They play rival con artists on the French Riviera, looking for women to fleece out of their fortunes or sneak into their beds. Not a big hit but this ‘Bedtime’ spawned 2 remakes. First with Michael Caine and Steve Martin in 1988 as ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ and again in 2019 as ‘Hustle’ with Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson. Oh, it also became a Broadway musical hit with John Lithgow. Bonus: An audio commentary.
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Stephen Schaefer's Hollywood & Mine – Boston Herald - Boston Herald
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