Sidney Baldwin and Twentieth Century Fox
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Web Exclusive...
Grand Return
By Nancy Griffin, September 2005
Shirley MacLaine steps into the spotlight again, playing an enlightened grandmother in the comedy-tearjerker In Her Shoes
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At last, a Hollywood movie starring an indispensable senior character. As
the wise and witty grandmother of two troubled sisters—played by Cameron
Diaz and Toni Collette—Shirley MacLaine is the glowing emotional center
of In Her Shoes. Even better, the 72-year-old actress's performance
already has Hollywood handicappers betting on her to win an Oscar—again.
On a recent sunny morning in Santa Monica, MacLaine sat down and talked about
the best role she's had in ages.
Q: You haven't acted much in recent years—did you plan this
comeback or did it just happen?
A: After 9/11, which was so shocking to me, I decided I wanted to do
movies again but I only wanted to do good movies. And [In Her Shoes
director] Curtis Hanson asked if he could meet me, in kind of a
mini-personality audition. I said "Of course!" He's got a right to
know where I am in my life, and what does it mean to be 70. Other actresses who
were up for the part didn't go meet him.
Q: Because protocol says that big stars don't audition?
A: Yeah, that's what they thought. I didn't feel that way. I
called some of them afterwards, and I'm not going to name names, and I said
"You could have gotten this part!"
Q: In Her Shoes manages to be both funny and very moving.
A: Isn't Cameron wonderful? I thought Toni was, too, but that you
expect. Cameron really let it all hang out. I thought she was brilliant playing
a woman that is not terribly sympathetic. I mean, you wanted to smack her.
Q: Women will go for the relationship between two sisters and their
grandmother, but it will be interesting to see if men will go see it.
A: A lot of men that I've talked to who saw The Turning Point
said it's as much about us and competition in college with football as it
was about these two dancers. Same thing with Terms of Endearment, which is a
mother-daughter story. And every man has a sister or grandmother...
Q: How do you feel about the way grandmothers have been portrayed in
movies?
A: Now we're getting into the discussion about older women and
what happens to their sensibility, and to the sensibility of those who
encounter older women. The question of invisibility is huge. The older you get,
the more invisible you become.
Q: There's an authenticity to the Florida retirement community where
your character lives, and her relationships with the other residents.
A: Curtis and I agreed this should be a very contained performance.
Not flamboyant like I am, not over-the-top and audacious. I tried to make the
little things matter, each little expression, her pain about having been
basically excommunicated from the family. And caring about the people in that
place, where some of them were younger than me. She's a youthful
grandmother who wants to help older people, but they're younger than
her.
Q: Do you trust your own instincts about acting by now?
A: I tell you, I've sculpted every part I've played from
watching the dailies. I mean, I sat in dailies with everyone from Billy Wilder
to Mike Nichols to Bob Fosse—all the greats. But we weren't allowed
to see the dailies on In Her Shoes. Curtis would fix it so the dailies
were shown at a time when you couldn't possibly look at them and still be
home before the next day. Cameron didn't want to look. Toni didn't want
to look, and to tell you the truth he freed me of the need to look. Also, I
wore no makeup. He said, "I want your own hair and I want no makeup, a
little lipstick." Curtis has a way of knowing what's best for your
internal creativity. The more experienced I get, the more I trust that what I
did spontaneously is probably the right thing. And to go and check on it is not
to trust it. It's really important for me to get over that.
Q: Did you have fun working with Cameron and Toni?
A: Oh, great. Cameron was doing cartwheels up the stairs of her
trailer to meet [her boyfriend] Justin [Timberlake]. They were like two teenagers in love.
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