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Big Love's formidable matriarch Grace Zabriskie talks about growing up
in the French Quarter, playing Seinfeld's favorite drunk, and killing
Harry Dean Stanton. |
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HBO
You had a fascinating childhood — you grew up in the French Quarter of New Orleans?
ZABRISKIE
Yes, my father started Lafitte's, a cafe and bar on Bourbon Street that became well known, pretty much around the world. It was reputedly where Jean and Pierre Lafitte, the pirate brothers, had their blacksmith shop upfront, smuggling activities in back. We were living in the attic when I was born. People like Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal and Truman Capote came by and brought me dolls.
HBO
It sounds like quite a place to grow up!
ZABRISKIE
I always felt guilty about bringing up my children in relatively restrained suburban life in Atlanta. I was third generation bohemian. My parents lived in the Quarter before it was even remotely popular. New Orleans harbors every reverse prejudice; I was 30 before I thought someone who took care of a lawn was okay.
HBO
In that way, you seem to share a few things with your character, Lois?
ZABRISKIE
She definitely spent her childhood in an enclave. She didn't grow up with the same values as America in general — and she was taught to be proud of that. In that sense, I do identify with her. When I was growing up, we definitely had an ethic, a morality. We didn't have a Bible, it wasn't all spelled out. But the beliefs were no less understood.
HBO
You weren't always an actress. You've had a few other careers, in fact, some of which you still pursue?
ZABRISKIE
I grew up thinking I was going to be a teacher. All four of my grandparents were teachers, and I did teach for a while — at an academy for black teenage dropouts.
It was a calling for me. My friends who still teach are very important to me. Some of my strongest political feelings have to do with how important teachers are and how we've failed so miserably to get the best and brightest to teach.
HBO
You went on to become an artist, and you still seem to have your fingers in a lot of pots — from woodworking to sculpture. Which came first, art or acting?
ZABRISKIE
My father's pet name for me when I was three was 'little bastard actress.' I never chose, I just always did those things. I just had the sense that to do them best was not to have to do them. My writing, my visual arts, my acting — I'd do those things as a passionate amateur. And I believed in that concept very strongly. Now I teach as a passionate amateur — strictly on a volunteer basis. I help friends with their acting or their scripts, that is I stay involved in a lot of work not generated by me. It fills a creative need, allows me to get on someone's wave length.
HBO
You've been in nearly 90 films and TV shows, and a lot of them are the big classics, "Norma Rae," "The Big Easy," "Hill Street Blues," "Twin Peaks" and your unforgettable "Seinfeld" episodes, which are in the canon, as they say.
ZABRISKIE
Oh yes, Mrs. Ross, George's almost mother-in-law. People always remember that. That kind of wry alcoholic, the 'inebriated sophisticate,' is very fun to do. I thought, I'm gonna make hay out of this.
HBO
You really did. What's remarkable is that many actresses see 40 as 'the beginning of the end,' but you were nearly 40 before your professional acting career began?
ZABRISKIE
That's why the idea of the passionate amateur is so seductive to me as a concept, a concept that's almost lost. For the English it was a snooty thing. For me it wasn't that; if something came along I acted in it. But I didn't really want to have a career in it and I certainly didn't want to move to Los Angeles. I had two daughters, and I was busy — I wrote and published stories and poems, I produced a whole series of poetry readings in Atlanta, I wrote and directed and acted in plays. And I was a silkscreen printmaker.
HBO
What prompted you to finally make the move to L.A.?
ZABRISKIE
There was a heartbreak in Atlanta and I realized it was time to leave. I had also just done "Norma Rae," and I suddenly had people in L.A. wanting to represent me if I were to move there. Tony Howard, the casting agent, had been sitting close to Joanne Woodward during a screening of Norma Rae. And when I came on the screen, she (Tony) heard Joanne say 'Who is that woman?' So Tony came up to me afterward and said 'Who's your agent?' I was so green, I thought I should just make up a name, she'll never know. My friend with whom I was staying said 'Grace doesn't have an agent.' Well, I had one the next day.
HBO
There's a bit of 'six degrees' going on in Big Love, especially between you and the two men you despise the most on the show — Harry Dean's Roman Grant and Bruce Dern's Frank.
ZABRISKIE
Harry Dean and I worked together in David Lynch's "Wild at Heart" — he was my nemesis in that too. I got to kill him, though [Laughter]. I haven't ever worked with Bruce before, but I worked with Laura Dern, his daughter, and Diane Ladd, Laura's mom. And Harry and I just did David Lynch's "Inland Empire." After a while you don't go on any set where you don't know somebody.
HBO
How have people been responding to the show — have you received any interesting reactions?
ZABRISKIE
I was parking my car next to this cafe in West Hollywood the other day, and these women came out and started pointing at me, 'You, in that Prius!' I thought, Oh no. Then they said, 'You get that Roman in his Humvee!' [Laughter]
HBO
[Laughter] We'll see more of Lois in the next season, but where else can we see you and your work?
ZABRISKIE
In addition to "Inland Empire," there's a film called "Brothel" that I'm hoping will finally be released in the next year or so. And my sculpture and photographic collages show at various galleries, and can be seen at www.GraceZabriskie.com. I work together with my daughter, Marion Lane, a very talented full-time painter. We've created these boxes — you have to see them to understand them (www.MarionLane.com). I make all the wooden panels that my daughter paints on.
HBO
Doug Smith, who plays your grandson, Ben, on the show, told us that you got him hooked on Leonard Cohen.
ZABRISKIE
Oh yes, he's a talented songwriter. Over the years I've talked with a number of younger songwriters about the virtues of Townes Van Zandt and Leonard Cohen — they have these rough voices yet some of the most amazing melodic lines in all of music. Kind of like Tom Waits — I like that.
HBO
Are the young actors on the set intimidated by you?
ZABRISKIE
Oh, I just assume they don't know me from a load of coal.
HBO
[Laughter] Are you gearing up for going back to the set soon?
ZABRISKIE
You know, I haven't done anything in so long where I really, really wanted to go on. Usually at the end of a play or a film, people cry, and I think: I'm ready to go back to the sawdust. But this has been the first role since "Twin Peaks" that I absolutely love doing.
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Video
Watch the promos and interviews for the show.
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