Made for Her

Sitting in a chair next to a window in a break room at the Hayes Theater, where she’s rehearsing Mother Play, the new work by Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive), Jessica Lange has a regal presence and a storybook narrator’s voice. There’s a subdued gravitas to the way she tells her own tale: She was a hippie intellectual from rural Minnesota who went off to Paris and New York to study mime and dance and figure herself out. Despite having no money, no industry connections, and almost no formal training as an actress, she landed the lead role of Dwan in the 1976 King Kong, played her as a daffy sexpot, made the cover of Time, and got pilloried by critics. She’s still brutal on herself and her work, delivering the sorts of scathing assessments you would expect to hear from the many fearsome women she has played over the past half-century. She also keeps challenging herself, even though, at 74, she has nothing to prove.
Were you apprehensive about being on Broadway for the first time in 1992, when you did A Streetcar Named Desire with Alec Baldwin as Stanley?
Oh, I should have been. I should have thought about this a lot instead of saying "yes" to Blanche DuBois. I mean, I really opened myself up to being crucified. I know I should never say this, but I didn't have the kind of director I needed for my first time onstage in a big Broadway theater in something like that. I needed a lot of help, even in terms of understanding what it means to project beyond the footlights.
What do you get from stage acting that you can't get from movies?
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der February 26 - March 10, 2024-Ausgabe von New York magazine.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 9.500 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der February 26 - March 10, 2024-Ausgabe von New York magazine.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 9.500 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden

'We're Running Out of Mansions'
How The Gilded Age makes absurdly low-stakes period drama into must-watch television.

THIS SUMMER WE'RE EATING IN GROCERY STORES
They're more affordable, more flexible, and a lot more fun than restaurants right now. HERE ARE THE 65 BEST SPOTS TO GET STARTED.

What a Cosmetic Chemist Buys at the Drugstore
WE ASKED Dr. Julian Sass, the creator of a viral sunscreen database and an expert fact-checker of product claims, about the most effective items he routinely picks up.

Alfargo's Marketplace
On a recent Friday night, shoppers (and sellers) parsed through vintage pieces at the pop-up menswear bazaar held at NeueHouse.

Attention Seeking
Amid a growing awareness of our dwindling ability to focus, people are trying to reverse the damage, with mixed results.

The Emancipation of Addison Rae
The TikTok star's debut album breaks with the past.

Play on Words
A Eurydice production that’s lush with language.

Appealing Pieces for Petite Balconies
Designers and tasteful apartment dwellers share the furniture that has made their tiny outdoor spaces worthy of spending time in.

E. JEAN CARROLL'S UNEASY PEACE
IN THE YEAR AND A HALF SINCE DEFEATING TRUMP IN COURT FOR THE SECOND TIME, SHE'S WRITTEN A NEW BOOK—KEPT SECRET, UNTIL NOW—AND PLOTTED HER LEGACY.

Everyday People Brian Wilson and Sly Stone were musical innovators.That's where their stories diverged.
THE VAST MAJoRITY of humans alive now aren't old enough to feel the shell shock from the musical paradigm shifts of the 1960s.