A few interview tidbits - for those who remember my last interview with Kate, once again my french fries were a topic for comment. I offered to share and since she wasn't "in training" for Antony & Cleopatra this time Kate took me up on the offer. And for those among you who love shoes, and you know who you are, during our lunch Kate commented on the shoes of a lady who sat behind us at the bar - "What great shoes. Look at those shoes." - which were leopard print, ballet slippers. 

Never enough time for all the questions but here you go. Hope you enjoy! 

Many thanks to my transcriber! 

Many, many thanks to Kate Mulgrew for taking the time to answer our questions! 

Please feel free to share the link but do not repost the interview. 

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you.

Totally Kate:  I really did.  I was glad I saw it twice, though, because as you were saying about the language...

Kate Mulgrew:  Yes... When was the last time you saw it – the last weekend?

Totally Kate:  Yes.  The last weekend – Saturday and Sunday.

Kate Mulgrew:  So you saw the best.  I was flying by then.  Wasn’t it great at the end?  It’s the sorrow of an actor.  I had to give that up.  That's really hard.  John Douglas called me last night.  He said, “I’m in mourning.  I started fighting with my girlfriend!  It’s terrible!” You work so hard.  So hard.  And then when it finally takes flight, then you stop.  At any rate…thank you.

Totally Kate:  Was playing Cleopatra everything you thought it would be?

Kate Mulgrew:  Everything and more.  Everything and much, much more.  But I knew.  I told you some months ago that this was a dream, and how many actresses can tell you that their dream is real.  It’s because of the people in my life.  Michael Wilson decided to mount it.  Tina Landau comes on board to direct. You get a lovely actor like John Douglas Thompson to play Antony.  It’s fantastic.  Extraordinary.  Once in a lifetime. So now I can say I did it. I did it, and I think I did it well.  I know I did it well because I was so completely there. 

Totally Kate:  You did it very well.

Kate Mulgrew:  Thank you.  You know when you’re present to something you’re just…. That is what… that is where I belong Connie, do you know that?  Immersed in a great role. Bad roles are not for me.  I’m telling you right now I’m not going to take them any more. So if you don’t see me on television for a while, it’s because I’m not going to do them. It’s not… if I don’t fit the role, when I take them and I try to do them, it doesn’t work.  It only works if it’s good.  Cleopatra works.  Katharine Hepburn works.  Janeway works. Because they’re good. So I have to just be patient. And I swear to you, that’s what I’m going to do now.  I want you to hold me to it!! 

Totally Kate: What scene was your favorite to portray?

Kate Mulgrew:  I loved… it’s so difficult to say.  The second… the first messenger scene, where he comes in and I think that Antony has died, and he tells me that he’s married to Octavia, is a great scene.  Because I get to do every conceivable turn, right?  Physically, emotionally, textually – so challenging, and so much fun.  But then, for my dimension as an actress, from the moment I walk up to the monument until the end of the play, it’s nothing but complete…I’m just going deeper and deeper.  I'm calling on everything in my life from the moment he dies in my arms to the end.  That’s some pretty challenging stuff. And there was only one way to go, and I just gave it… away. I just did it. Every sorrow I’ve known I brought to bear on that.  You know I owned that. Everything is realized. So it’s difficult to pick one, but there you have it. 

Totally Kate:  Did you love the costumes?

Kate Mulgrew:  Well you know my dear friend, Anita Yavich, designed them.  And when your costumes are designed at the hands of somebody you love – I begged her – I had to beg her.  She had three other shows she was doing. “Oh Kate, maybe if I just do you?”  And then Tina said ‘you can’t just do her, you have to do all twenty.’  So she really extended herself.  That’s friendship.  Gorgeous. One diaphanous, exquisite gown after another. Very intricate Connie, you know, we had a lot of problems. It took days to get me in and out of those in time.  Every one of those gold chains had to be individually attached. They didn’t go right over my head.  I had three women working on me backstage. Sometimes we couldn’t get it all together.  Weren’t they marvelous?

Totally Kate:  They were.

Kate Mulgrew:  And of course the Act Two takes me through to the end. Beautifully conceived.  She thinks everything through. Everything to match the feeling. Yes… again… how lucky.  And then I decided to do it in my bare feet.

Totally Kate:  Yeah.

Kate Mulgrew:  I just said, ‘I’m not going to do this in sandals, no.’  I think she’s… I’m going to…

Totally Kate:  And then you had to run up and down the steps and out through the lobby…

Kate Mulgrew:  I stayed so fit!  I was so fit!  And years fall away, you know?  You’re not thinking about anything else. You’re just thinking that this is who you are.  When I came home it took me a week to get out of bed.  My feet and legs were in such… trouble.  My knees were so black and blue, you know?  My arms were so bruised from all the grabbing.  It took me a week, and then my back went out. I was flat on my back for four days.  It’s always what happens when you leave something that you’ve loved too soon. 

Totally Kate:  Well, you looked great, so what was your fitness routine?

Kate Mulgrew:  I know you have to keep up, yes, but you know it’s a natural thing.  It’s all about chemistry - the adrenaline’s flowing constantly – every day and every night, from the beginning of the day until the end of the evening.  It’s still pouring through me, right?  Rushing through me.  And serotonin, the happiness hormone.  All of this takes weight off, right?  And I’d get to the theatre an hour and a half early and I’d do my warm-ups for half an hour which consists of push-ups and sit-ups and running up and down.  And I’m running all over the place.  I run more than the youngsters do in this one!  And I don't eat but you don’t really think of eating, you know.  It’s all part of it. So you have noticed, I’m sure, when I work, the weight just comes right off. It’s when I’m fooling around in New York doing nothing, having meal after meal…

Totally Kate:  Now that you’ve done the role that you always wanted to play, what’s your next dream role?

Kate Mulgrew:  I’m doing a reading of Notebook of Trigorin with Michael Wilson on the 30th.  I don’t think it’s to the public – I don’t know – I’ll find out from Sarah tomorrow. Notebook of Trigorin is Tennessee Williams’ adaptation of The Seagull by Anton Chekov, and in it is the great role of Madame Arakadina, the actress, who’s taken a younger lover, Trigorin.  Her son tries to commit suicide –  absolutely exquisite part.  So I think Michael would like to do that. It would be myself, Matthew Modine, my darling friend Daniel Davis will play my brother Sorin, and Hallie Foote, Horton Foote’s daughter will play Nina.  I think it’s just for investors though on the 30th.  I’ll find out. (edited to add - this reading isn't open to the public)

Totally Kate:  Will that be for Hartford Stage, or Broadway?

Kate Mulgrew:  It would be Broadway, but he’d like to launch it at Hartford. So he could work it out of town as a new play, and then bring it in.  And that’s the only way he’ll do it. He’ll do a deal and work it out of town. So that’s exciting. 

Totally Kate:  Yes.  I hope it does well. It sounds like a real...

Kate Mulgrew:  It sounds good, doesn’t it?  Yes, it does.

Totally Kate:  How would you describe your personality?

Kate Mulgrew:  Who asks this question?!

Totally Kate:  I’m just reading the question!

Kate Mulgrew:  A little girl asked that question!  I’d say that my personality is extroverted.  I’m actually in equal measures an extrovert and an introvert.  Socially extroverted.  Curious. Generous.  Strong.  Willful. Happy.  By in large. And then there's the flip side. But we won’t get into that!

Totally Kate:  The second part of the question is what kind of personality do you work best with, and is this different than the type of personality you are drawn to for personal relationships?

Kate Mulgrew:  That's a good question, a very good question, in fact.  I am drawn to a disciplined personality – I am very disciplined.  I’m drawn to humor.  But I’m drawn to someone who loves the work and wants to completely immerse themselves.  And I’m very drawn to talent, Connie.  I don’t have any friends who aren’t talented, do you know what I mean?  I love talent.  I love goodness, so if that element is present as well, that’s the icing on the cake.  In my private life it’s a little different.  I’m increasingly – you’ll laugh at me – I’m increasingly drawn to a real alpha personality, who can … sort of take care of me, since I’ve never, ever had that.  A warm, but big, almost powerful, I’d say, personality.  And devoted, but balanced.  No highs, no lows – I don’t need it.  I’ll take that when I go to work!  In my private life I want somebody there who’s constant. 

Totally Kate:  When are you happy?

Kate Mulgrew:  I’m happy now.  I'm quite happy. My life is always fraught!  My father said something to me which I will share with you, because it’s true:  When I was ten, maybe twelve years old, he said, ‘You’re a catalyst for drama. You’re a lightning rod for it!  This room was perfectly fine, and there were twelve people in it.  You walked in - within five minutes there was chaos.  It’s something you do.  It’s just – you stir it up!’  And it is true wherever I go, I manage to stir it up.  And I don’t know why, but I do!  So that’s… that’s always… been equally fun and troubling.

Totally Kate:  What do you love most about being a mother, and now that your children have grown, how has this relationship evolved?

Kate Mulgrew: It gets better and better.  Although I still continue to sort of help them… Ian is at Columbia and needs help. Alec, although he’s a wonderful artist always needs help, and so does my daughter. But as they mature, and as they accept accountablity the burden is lifted from me.  It’s like any other adult relationship, you can really begin to be yourself.  But that weaning process has been particularly difficult for me because I’ve been a single mother for so long, and the breadwinner for so long, that I feel I’ve been in many ways mother and father both, and that’s not good. I’m only their mother.  Their father has to be their father, and he does.  So I’d say, yes, suddenly realizing ‘oh my heavens’, these are people who if I met them at a cocktail party, I’d like very, very much.  It’s a joy.

Totally Kate: Have you ever done a play, movie or TV show where the director or co-star was not fully pulling his or her weight, and how did you handle it?

Kate Mulgrew:  Are you asking that seriously?  Well you know how I handle it.  I don’t handle that well.  I don’t like it.  I don’t know why they’re there.  The world’s full of fine actors.  I don’t understand that.  And then when it continues, and it's not corrected, I lose my patience.

Totally Kate:  Who has impacted you most in your career and how?

Kate Mulgrew:  Well certainly my great mentor, Stella Adler.  Stella was amazing.  She absolutely formed me as an actress, and my mother formed me as a human being.  My best friend, Beth has formed me as a person.  I’d say those three. 

Totally Kate:  What’s the last book you purchased, and what’s on your night table.

Kate Mulgrew:  I’m reading "Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen, I’m almost finished.  And I finished yesterday "Must You Go?", Antonia Fraser’s memoire of her marriage to Harold Pinter which was absolutely splendid. I’ve read twelve books on Cleopatra, which I always do when I study somebody.  But those are the two on my night table right now.  But I’m on my way to the bookstore tomorrow.  There are a lot of great things now.  What was Beth talking about last night…I don’t know. My best friend always calls me with the book she’s just reading, and then we trade. 

Totally Kate:  What real life experiences or people, fictional or not, did you draw on in your role as Captain Janeway?

Kate Mulgrew:  It’s an often asked question, but it’s seldom the case that one draws on any one. One draws on a composite.  It’s what I draw from my imagination, from my own personality.  From my mother, from women I know in authoritative positions. It’s what I’ve always said about Janeway – that kind of a character emerges as a love affair.  When you know you’re going to play somebody for seven years you have to tap into things that you like and trust about yourself as a leader, because the audience will see through it very quickly.  So I think that my warmth, my capacity for love, my allegiance, again my curiosity, my discipline – all those things stood me in good stead.  And they just translated into Janeway in the end, do you know?  Also I think she had a grace… I loved her grace. Always gracious.  To the end.  Even to the Borg Queen as she was taking her down, right?

Totally Kate:  How do you define success, and how has your definition of success changed?

Kate Mulgrew:  Very good question.  I define success as doing what makes one happy – making a living at what one loves. I have been so lucky in this regard, because I’ve been acting for almost forty years.  What was the second part of the question?

Totally Kate:  How has your definition of success changed over the years?

Kate Mulgrew:  I was very ambitious for most of those years. When the ambition changes is when the idea of success changes.  Success to me now is doing the work that makes me grow and makes me happy. Not the work that’s going to take me to the next good job.  Hollywood and New York are very different things. Night and day, although both cities are tough.  New York is smarter but Hollywood is richer and more powerful, and I choose New York.  I’m getting older, and I’m telling you, I want to play these great roles. I don’t want to worry about money or how my TVQ is doing…. I’m promising you this:  I’m not going to take anything unless I really want to do it.