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Fox News Channel March 9, 2003 |
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Fox News Channel March 9, 2003 |
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Pat Sajak: … And sitting across from me, even as we speak is a woman who is opening this very night, in a one woman – I emphasize one woman play…
Kate Mulgrew: Oh please. Don't emphasize too much Pat…
Pat Sajak: In which she plays a screen legend, and she's no slouch herself. I'm talking about Kate Mulgrew. It's good to have you here.
Kate Mulgrew: It's wonderful to be here.
Pat Sajak: Did I see your spine stiffen when I said 'one woman'?
Kate Mulgrew: No, I was just listening to you, you're wonderfully well spoken…do you know that?
Pat Sajak: Well thank you very much, I appreciate that.
Kate Mulgrew: Beautifully articulate.
Pat Sajak: You are… you understand the implications of a one woman play, I mean…
Kate Mulgrew: Yes, I do.
Pat Sajak: If you go up there there's no one to… you can't say "Bill you take it for a minute…"
Kate Mulgrew: (laughing) Why did I come here? You might as well shoot me and put me out of my misery! Yes, I do.
Pat Sajak: There is something – and I know the play's been up and running and you've been performing it in other venues leading up to this evening…
Kate Mulgrew: Uh huh…
Pat Sajak: But there's still something…
Kate Mulgrew: To be said about New York…
Pat Sajak: Yes. Now is it just an edge you have, is it abject terror, is it somewhere in between? Where are you mentally at this moment…
Kate Mulgrew: Abject terror, I think, no longer exists, thank you…
Pat Sajak: You've gone beyond that?
Kate Mulgrew: My Catholicism has saved me in this regard. I've done it for a year Pat. I mean we started in Hartford over a year ago, then played Cleveland and Boston, so I'm very familiar with what I'm doing. However it has changed.
Pat Sajak: Do you mean the play has changed? Your performance has changed? Your interpretation?
Kate Mulgrew: The text has changed and in fact we just froze the script, I would say, two nights ago.
Pat Sajak: That's stage lingo for no more changes.
Kate Mulgrew: That is a little bit… that's right. I said, putting down my little foot, "That's it." So that is a little terrifying. Because you're right. You're out there and you're flying without a net and you can indeed turn a corner and say to yourself "Hmmm…. I understand that that was just revised – what is the line?"
Pat Sajak: And beyond that, when a play has a lot more elements in terms of actors and scenes and songs and whatever, you know an audience can sort of pick and choose… "Okay I don't like her much, but that's a nice couple, I'm interested in their story…"
Kate Mulgrew: You are absolutely making me …
Pat Sajak: You've got to like what you're doing! Are you sure you want to go through with this?!
Kate Mulgrew: I do want to go through with it. At my age, what do I have to lose, huh? After seven years in the Delta Quadrant, why not? And we're talking about an extraordinary woman, aren't we?
Pat Sajak: Indeed we are. And I can see the physical similarities in terms of the bone structure and a little bit of the voice.
Kate Mulgrew: I thank you.
Pat Sajak: Is this something you've gotten all your life, and was that a good thing to hear?
Kate Mulgrew: After I lost my baby fat – which took a number of years!
Pat Sajak: But as a young lady?
Kate Mulgrew: Yes, I got it, and I didn't like it. Who does? No, because I wanted to be an actress in my own right, and when you're constantly likened to somebody it can be rather irritating after a while.
Pat Sajak: So did you rebel by not seeing any of this woman's films, or not …
Kate Mulgrew: No, of course I saw them, and of course I admired and respected her. But I resented the constant comparison. And I developed this kind of… oh… arrogant antipathy towards her, I would say, because it was based on nothing. I said to myself I didn't like her politics, I didn't like her philosophy, I didn't like this, I didn't like that… because I wanted Kate Mulgrew to find her own way in life, obviously to chart her own course. However, in undertaking this role, when I started, something happened, and I just fell in love with her.
Pat Sajak: Now we should say you have not met her.
Kate Mulgrew: I have not met her.
Pat Sajak: The playwright has not met her.
Kate Mulgrew: No.
Pat Sajak: No one has dealt with her or her people in putting this together. We don't know how she feels about this. She's in her mid nineties?
Kate Mulgrew: She is ninety-six. She'll be ninety-seven in May.
Pat Sajak: Living in Connecticut.
Kate Mulgrew: In Fenwick, yes.
Pat Sajak: So you've had no feedback, you don't know anything about how… Do we know how she's doing? Do we know about her health?
Kate Mulgrew: I think that she's doing all right, and that she has chosen to be rather quiet these days, and reflective. I think that probably she's not as - certainly she's ninety-six years old – she's not as robust as she once was. And as you know, she always prided herself on her great vigor. So I think Hepburn's choice would be to be rather reclusive.
Pat Sajak: If she were to call you and say "Come on up, I'd like to talk to you about the play," I assume you'd be on the next train…
Kate Mulgrew: Are you kidding?
Pat Sajak: Yeah.
Kate Mulgrew: Of course I would.
Pat Sajak: Talk about the research. I assume you've read every book, you've seen every movie, not once, not twice, not three times…
Kate Mulgrew: That's correct…
Pat Sajak: Or perhaps more…
Kate Mulgrew: How did you know? How do you know all this?!
Pat Sajak: James Lipton's here. He's filled me in on how to go about …
Kate Mulgrew: Has he? He's a very thorough gentleman.
Pat Sajak: I borrowed some of his index cards. Literally all of her films?
Kate Mulgrew: All of her films, some of them at least four, five times. Every book I could get my hands on. Everything she's written about herself, certainly. And then the ancillary literature – John Ford, Spencer Tracy. It's pretty endless. My sources have been wonderful and I've unearthed some terrific information. But in so doing, I discovered the one element that was crucial to my love of this project and my love of this character, which was her tremendous vulnerability.
Pat Sajak: Which is surprising, because her whole persona was her self-assured, don't mess with me woman. I have my place in this world…
Kate Mulgrew: A maverick. A real Yankee…
Pat Sajak: Vulnerable in what sense?
Kate Mulgrew: You know her brother died when she was very young…
Pat Sajak: You've lost siblings, am I right?
Kate Mulgrew: I have lost two sisters, yes, which is a parallel in our lives. And there are many parallels – curious ones. Her older brother Tom died when he was fifteen. My older brother's name is Tom, and he is a year older, just as he was with Kate. And this shaped her. This defined her. And I think it catapulted Kate into a maturity and a persona that theretofore she had not had. She was made to become quite old very young. And I think when she set her sights, she set them high. Doctor Hepburn and Mrs. Hepburn were very clear with their children. They wanted them to be successful, and they said to Kate, "If you're going to be an actress, we suggest that you be a great actress."
Pat Sajak: Driven woman?
Kate Mulgrew: Very driven. Shot herself like an arrow into Hollywood. Broke down the door of the 'Boy's Club'.
Pat Sajak: You know it occurs to me that this might be a good time, since we're talking about this lady and your portrayal, to take a look at a little bit of tape from one of the performances …
Kate Mulgrew: A very little, little bit?
Pat Sajak: Just a little bit. You don't have to cover your eyes…
Kate Mulgrew: Okay, all right.
Pat Sajak: Here's Kate Mulgrew as Katharine Hepburn in a scene from "Tea at Five".
(A clip from Act One of Tea at Five is shown)
(After clip the camera focuses once more on Kate who's got her eyes closed and her ears covered!)
Pat Sajak: So you enjoy watching yourself!?
Kate Mulgrew: (laughs)
Pat Sajak: I have seen people look away. I have never seen anyone go 'la di da, di da…'
Kate Mulgrew: Yeah.
Pat Sajak: It's wonderful. It's a wonderful portrayal. All right. We'll get her to take her hands off her eyes in a moment when we return with more with Kate Mulgrew. We'll talk about the great Katharine Hepburn and life and Star Trek and lots of stuff after a news break.
*^
Pat Sajak: We're back with Kate Mulgrew who's playing Katharine Hepburn on stage here in New York, and the theater is?
Kate Mulgrew: The Promenade Theater, as you continue to remind me.
Pat Sajak: We don't have to touch on this, but I am curious about a couple of research matters. When you're watching a Katharine Hepburn movie as research, if you will… you're not watching… you're not kicking your feet back and eating popcorn and saying this is a swell movie, you're looking for something there.
Kate Mulgrew: Certainly.
Pat Sajak: Were there any moments during any of her films where something hit you, that she did or said where you said "I see that about her…"
Kate Mulgrew: No question.
Pat Sajak: Yeah?
Kate Mulgrew: Morning Glory. Alice Adams. African Queen. Lion in Winter.
Pat Sajak: Those are the ones, huh?
Kate Mulgrew: Well, defining. And of course, Philadelphia Story is very important because this is exactly the time we're talking about – the time period in the thirties – just before she got Philadelphia Story. But in terms of moving me directly towards her, and that dynamic between us, it would be Morning Glory. When she says, "I'm going to die in the theater, and at my zenith…" You know that extraordinary portrayal. And as Alice Adams, as this rather geeky, certainly ostracized, middle class girl, wanting so much to be a part of high society, falling madly in love with Fred MacMurray and saying to him "You'll never love me because I'm not your class. Well that's just the way it is." And her deep pride just covering that tender, heartbreaking vulnerability. I think that is what won our hearts, as much as her incredible … chops. Her true grit.
Pat Sajak: Where's the truth and where's the legend where she's concerned. Spencer Tracy, for example. What do we know? What do we know? What do we think we know?
Kate Mulgrew: Nobody knows everything, except Miss Hepburn herself. And if I may say, between you and me, that's exactly as it should be. She would say publicly what I am saying on the stage. She loved him very much, Spencer Tracy. She was with him for nearly twenty-seven years. What he saw in her she doesn't exactly know. They did not talk about this at great length. He was a troubled man, as you know, but he needed Kate and he loved her. And between them there was an understanding, and, I think, a laughter, and an intimacy that went without words. She so respected his talent you know. She would sit on a ladder – and she would go – when he was shooting. You would think she'd go home and slip into a coma because she worked so hard herself. She would show up with a picnic basket for his lunch, perch herself on the ladder and watch take after take after take. She'd go over to the director after every take and say, "Wasn't he wonderful. He just won't get any better than that. It's wonderful, wonderful."
Pat Sajak: When did you get to a point where you were doing an interpretation of her and not an impression of her? I assume that's what you're trying to do up there.
Kate Mulgrew: Well I certainly hope I have never done an impression of her, Pat, or you may lead me to the nearest (farm). No, no, no.
Pat Sajak: Well you ask any nightclub comic is going to do a little Katharine Hepburn for you.
Kate Mulgrew: Well this isn't vaudeville.
Pat Sajak: No, I understand that. But was that difficult to internalize and not… apparently not, you sound as if it came naturally to you.
Kate Mulgrew: No, because, well, I went the other way. I was absolutely committed to not having that happen. Which was easy in Act One, because in Act One she's thirty-one. Who knows the young Kate, and who remembers her? Very few people.
Pat Sajak: Act Two though….
Kate Mulgrew: That's tough because we all know that Hepburn and all that…
Pat Sajak: In Act Two you play her in her…
Kate Mulgrew: Seventy-six, having just recovered, or recovering from a very serious car accident which you may or may not recall. She almost lost her right foot.
Pat Sajak: And that's the Hepburn we all know…
Kate Mulgrew: That's the Hepburn we all think we know.
Pat Sajak: Sure.
Kate Mulgrew: Self deprecating. Amusing. Reflective. Thoughtful. Smart. And willing to give it up. So in Act One you have to see what formed this really remarkable creature in Act Two. And that is the business I have undertaken in the past year.
Pat Sajak: Well it's going to be very exciting to see. And trust me, those clips we saw and the one we'll see at the end of the segment…
Kate Mulgrew: (hands over eyes) La la la la…
Pat Sajak: They're very good! You don't have to cover your…
Kate Mulgrew: Thank you. I'm not the only one. I think most actors would do that, don't you?
Pat Sajak: You know, plays are not meant to be seen on television anyway…
Kate Mulgrew: Uh unh…
Pat Sajak: It's a theater experience…
Kate Mulgrew: I couldn't watch myself on television, either.
Pat Sajak: Really?
Kate Mulgrew: I never - hardly ever watched myself.
Pat Sajak: So you never saw yourself in the starship?
Kate Mulgrew: I did, but it was hard.
Pat Sajak: All right, let's talk about it for…
Kate Mulgrew: Are we going to the Delta Quadrant now?
Pat Sajak: You did this for seven years… You gave seven years of your life to the…
Kate Mulgrew: I did…
Pat Sajak: To the galaxy, I think we should touch on it at least, Captain.
Kate Mulgrew: What is the name of that quadrant?
Pat Sajak: I don't know!
Kate Mulgrew: But I can always find you out. I can always find the Delta Quadrant!
Pat Sajak: The Delta Quadrant. I knew that. I get that confused with the Alpha Quadrant…
Kate Mulgrew: Ah hah…
Pat Sajak: Which is, I think, two quadrants over, if you turn away…
Kate Mulgrew: Close to Gamma but not as…
Pat Sajak: Now when William Shatner, when he portrayed Captain Kirk…
Kate Mulgrew: Good pal of mine.
Pat Sajak: Exactly. But he would fall into bed with more aliens than most of us will meet in a lifetime. If he saw a nice pair of antenna he was there. You know to me – if I'm going to date a woman…
Kate Mulgrew: (referring to the crew) These guys are laughing…
Pat Sajak: …From another galaxy I want to at least see a blood test. But he would just… he didn't care. He didn't… Oh… she has a tail… that's fine…
Kate Mulgrew: I think he's still doing it…
Pat Sajak: But Captain Janeway didn't do that.
Kate Mulgrew: I do beg your illustrious pardon! I was the first female commander of that star ship. And I went to the producers – and you can call me (Kate outlines a square) – you know – maybe I am. I was of childbearing age, I was what - thirty-seven, thirty-eight when I got the role, and I said look, this is going to be tough enough to crack this young male demographic – fifteen to twenty-five, thirty, right?
Pat Sajak: Um huh…
Kate Mulgrew: They're going to think they're watching their mother in the captain's seat, so let's not push this thing by making me sexy. No sex. What's good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander, and I'm going to call it.
Pat Sajak: So there were no ganders in your life? You umm…
Kate Mulgrew: I had one in my, finally, in my seventh season. I believe I had a hologram. I designed him myself. It was the most peculiar thing in the world.
Pat Sajak: Do holograms smoke afterwards? I'm just curious about this.
Kate Mulgrew: Do they smoke? After sex?
Pat Sajak: Yes, I couldn't say …
Kate Mulgrew: This hologram did! And he drank. Excessively!
Pat Sajak: We will touch on more of this…
Kate Mulgrew: Sex with aliens?
Pat Sajak: …Varied career…
Kate Mulgrew: I’m so glad I stopped by.
Pat Sajak: We've done sex with aliens, we've… who knows where we'll go next!
Kate Mulgrew: If you could, I'd love to ask you one question before you break. I have a feeling you're breaking. If you could have sex with an alien, would you do it?
Pat Sajak: I'll give that some thought and answer when we come back.
Kate Mulgrew: Okay.
*^
Pat Sajak: (referring to two pictures of Kate and Pierce Brosnan from Manions of America that preceded the segment) Who are those two kids in that shot there? That would look like Pierce Brosnan, maybe?
Kate Mulgrew: Oh yes. Pierce. And a very young, very happy Kate Mulgrew. There she is. Darling fellow.
Pat Sajak: What were you shooting then?
Kate Mulgrew: The Manions of America. On location in Ireland. And as I just said to you in the break, it was a fabulous time in my life. Pierce was great. You know this was his big break, and we were all living in a castle together in the south of Ireland and I must say it was one of those moments – God – blissful. Wonderful.
Pat Sajak: It occurs to me suddenly, as things often do…
Kate Mulgrew: (laughing) And then suddenly disappear…
Pat Sajak: There may be a pattern in your career. I'm thinking about this. You're stepping in here portraying a film giant on the stage. You stepped in to your star ship, into an ongoing series of programs that has all these loyal fans and they were going to be, you know, fairly judgemental of you and you stepped into that. When Peter Falk left Columbo, who was Mrs. Columbo? That show had about fourteen titles, as I recall, during its short run…
Kate Mulgrew: It certainly did, before they figured out that I really shouldn't be Mrs. Columbo.
Pat Sajak: Well you were very young.
Kate Mulgrew: I was twenty-three…
Pat Sajak: Now Peter, I'm sorry, Lieutenant Columbo, couldn't have done that well, no offense, I mean as he played the character.
Kate Mulgrew: As you know it was an unprecedented success – Columbo.
Pat Sajak: So they didn't want to lose the franchise.
Kate Mulgrew: I guess not. And Fred Silverman had watched me on a series I did called – a serial I did called Ryan's Hope, and he thought Mary Ryan was such a hit that I could carry this thing. But twenty-three playing thirty-seven with the dog and the car and the schlepping and the kid…
Pat Sajak: So what was it called? It was called Mrs. Columbo, it was called Kate Loves…
Kate Mulgrew: Kate Loves a Mystery, Kate Callahan, Kate forget it, Kate go… yeah, Kate good bye – yeah.
Pat Sajak: You mentioned the soap opera. People still remember that…
Kate Mulgrew: Ryan's Hope, which was my first break. I was nineteen, twenty years old.
Pat Sajak: Did you learn a lot in those couple of years?
Kate Mulgrew: On the soap? Was I even there for two years? People always ask that question and I don't think that that was really the – where I got the bulk of my education. A soap is not that rigorous. It cannot compare to prime time television.
Pat Sajak: Now that's interesting…
Kate Mulgrew: Or certainly to the theater.
Pat Sajak: That goes against stories I've heard. So you… now why do you say that, because I hear…
Kate Mulgrew: Because it's just easier. You have overnight to learn this stuff. I mean the emphasis is certainly not on… on the riches that you're bringing to the feast. The emphasis is on learn your lines, stand up, don't run into the furniture – that's Tracy's old line – and do it. Do your job. Sometimes two, three shows in a day. But prime time television you're expected to pull it all off. And you're working fifteen, sixteen hours a day. And you're in a cute little space suit, to top it all off.
Pat Sajak: It was cute. It was in Delta Quadrant, as I recall. You… may we speak of your husband?
Kate Mulgrew: Yes, please do.
Pat Sajak: Who in the political…
Kate Mulgrew: And we will speak highly of him, right?
Pat Sajak: You may speak highly of him. In the political world. He ran for governor of Ohio…
Kate Mulgrew: Governor of Ohio last year.
Pat Sajak: Were you part… he did not win…
Kate Mulgrew: He did not win because as you well know, the entire country went to the right.
Pat Sajak: Did you… did you campaign with him?
Kate Mulgrew : I campaigned…
Pat Sajak: What's his name?
Kate Mulgrew: Rigorously. Tim Hagan.
Pat Sajak: There he is (referring to a picture of Tim Hagan up on the screen).
Kate Mulgrew: Who hails from Cuyahoga County in Ohio.
Pat Sajak: In Ohio you hail from places. You're not born anywhere…
Kate Mulgrew: And he's hale and hearty. He's the most extraordinary person I have ever met, and he is my husband.
Pat Sajak: How did you… how did you?
Kate Mulgrew: My mother, my mother, God bless her.
Pat Sajak: Were you fixed up?
Kate Mulgrew: I wouldn't say she set us up. She didn't think I'd go for him at all. I was in Ireland with my two young sons, post divorce, and he was over visiting the ambassador, Madam Jean Kennedy Smith who was his great friend. And my mother's best friend is Mrs. Smith, and she had known Tim for years. So she said "Give her a call, she's, you know, going to be in Dingle Bay. Have a drink, that's it, you'll be friends, you'll have laugh." Well, we met in the lobby of the Tralee Hotel and it was absolutely instant.
Pat Sajak: Really?
Kate Mulgrew: I mean it was thunderbolt. Has it ever happened to you?
Pat Sajak: It has. I married the woman to whom that happened with. So how long from that period to walking down…
Kate Mulgrew: We fell in love madly.
Pat Sajak: Yeah.
Kate Mulgrew: Right. He was supposed to go to Dublin to escort the ambassador. He stayed with me in Dingle. And I would say that lasted until I got Star Trek Voyager.
Pat Sajak: Really.
Kate Mulgrew: And then, to make… this is a very sad story… fell apart. Devastated me. He just said it was not manageable. He had two young daughters, he was the county commissioner. It ended. Five years later…
Pat Sajak: You have fifteen seconds to cut to the chase…five years later…
Kate Mulgrew: Five years later I was on a boat with my mother and I said "Do your duty and get that guy back into my life."
Pat Sajak: Kate Mulgrew, Tea at Five, Promenade Theater in New York. Great having you.
Kate Mulgrew: Thank you. It was an absolute pleasure.
Pat Sajak: Took you right to the end…
Kate Mulgrew: You did…
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