What is the best book that has been turned into a great movie?
My first best book became a great movie: “Tess,” based on Thomas Hardy’s “Tess of the d’Urberville.” Nastassja Kinski is sublime as Tess; and my mother, who could be very critical of me but secretly adored me, would comment that I looked like her, so that was an added attraction. I cried so much at the end and was furious at the injustice of the patriarchal world that contributes to her tragic flaw. I was doomed. and pure. And finally a killer. I love her. I loved the movie when I watched it on our little TV, up close. My mother and I had already seen him at the theater, buying jujubes at intermission. I see a blood-soaked ceiling in my mind. And Tess lying as a sacrifice at Stonehenge.
What book would you like to see made into a movie or TV show that hasn’t been adapted yet?
Of course, mine, “Mean Baby”. I have 50 years of her.
Of all the characters you have played in different media, which one seemed to you the richest, the most romantic?
My two turns with Todd Solondz. His writing is so clean, to the point, rich and sober. One sentence tells a whole story.
The most immersive and by far the richest experience was Rajiv Joseph’s “Gruesome Playground Injuries.” It was a two-handed duel I did with Brad Fleischer at the Alley Theater in Houston a few years before my son was born. We’re in the Samuel French as the original actors, which feels like something. And it was an amazingly harrowing and darkly funny production directed by Rebecca Taichman. Before and during the race in blisteringly hot and sticky Houston, Rajiv, Brad and I would stand by the pool in our apartment complex and direct the play from start to finish every day. Committing to this work was a tremendous and truly transformative task. Imagine performing lines from his favorite play, all of which reflect his own life, like a mantra as you plunge into a pool day after day. It was an eye opener and absolutely terrifying living what felt like my own life from elementary school to adulthood. Each performance and rehearsal is a quietly haunting novel of hope in connection.
What literary character would you like to play?
Auntie Mame seems like a good outlet for me.
Do you count any books as guilty pleasures?
The Bible. Preferably the Old Testament. You don’t get a Bible out of nowhere now…guilty and pleasurable.
What is the last book you read that made you laugh?
Melissa Rivers’ book about her mother, Joan Rivers. It was so good that I gave it to my own mother, a few years before my mother died. I think it was the last book of hers that made her laugh out loud. It was excellent, we both agreed wholeheartedly. I must read it again. Oh damn, my mom still has my copy.
The last book you read that made you cry?
I cried reading Molly Shannon’s new book, as she details the last moments of the tragic car accident that took her mother and sister. The last words of her mother were asking about her girls. She just broke my heart.
The last book you read that made you furious?
Joyful Clemantine Wamariya’s “The Girl Who Smiled Beads” (written with Elizabeth Weil). Wamariya writes so purely about her incredible escape from the Rwandan genocide and her journey to the United States. The author’s strength and resilience is so beautifully explored. I felt a helpless rage at the injustice and cruelty but I was also comforted by the presence of the writer. Reading Elie Wiesel’s “Night” and Harriet E. Wilson’s “Our Nig: Or, Sketches From the Life of a Free Black” at age 14 were cousin experiences in reading.