What did you think when you heard you were nominated for a Tony Award?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI had no expectation of being nominated at all. It\u2019s not like I figured I wouldn\u2019t be and therefore I was pre-disappointed, it simply never crossed my mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter I hung up the phone with [the show\u2019s publicist], it began to occur to me that I was a Tony-nominated actor, among the best of the best, in the community I so deeply respect. And that I would be among them for this honor was just so enormous. My next thought was, \u201cI want to tell somebody.\u201d And my next thought was, \u201cYou can\u2019t just call somebody and say, \u2018Hey, guess what I got.\u2019\u201d It\u2019s out of the question. And then my thoughts went to my mom [actress Maureen O\u2019Sullivan], who would have been so happy and so proud. She was, throughout my life, in my corner, and she would have been the one that I would have wanted to share that moment with. I just started crying, frankly, because I miss my mom, and also it would have been the moment, other than me having my children, one of the big moments of my life. She would have been super happy with me and proud of me and so forth. So that was my stuff I went through. And subsequently, whatever gatherings that have been held to do with the play and to do with this honor, and I just got to meet the people that I admire so much and just to be counted among them for this time only. I can\u2019t tell you how much it\u2019s meant to me and how deeply honored I am.<\/p>\n
\n\tHad you been looking to come back to Broadway?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tNo, I\u2019m a person who\u2019s actually very happy alone. I have a new puppy. It was Jack O\u2019Brien, an old friend and wonderful director, who said, \u201cI\u2019ve got this script that I really want you to read and to consider doing.\u201d And I actually had read that script some six years ago when I was at the Long Wharf [Theatre] with Brian Dennehy, but I was not it something I could do at the time. But rereading it, I was reminded how it had just extraordinary things in it. And meanwhile, Jack O\u2019Brien sent it to my son, Ronan, who he\u2019s been friends with since Ronan was a child. And Ronan called me and said, \u201cYou have to do this. This is really good, and it offers you really good scenes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tI know that Jack had already offered it to another actor, not my part, but the part that would be played by Patti. And the other actor had turned it down. And then he said, I\u2019m sending it to Patti LuPone and Patti\u2019s been a friend of mine for a long time, decades. And I though \u201cOh my gosh, that would be incredible if she would do it.\u201d So I just kept my fingers crossed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWas it the character you were drawn to?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tYes, it was. Nowadays the rehearsal period is just three weeks, so it isn\u2019t long enough to, in a play of that complexity, really get it where you want it for opening night. I didn\u2019t invite anybody [to opening night]. Of course, I never do, fear of disappointing and so forth. But I just thought, what a pity we\u2019re opening now and don\u2019t have another week or two, because we sure could use it. Patti and I were really still in the process of discovery, and that process lasted, probably, until almost the end. But sooner than that we got it in the area that we were the most comfortable, and obviously she\u2019s just a joy to work with, because we were on the same journey, her character, my character, and how they interact on all these levels. For me, it was the arc of being a person who thought of herself one way, in a very limited way. And then through the appearance of Patti in my life, as that character, doors opened, and I discovered things as the character, Sharon, about herself, and in the process, finding a life that\u2019s meaningful and a love that\u2019s meaningful, and the discovery of all that through the remarkable words of Jen Silverman. So I was almost sorry when it was over, because we had reached a point that we felt we were doing our absolute best.<\/p>\n
\n\tFrom interviews at the start of the play, I\u2019d read that you weren\u2019t fully believing your acting abilities.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI mean, I am not a supremely confident individual. From what I\u2019ve learned of life, confidence is almost always misplaced, in any area you care to glance. I\u2019m riddled with self doubt. It\u2019s enviable, if you\u2019re not. And for those that aren\u2019t, God bless you. And for those that are, you\u2019ll understand what I\u2019m saying. I do have self doubt, but I\u2019ve learned to live with it. I\u2019m able to sort strut around feeling supremely confident. I mean, what are we confident about, you know? I hoped that I could get where I wanted to be in the play. I didn\u2019t read reviews, but Patti does, and she said, \u201cWe did well. The people liked us.\u201d There were some reservations about the play, and that was about gut punch because I love Jen Silverman\u2019s work, and I love what she\u2019d written. But, apparently many people did love the play. And my goodness, it was hugely well received by the audiences. I\u2019ve never had such a reaction in terms of the laughter and a gasp here and there. There was never a night without a standing ovation for the play, for the way we had presented it. So, it was a joy, and it was a joy to share it with the audiences. I\u2019ve not had a better stage experience in my life.<\/p>\n
\n\tJust in terms of performing, or the audience?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tIn terms of performing to an audience. It was a joy and privilege each night, also terrifying, before the show terrifying, and then the delivery of the show to the audience was an immense joy and privilege.<\/p>\n
\n\tDid the terror go away?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tThe terrifying part is before you step out. And I don\u2019t know if every actor feels that way. But yes, it does get less terrifying, but I think an amount of terror seems appropriate given the task ahead. So many things can go wrong, and there was a lot of dialogue. It was 90 minutes of talk and just the two of us, and so the task was a big one. There were a lot of things that could go wrong. But also there was anticipation and the \u201cI can\u2019t wait feeling,\u201d and our last words to each other before we would walk on stage were, \u201cLet\u2019s have fun.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tDo you want to do more Broadway now?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI would love to. Of course, now my standards are very high, because I would not want to do a project that was less than what I just did. You hope for that, anyway, all actors at all stages, to be asked a lot of. It doesn\u2019t always happen, and you\u2019ve got to make a living, and so often you do things that ask very little of you, and they feel like that, and it\u2019s, in the end, meaningless, but it\u2019s a living. But for those projects that ask a great deal of you, I think every actor is really grateful when one of those comes along and you\u2019re able to invest all of yourself in areas that have not normally been asked of you.<\/p>\n
\n\tI saw that you just saw <\/strong>John Proctor Is the Villain<\/em><\/strong> on Broadway. Are you trying to see the other shows in your category, or just shows generally?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tSadie [Sink] and the cast and everyone was wonderful and welcoming. I\u2019m a fan of Sadie\u2019s, and I\u2019m a fan of everyone in that cast.<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd I\u2019m going to see Cole [Escola\u2019s] play. I want to see Oh, Mary!<\/em> It\u2019s not that I\u2019m competing with Cole in any way, but I\u2019m hugely admiring of them, and I\u2019m 1,000 percent respectful. And I can\u2019t wait, because I hear the most wonderful things about the show, and Ronan is coming with me \u2013 though he\u2019s seen it before, he said he could absolutely see it again. So I know it\u2019s one of those things I don\u2019t want to miss. I want to see Jonathan Groff. I\u2019ve gotta see Audra. There are things I want to see that I haven\u2019t seen yet. I was going to see George Clooney\u2019s show, but as it\u2019s going to be televised live, I thought \u201cbrilliant.\u201d I just so respect him. He\u2019s doing a public service with that. He doesn\u2019t need to be on Broadway, but there\u2019s a reason, given the content of the play and its relevance now. Hats off to George Clooney, and it was wonderful that he was nominated too.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tDo you know what your next role will be?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI\u2019ve got a couple of very nice people inviting me to join in a project, and really good actors, but I\u2019m just waiting to see if there\u2019s something that I had that feeling about, that I can really make a contribution, and that contributes to me as an actor and as a person, a journey of a sort, any sort that is meaningful. So I\u2019ll just see. I would love to be on stage again. And I did discover that I love being on stage more than being in a movie or on TV. It\u2019s just way more, for me, anyway, more gratifying. So because I get to do it all, it isn\u2019t cut into pieces. You get from beginning to end, and then the privilege of having an audience there, there\u2019s nothing like it.<\/p>\n
\n\tThis interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite decades of acclaim as an actress, Mia Farrow went into her role in the Broadway play The Roommate last fall with some trepidation. \u201cI am not a supremely confident individual. From what I\u2019ve learned of life, confidence is almost always misplaced, in any area you care to glance,\u201d Farrow said.\u00a0 \u201cI do have self […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[649,1763,1762,1726,1563,1356],"class_list":{"0":"post-1559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fashion","9":"tag-farrow","10":"tag-mia","11":"tag-nomination","12":"tag-returning","13":"tag-tony"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1561,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559\/revisions\/1561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}