Cloris Leachman/Coming of Age/Spring 2009/by Kelly Oden

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COMING of AGE P r e s e n t e d b y C o u n c i l o n A g i n g o f We s t F l o r i d a

L I F E S T Y L E

M A G A Z I N E

F O R

S E N I O R S

SPRING 2009

Caring for the Caregiver Senior Fitness Fun and Easy Gardening with Grandkids Rotary to the

Rescue

An Exclusive Interview With

Cloris Leachman www.ballingerpublishing.com

www.coawfla.org

Miss America reality-TV show?

CL: No, is it good? All I can say is that every single thing I’ve done has been interesting and fun and wonderful and important, you know.

Cloris Leachman

COA: You moved to New York at a young age and were a part of the Actors’ Studio. What was that like?

CL: Well it was a wonderful, wonderful thing for me. I think all of us were just gripped by it.

Interviewed by Kelly Oden

C

COA: The relationships among your characters were key to the success of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. How do you describe the appeal of those characters and how do feel the roles of women in society have changed since then?

CL: Oh, I don’t know about any of that. I think there are all kinds of relationships. That’s not something that you have to say ‘that’s what’s going to be.’ You can have it any way you want, I think.

loris Leachman is known in Hollywood circles as

an incredibly versatile character actor of stage and screen. Her fans know her as a boisterous, funny and irrepressible personality. The native Midwesterner performed on the radio in high school and headed for New York after competing in the 1946 Miss America Pageant. The Actors’ Studio-trained actress impressed audiences with her many talents while racking up dramatic credits on Broadway, TV and occasionally, film.

She found her greatest career success well into her 40s. In 1970, she signed on to The Mary Tyler Moore Show as the title character’s nosy landlord, Phyllis, a comedic role that earned her two Emmys as well as her own spin-off sitcom. She took home another Emmy for her serious turn as a middle-aged wife facing motherhood in A Brand New Life, the first of many successful TV-movies for Leachman. She also snagged an Oscar for her devastating performance as a lonely wife in 1971’s The Last Picture Show. Her big-screen success led to many great parts — most notably a trio of roles in three Mel Brooks comedies, including her hilarious turn as Frau Blücher in Young Frankenstein.

By 2006, she had earned five more Emmys for a total of eight statuettes (plus one Daytime Emmy), and toured the country as the title character in the play Grandma Moses: An American Primitive. More recently, her television credits include a recurring role on Malcolm in the Middle and a hilarious bathtub romp with Jack Black in The Office on Superbowl night. Her big screen role in Spanglish earned her much acclaim and upcoming projects promise to be just as intriguing. Watch for her in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds with Brad Pitt, New York, I Love You with Eli Wallach and Natalie Portman, American Cowslip with Val Kilmer, Peter Falk, Diane Ladd, and Rip Torn, and The Hallmark Channel’s Love Takes Wing directed by Lou Diamond Phillips.

COA recently spoke to Cloris as she was driving back from an event with her son, George. After a struggle with cell reception and a wrong turn, we spoke about her career, her outlook on life and kissing younger men.

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Cloris with her Mary Tyler Moore Castmates.

COA: Let’s start with your unique name. You’re named after your mother, right?

CL: Yes, the doctor delivered another little baby on the day my mother was born and he told my mother’s parents that they had named her Cloris Waterbury and that’s how my mother was named Cloris Wallace. And then I was named Cloris Wallace Leachman.

COA: Ellen Burstyn supposedly turned down the role for which you won the Academy Award (in The Last Picture Show). Have you ever turned down a role for which you now regret?

CL: I turned down one role about the mother of a Vietnam vet because I’d just done a role similar to it. I turned it down and they gave it to Carol Burnett and she got an Emmy for it. So it was an important one I turned down. That’s the only one I did that I know of.

COA: You won the title of Miss Chicago in 1946. I’ve read that you did not consider yourself the beauty queen type. What prompted you to enter?

CL: I didn’t enter. Some guy entered my picture in the contest with WGM. I wasn’t even going to go down, it was so ridiculous. And they said, ‘just go down to the studio, you don’t have worry.’ And some man had written some radio audition material for me when I was at Northwestern, so I took that down there and I Cloris on read it and I played the piano and I sang and I said, ‘what else should I do?’ And they said, Dancing with ‘take your hair down.’ I took the one pin out of the Stars my hair and it all fell down all pretty around my shoulders and they said, ‘congratulations, you’re Miss Chicago.’ So that’s what started it.

I didn’t put my picture in—this man did.

COA: You would have never thought to do it yourself, right?

CL: I would have thought not to do it. That’s not what I was interested in doing.

COA: You’re no stranger to reality TV or the Miss America Pageant. Have you seen the new

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COA: You’ve worked with a lot of funny people—Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks, etc. Who do you think is funny?

CL: I love Dick Van Dyke especially. He’s very, very creative and talented. Everything he does—he’s just funny.

Wonderful, wonderful.

COA: You’ve worked with some younger comedians as well—like Adam Sandler, and recently, Jack Black on Super Bowl night in The Office. How did it feel to be cast in sudsy bathtub love scene with Jack Black?

CL: Oh, it was just terrific. It was a wonderful, fun thing.

Jack Black was the sweetest man in the world. That’s how sweet he is—and a wonderful kisser.

COA: How has the reaction to that scene been?

CL: I don’t care that much about the reaction except my daughter said it was the funniest thing she ever saw and a couple of people loved it. Fifteen million people saw it.

COA: Are there any women you think are funny today?

CL: Oh, you’re going to make me work, aren’t you? (To her son, ‘what women do I think are funny?’ ‘Ellen,’ he answers).

COA: You had an excellent run on Dancing with the Stars. Did you hope your participation would make a statement in terms of presenting a positive image of aging?

CL: No, no. I just thought it would be really fun to do it and it was. I loved the people and the organization.

COA: You’ve appeared on Broadway in South Pacific and Come Back, Little Sheba, as well as a variety of film and television roles. Is one more rewarding for you—screen or stage?

CL: Neither. I prefer a good role in a good project. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter to me.

COA: Tell me about your upcoming autobiography.

CL: It’s titled Cloris.

COA: Any tidbits you can share with our readers?

CL: There are a couple of good pages about Bobby Darin, but you’ll have to read it to find out. (Cloris comes out March 31, as does the audio book read by Mrs. Leachman. After the interview, Cloris’ son George assured me that Cloris’ reading really brings the audio book and the characters that inhabit it to life.)

COA: What was it like to be the Grand Marshall of the Rose Parade?

CL: It was very much fun. Just a very electrifying, fun time. Once in a lifetime, you know. Shirley Temple did it three times, but I think I’ll probably just be doing it this one time. She started a lot younger, too.

COA: At age 71, you appeared nude, in body paint, on the cover of Alternative Medicine magazine. What prompted that pose?

CL: I wouldn’t have bought that magazine with just my picture on it, would you? We had to make it interesting.

COA: You don’t seem to have a lot of issues about aging and your body.

CL: I have every issue there is. I just curse and keep going.

Cloris as the Grand Marshall of the Rose Parade, 2009 24 COMING

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COA: Is that your motto, ‘curse and keep going?’

CL: I don’t have a motto—I just do it.

COA: You seem to have a very vivacious, fun loving, adventurous personality … even a bit racy … Have you always had this type of personality or has it evolved?

CL: I think it has evolved, although I’ve always said what I thought, but I think it’s evolved.

COA: How so? Has experience given you a certain freedom?

CL: Oh yes, just having to do it, just doing it.

COA: If you had to choose three words to describe the reason for the longevity of your career, what would they be and why?

CL: Oh, I don’t know why. (To her son, ‘why have I lasted so long, George?’) My son says I think differently from all the other people.

For instance, today I had to give a little talk to the American Heart Association, so when I went up there to say what I was going to say, I also took a whole platter of little bitty cupcakes and I ate the entire platter as I was giving a speech about how you should be so careful not to get heart disease. I ate the platter of cupcakes the whole time I was talking.

CL: Well, it was so neat to meet Quentin Tarantino and then be working with him. It was very thrilling and very happy and satisfying. I ran into Brad Pitt at the SAG Awards and he said it’s really gonna be good. It was one of the best scripts I ever read in my life. So I’m very excited about it.

COA: What is your role in the film?

CL: I’m an old Jewish woman.

COA: Well, Cloris, thank you so much for speaking with me today. I’ve really enjoyed it.

CL: Oh, my pleasure, thank you.

COA: What did the audience think of that?

CL: Oh, they laughed the whole time.

I had to stop and wipe myself off and get it out of my teeth and try to keep talking (laughs).

COA: Is that an example of how you think differently—outside of the box?

CL: Maybe. I never saw a box. I never saw one to think outside of it.

COA: You’ve been a guest on some of the most popular talk shows ... The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, The Mike Douglas Show, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, Ellen, The Tonight Show ... what has been your most memorable couch experience?

CL: Johnny Carson, I liked—always fun things on his show.

COA: Can you tell me anything about your upcoming Quentin Tarantino film, Inglourious Basterds, with Brad Pitt?

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