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Oscar-nominated film legend Kathleen Turner has been a lot of things over the course of her four decades in the spotlight. She's been an in-the-flesh sex symbol in her breakout film, 1981's Body Heat and in hand-drawn form by voicing the voluptuous Jessica Rabbit, an animated icon that had kids everywhere inexplicably hot and bothered.
She's romanced Steve Martin in The Man with Two Brains and Michael Douglas in, well, Romancing the Stone, then tried to kill Douglas in War of the Roses. She's been a suburban mother of menace, a murderer, a PI and everything in between, cementing herself in the annuls of cinematic legend.
Which makes the fact that Turner's legacy as a philanthropist and political advocate is beginning to rival her silver-screen status, working with groups as diverse as Amnesty International and People for the American Way and serving as the Chairman of the Board of Advocates for Planned Parenthood.
This Tuesday, Turner's combining her roles as bona-fide screen legend and advocate at the Clinton for double feature of two of her most beloved—and seemingly disparate—films: The Francis Ford Coppola '50s fantasy Peggy Sue Got Married (featuring Nic Cage talking like Gumby's pal Pokey) and the John Waters media satire Serial Mom, in which Turner plays a cross between June Cleaver and Hannibal Lecter. Proceeds benefit Planned Parenthood.
We talked with Turner—whose smoky voice is strained a bit by time, but still unmistakably intoxicating—about her work in film and the field and, her recent appearance on the Hulu series The Path and, ugh, Ted Cruz.
Willamette Week: Planned Parenthood is… well, a hot button. Does your fame help your message reach people who might not otherwise listen?
Kathleen Turner: Without a doubt. I think that because of the film work, I'm held in affection by people, which is sweet and wonderful. As politically active as I am, they still seem to like me.
It probably helps that you're doing a screening, so people can have a little more fun with it.
I thought it would be a good contrast, Peggy Sue and Serial Mom. I had so much fun on those ones.
Do you ever go back and watch these films?
Never. Occasionally, if I'm flipping through on TV and I see a piece of one of my films, I'll watch a couple minutes just for fun, but no, I never go back and look at 'em. Been there done that.
You've been working with Planned Parenthood for decades. Has anything changed in the discourse?
It's extraordinary to me. I was listening yesterday morning to a news show that had Ted Cruz saying he was going do away with Obamacare because he didn't want any government to come between him and his doctor. Well, what about women? Isn't that exactly what you are doing: taking choice out of their hands and putting it in the hands of the government? It's endlessly amazing to me, my mind does not seem to grasp what makes men think they have the right to dictate what a woman does with her body. That will remain a mystery I suppose.
It seems like you spend a lot of time trying to speak to people who don't want to listen.
I was in Texas—god help me, but somebody had to go—I've done Houston and Dallas and Austin—well, Austin isn't really Texas, really, but nevermind—and I was saying to this educated, seemingly successful woman, and I said 'well, you realize Texas pssed a 72-hour waiting period between the exam and the ultrasound and a woman being able to have the procedure,' and she said 'no, no, no, that's just silly.' I said 'No, your state did this. It's now law.' And she said 'No.' 'Well, it's a fact,' and she said 'Well, why don't I know.' Well, now that's a question we should be asking. Here's an educated, capable woman who obviously makes her own choices, and has for a while, and she's unaware of the laws of her state, which is not that unusual, unfortunately.
You kind of took a break from acting for a while, and I had read it was due to rheumatoid arthritis. But then you returned to the stage for shows like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Graduate. Isn't stage work more demanding?
It was a few years before they developed the biologics I needed to halt the autoimmune response, so I had some pretty serious damage. I had both knees replaced, I don't know how many more operations. But in any case, I'm moving and working. They told me I'd be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. I told them they were fired.
It's an Olympic athlete time. Everything you do all day long goes toward that 8 o'clock curtain—how much you work out, what you eat, when you eat, how much you talk, how much you talk on the phone—all of it goes toward being in the best shape you can be for the evening. It's all-consuming. It's the deal, and what you give up when you take a job like that. It's also the most extraordinary sense of being alive.
I was very surprised to see you on The Path
Oh, I haven't seen it yet. It was outrageous. I had such a good time. They said 'we just want you to be this alcoholic monster,' and I said fine. I came onto the set after they dressed me in supposedly my dead husband's clothes and smeared grease in my hair. Every surface is covered in empty liquor bottles and ashtrays. I turned to the set guy and said 'you don't think you overdid this, do you?'
Would you consider foing more television?
The Path was interesting, the whole concept. The work being done on cable is very exciting. I could never do a sitcom, honest to god. The idea of doing badum-bum, badum-bum month after month, I'd kill myself. I love comedy, but that doesn't mean it should be canned.
Go: Kathleen Turner hosts Peggy Sue Got Married and Serial Mom at Clinton Street Theater. 7 pm Tuesday, May 3. $30. Buy tickets.
Also Showing:
Portland nonprofit ReFit presents Billy Wilder's classic Hollywood noir, Sunset Boulevard. The screening functions as its fifth fundraiser and, more importantly, essential viewing of anyone looking to get all the references in the current season of Archer. Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm Wednesday, April 27.
Church of Film wraps its wonderful Folk Supernatural series with the Hungarian psychedelic animated classic Son of the White Mare. Clinton Street Theater. 8 pm Wednesday, April 27.
We've come to the point already when we have to accept that we will never see a new live performance by Prince. That the Purple One could never—as we all secretly hoped—wander into our house, perhaps with a religious pamphlet, or perhaps just to play us a song. But Prince is eternal. So at this point, all we can do is put on Purple Rain, have a big-ass dance party and probably go home and fuck. RIP. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30pm Thursday, April 28. Laurelhurst Theater. Friday-Thursday, April 29-May 5.
Shakespeare in the Afternoon continues with a 1963 production of As You Like It. Clinton Street Theater. 2 pm Friday, April 29.
Laurelhurst sets its focus on the classics classics this month, beginning with the oft-overlooked Hitchcock potboiler Saboteur. Laurelhurst Theater. Friday-Thursday, April 29-May 5.
The fantastically funny neo-high school classic Mean Girls announced to the world the enduring star power of Lindsay Lo—um, Lacey Char—wait… Rachel McAdams? Let's go with Rachel McAdams. Mission Theater. Noon & 8:30 pm Saturday, April 30.
2007's Waitress is a solid showcase for actress Keri Russell as the bittersweet quirk comedy's titular pie-maker, but the film serves more a testament to the potential of director Adrienne Shelly, who was slain prior to the release, leaving this comedy with the burnt aftertaste of tragedy that she was never able to make good on the promise of this indie gem. 5th Avenue Cinema. 7 & 9:30 pm Friday-Saturday, 3 pm Sunday, April 19-May 1.
The Academy's audience-choice anniversary celebration of the last 10 years concludes with Little Miss Sunshine. Academy Theater. Friday-Thursday, April 29-May 5.
The NW Film Center's retrospective on the work of the great Seijun Suzuki comes to a close with 1966's Carmen from Kawachi, a rock-opera take on the non-rock opera Carmen as only Suzuki could imagine it. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Friday, April 29.
Re-run Theater dives back into its cereal-covered Saturday morning-themed pajama party, complete with classic(ish) cartoons like Black Star, Thundarr, and Flash Gordon. Hollywood Theatre. 2:30 pm Saturday, April 30.
Legendary Hollywood pioneer Jon Huston's 1972 film Fat City saw the director trade his hard-boiled legacy for a tale of conflicting amateur boxers played by Stacey Keach and a young Jeff Bridges. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Saturday and 4:30 pm Sunday, April 30-May 1.
Chris Eyre's 1998 indie darling Smoke Signals is one of the best films about the modern native American experience… and, you know, one of the only ones. NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Sunday, May 1.
In celebration of the European Witches' Night of Walpurgisnacht (what, you didn't see the display at Hallmark?), the Hollywood presents the bizarro psychological horror flick The Witch who Came from the Sea, complete with a witches' bazaar. Hollywood Theatre. 9:30 pm Saturday, April 30.
B-Movie Bingo lives up to its name with the fucking bananas lost non-classic, Shadow Warriors, a film that's less puzzling for starring Carl Weathers, Shannon Tweed and Hulk Hogan, and more remarkable because it came out in 19 fucking 97. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Tuesday, May 3.
Willamette Week