Mary-Louise Parker on How She Almost Quit Acting, Being Lured Back Onstage by The Snow Geese & More!

Tony and Emmy winner Mary-Louise Parker told News Corp Australia this past July that she was considering quitting acting because websites and bloggers had become too "mean-spirited" and "critical" for her taste. Luckily for the hordes of theater, TV and film fans who have been captivated by her performances in Proof, Angels in America, Weeds and more, Parker has returned to Broadway in the world premiere of Sharr White's The Snow Geese. Starring as the grief-stricken and indebted matriarch Elizabeth Gaesling, Parker is ready to prove, once again, why she is a peerless performer.

According to an article in The New York Times, when Parker asked her agents to send new plays her way, she was still nervous that she wouldn't be able to act on stage again after losing her father in 2010. "He would always come to town for opening nights, and see it," Parker told the Times. "And he’d come and come. And he’d understand it. He understood my choices." She credits the grief she and her mother feel over her father's passing as impetus for taking on Elizabeth's pain in The Snow Geese. "My mother is committed to her grief of the loss of my father. And I think it’s the most romantic, beautiful thing. I love her for it," she said. "She 100 percent inspired me for this role."

Parker revealed that reuniting with her Proof director Daniel Sullivan, going out to the bar with co-stars after rehearsals and performances and, ultimately, accepting that she can be "very hidden, quiet" sometimes helped her overcome any concerns she had about returning to the stage. "One person’s crazy is another person’s refreshing," Parker told the Times. "I can have an air of vacancy about me. But I hate fakeness. You have to be true to yourself." The Snow Geese follows a family dealing with death and an insecure future, but Parker seems certain that she has found the right writer and project: "The worst feeling on earth for me is to stand on a stage and feel like I’m in a play."

The Snow Geese, which also stars Tony winner Victoria Clark and Tony nominee Danny Burstein, opens October 24 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Click the video below to find out more about why this "honest and brutal" drama is not to be missed!