Betty Gilpin & Reed Birney on Reviews with Teeth & the 'Weird But Wonderful' I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard

From King Lear to Wicked, theater has always explored dysfunctional father-daughter relationships—but few are as psychologically disturbing as the co-dependent bond between an explosive alcoholic playwright and his impressionable actress daughter in Halley Feiffer’s I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard. Directed by Trip Cullman, the world premiere at the Atlantic Theater Company features Tony nominee Reed Birney as David and Nurse Jackie’s Betty Gilpin as his daughter Ella. Broadway.com spent the morning with the pair and discovered that starring in the chilling two-hander has created an indelible connection between them.

Q: Reed, you’re old friends with Betty’s parents—do you remember her as a little girl?

REED BIRNEY: In 1990 I did The Cocktail Hour with her mother [Ann McDonough] on the straw hat circuit. We were at the Cape Playhouse in Massachusetts and Betty was there, running around in a really cute pinafore.

BETTY GILPIN: Oh my God, that’s right! I was four.

REED BIRNEY: It’s the only time I’ve ever seen you in a dress [laughs].

BETTY GILPIN: I have a lot of memories of the Cape Playhouse. I remember the three-legged black lab that was tied up outside and the rickety ghosty dressing rooms. And I remember there was a gazebo. And when we did I Remember a Gazebo. [Laughs.]



Q: Betty, do you remember seeing Reed act onstage?

BETTY GILPIN: When I first came to New York, I went to see Reed in Blasted. I was totally altered as a person and as an actor. I was like, “Holy sh*t, that’s the kind of theater I want to do.” So doing this play with Reed is a monumental experience.

Q: I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard is a rough ride—how do you unwind after letting out so much emotionally?

REED BIRNEY: Betty goes home and collapses. I’ll go out with people, but we’ve both remarked that around 3:00 in the afternoon, we both start to seize up knowing what lies ahead. It takes about 15 minutes into the play before I can relax, and then it’s actually kind of fun. But the first bit is still terrifying.

Q: Have your families come to see the show? Is it tough for them to watch?

BETTY GILPIN: My parents are coming soon, and originally I was like, “Just don’t come, you’re gonna be too weirded out.” But something changed and I decided they have to come. It’s weird but wonderful.

REED BIRNEY: My wife, 15-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son came opening night. I hadn’t really prepared them for what this was. The first thing my daughter said was, “Dad, I’ll never pour a bottle of wine on you,” which I thought was very nice. [Laughs.] My wife wanted to come back, but my son said, “I can’t see it again.” For him, it was too sad.



Q: People are buzzing about whether this play is based on Halley Feiffer’s relationship with her own father, cartoonist and playwright Jules Feiffer. What do you think?

BETTY GILPIN: Halley and I are friends, but she made it clear in the rehearsal room it wasn’t somewhere she wanted to go. We really never talked about it.

REED BIRNEY: I pushed it a little more than you did. And she told me, “It’s a version of what my life could have been.”

BETTY GILPIN: People sometimes say to me after the show, “You really nailed Halley’s physicality.” I’ve not for one second tried to model my performance after her. I think it cheapens it to say it’s autobiographical, or that I’m playing Halley or Reed’s playing her father. It’s not the world we’ve made.

REED BIRNEY: I did a play [Anthony Rose] with Jules in Philadelphia years ago, and I found him completely charming and we had a ball. For half a second I thought, “What about Jules could I bring into this?” At one point they wanted me to grow a beard and I couldn’t because I’m doing some TV stuff I had to keep my face clean-shaven for, but then I thought, “No. I don’t want it to be that close to Jules.”

In the play, David and Ella are consumed by reviews of their work. How do you feel about reading your own reviews?

BETTY GILPIN: I can’t read them. I’m too sensitive.

REED BIRNEY: How do you deal with people who are like, [whiny voice] “Have you seen your review?”

BETTY GILPIN: I cover my ears [laughs].

Q: What do you do, Reed?

REED BIRNEY: For a while, I wouldn’t read them until the play was over, and then they had no teeth at all. Good or bad, it’s over.

Q: You guys spend 90 minutes hurting each other physically and psychologically—is it tough to be so cruel?

REED BIRNEY: I can shove Betty around, I can scream at her, we're both up for anything. Several friends of mine have commented that we smile at the curtain call, instead of like those very serious actors who are so impressed with themselves at curtain call, like, "God, I'm so spent. I'm so amazing." I think it’s important to let the audience know it’s just a play. We’re both fine. Thanks for coming, have a great night.



See Birney and Gilpin in I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard through March 1 at Atlantic Stage 2.