Martha Plimpton

Those who remember Martha Plimpton with her short, tomboy hair in The Goonies will be able to easily picture her two decades later portraying a woman who is playing a man as she does in Marivaux's The False Servant at Classic Stage Company. While in the 1980s and 1990s she was best known for her Hollywood work in such films as The Goonies, The Mosquito Coast, Running on Empty, Parenthood, Samantha, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Beautiful Girls and Pecker, in this century Plimpton has become a New York stage fixture, earning acclaim for a series of eclectic roles. The False Servant finds the actress portraying a character at the center of a society where everyone is out for him or herself. If such a place sounds familiar to you, it does to her as well.

Why did you want to do The False Servant? It's not exactly famous.
I really liked the play and I thought I'd like to work at CSC. This character also really interested me-this idea of playing someone who is playing someone else. It's certainly a time tested traditional role-it's a story that has been told in many different ways from Twelfth Night to Victor/Victoria. It presents certain challenges and comic opportunities that I was really interested in.

You don't try to do any kind of fake deep voice while you are in man mode.
I felt it would be silly to stand there and try to affect a male voice. If I did it would be reminding the audience I was a woman constantly. It's like if I were to put on a false mustache, it would just point out my non-maleness. So I've just chosen to really rely on the suspension of disbelief of, not only the audience, but, the other actors in the play. They have a willingness to be fooled because of their greed. That is really the idea-the truths that people don't see when they are blinded by their ambitions and avarice. It's not romantic by any stretch.

Yet, when it starts, many audience members are probably expecting characters to pair off.
We like to be able to say, "This is a story about the lessons of true love… and you should really love more sincerely and be a better person…" But that is not what this is about. To my mind it is an indictment of a society that is on the verge of collapse. It's a look at two sides of the culture-the haves and the have nots and the way those people con each other. Marivaux is a very challenging playwright. His language can be very circuitous and convoluted. He is many things, but romantic he is not.

We are in the era of reality television, turning away from the romance...
We are turning into a culture that is more and more starkly divided between those who have and those who haven't. Some people will argue that we are an empire on the verge of collapse. I don't know if that is true or not, but certainly there are things one can look at that are reminders of bygone periods. I'm not sure we are all about to die or be taken to a guillotine or anything, but certainly we've reached a turning point in our culture. And much of it is due to this bizarre obsession with material gain and one-upmanship and the like.

And sex.
Yes, we have a preoccupation with sex that is divorced from the truth of sex. It's all very image based. It's all very divorced from a human sexuality. It's all a commercial sexuality. It's all a put on.

Ninety-five percent of our life is now based on the media.
Media, yes, but also commerce. There is a line in the play: "This contract, this debt, it turns love to reason and reason to commerce." That is not unlike what we do today. It scares me a little bit, where we are. But that is why we have comedy!

You've done a lot of comedic, fun things in your career. Recently you dropped out of Woody Allen's A Second Hand Memory to write a musical episode of 7th Heaven.
It was an opportunity I had never had. The thought of doing it was too brilliant and hilarious to pass up. So I had to take it. I am glad I did because it was a truly odd experience and one I am very greatly for. Given the genre, which is one that I am not all familiar with, that being the quasi-religious prime time soap opera, I found it to be a marvelous challenge.

Were you happy with the episode?
Yes, I thought it was brilliantly hilarious. I thought it was fantastic. What more could I possibly want from it?

There was a little bit of everything.
It is a marvelous feeling to have actors saying the words you have written for them however silly they may be or however corny. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I know you also guest-starred on an episode, which I missed. I think the last thing I saw you in was Sixteen Wounded on Broadway. How was that experience?
That was an unusual experience-my first Broadway show. I really value it. It was a great learning experience for me.

The critics were so mean to that show.
I wasn't surprised by that. Not at all. It's difficult when you try to send a political message through the medium of theater. People either feel they are being preached at or proselytized to or they feel this is a sanctuary that ought not to be poisoned by this type of discourse. Also the subject matter is difficult subject matter for people.

Yes, Middle East-themed plays are hard, in my opinion.
I can't necessarily say that I disagree with that overriding dubiousness about bringing overt political opinion into the theater. It's a very delicate line one has to walk when one does that. It's not easy to do it well. So it didn't surprise me that people had strong distaste for [Sixteen Wounded]. It was bound to generate that type of response. And certainly when it comes to the quality of the work itself, people have a right to their opinions. I don't necessarily think New York critics always are able to critique a work-sometimes they just have an opinion. That to me is not really theater criticism. But that is just my taste in terms of what I like to read. It's not relevant.

Of course it is-everyone's opinion is somehow relevant.
My taste in what I like to read is not terribly important. People will write what they want to write.

You've been doing what you want to do for a while-including singing in an act with Julian Fleisher. Ever thought of doing a musical?
I'd love to. I'd like to do all kinds of things-why not? I don't have the voice that they seem to like in musicals nowadays. I'm no Frenchie Davis.

That would be a bad pull quote: "Martha Plimpton is no Frenchie Davis…"
Well my voice is more of a character voice. But I wouldn't mind doing something like that, it would be fun.

We are getting more and more musicals these days.
I have a problem with the musical themed musicals. They seem more like them park attractions. But I suppose there is room for everyone, or there ought to be.

I often think theater people have trouble making room for people who've found success on film, such as yourself. But your parents [Shelley Plimpton and Keith Carradine] were theater people and everyone has really embraced you.
I hope that is true. The truth is that ultimately I am not really a movie actor and I am not really a theater actor. I am just kind of an actor. It is my hope that I can work in all kinds of mediums and be able to bring whatever skills I have to do it well. I've always done plays-there was a period in my teens where I didn't do quite as many because I was doing so many movies-but I always stayed connected to the theater. I've always lived in New York. It's not like I've gone and lived in some other camp and then come back and said: "Will you have me?"

You seem to enjoy yourself onstage, which is also great.
There really are very few people who are able to work as actors. I feel very fortunate that I am one of them. No matter how many struggles you may go through… Certainly I am not wealthy. I still have to struggle every day to make sure I can make a living and be practical like any other actor.

But people do speak very highly of you. Do you feel the love?
Actors have to maintain a healthy dose of humility in order to work steadily and in order to maintain their curiosity. You can't be incurious and be an actor. Hopefully that curiosity means you are always looking to broaden your understanding of the world and the way you make art. Hopefully that spirit is a positive one. I hope it shows in the work that I do. If it is not fun, if you don't enjoy yourself, then you might as well work in an office.