Jill Clayburgh
Before Jill Clayburgh became one of the biggest movie stars of the 1970s in the hit comedies Silver Streak, Semi-Tough, An Unmarried Woman and Starting Over, she worked steadily in the theater, originating roles on Broadway in Pippin, Jumpers and The Rothschilds. Clayburgh drastically scaled back her career after marrying playwright David Rabe and having two children, but she'll be fully employed on Broadway this season in back-to-back plays. First up: the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of Richard Greenberg's A Naked Girl on the Appian Way, co-starring Richard Thomas, followed by a revival of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park as Amanda Peet's mom. Meanwhile, the actress's real-life daughter, Lily Rabe, a recent Drama Desk Award nominee for Steel Magnolias, is appearing off-Broadway in Colder Than Here. The no-nonsense Clayburgh expresses little nostalgia about her career but is clearly pleased to be back on Broadway.
How did you get involved with A Naked Girl on the Appian Way?
Pure luck. [Director] Doug Hughes and I had worked together before at the Westport Country Playhouse and he called me. I'm scheduled to do Barefoot in the Park [in early 2006] so the timing worked out perfectly.
You play a chef, and I understand that you have to cook onstage. Is that nerve-wracking?
It's easier than I thought it would be. I'm making a salad that, because of the events of the play, doesn't get eaten. I've actually gotten pretty relaxed about it. You know those cooks on television who aren't really showing off their technique - they know how to cut and do this and that but they have a relaxed, confident quality? That's what this is like. I can peel a radish onstage with a lot of aplomb.
How would you describe your character?
She's at a perfectly wonderful time in her life, her marriage is fantastic, and she's awaiting the return of her two children, who've been away for 17 months. Surprises occur when they come back. I can't tell you any more! It's a joyful play with a lot of comic elements. It has some depth, but it's deft, it's delicately written, and it's incredibly charming.
He is fantastic! I admire him, and I love him. And he's just great in this play.
It's been 20 years since you were last on Broadway in Design for Living, with Frank Langella and the late Raul Julia. Did you make a conscious decision to cut back?
I didn't want to do theater when I had young children. The schedule is just too hard. You have to get up at 6:30 in the morning to get kids off to school, and you're gone in the evening when they need to do homework with you. Some people can do it with ease and grace. Not me. It involves a tremendous amount of time and energy and commitment, and you're not well-paid—everything like that isn't good. What is good is the sheer pleasure of the work. But when you have kids, they're most important.
Did you foresee returning with a vengeance after your children were grown?
It's something I'm happy about. But did I envision it? I don't know. I don't think about the future like that.
What do you enjoy about stage acting?
Just about everything. I enjoy the high stakes, I enjoy the high energy, and I love that you're telling the whole story from beginning to end. It's a challenge in every way, and that's exciting. The bar is high.
Does the theater scene seem different than it did when you were starting out in the early '70s?
The fact that it's star-based now is different—they have trouble getting an audience without names. The ticket prices are insane, but they were relatively high even then. The theater [scene] wasn't as rich then; there are a lot more interesting plays off-Broadway now.
You had a five-year run as one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. When you scaled back your career, was it easy for you to give up the hot scripts and the level of fame that went along with being a movie star?
Well, these things happen slowly. Life evolves. I didn't look at it that way. I just got interested in other things, and people [in the movie business] got interested in other people. It all worked out.
You should have won the Oscar for An Unmarried Woman. Have you seen it recently?
No, I haven't. That's very sweet of you to say.
That movie is like a time capsule of New York in the late '70s.
I bet, particularly the way Soho has changed. When I think of the loft I didn't buy, I could just vomit. [Laughs] Oh well, coulda, shoulda woulda.
Isn't that fun? I couldn't have gone anyway because it was the night of our first invited preview.
Somehow I missed the beginning of Nip/Tuck. I should catch up on DVD.
Oh my God, it's fantastic! If you can bear being riveted for hours, it's worth it; it is a wonderful show. I also did a movie, Running With Scissors, with the man who created it, Ryan Murphy.
It's ironic that you played a plastic surgery patient on Nip/Tuck when you're one of the few actresses who haven't had plastic surgery!
Well, you never know who has done what! [Laughs]
Most of the time it's obvious, especially with people who claim they've done nothing.
The Botox people? That is not my favorite look.
Let's talk your talented daughter, Lily Rabe. I just saw her doing a British accent as Judith Light's daughter in Colder Than Here.
She's fantastic in a difficult part. I got to see her in a tech dress [rehearsal], but I haven't seen the play since it's gotten its legs. She's a wonderful actress.
She stole the show in Steel Magnolias.
Yes she did. I didn't encourage her to do the child acting thing. I don't think anyone needs to be encouraged to be an actress—if you're going to be, you're going to figure it out for yourself, and it's not a particularly good thing unless it's what you have to do. You have to face all the difficulties, which are numerous. As a child, she was interested in ballet, and toward the middle of high school, she dropped that and did some acting that she found satisfying. Then she went to Northwestern and got involved in the theater department. And so far, she's done very, very well for herself.
You must be proud that she finished college, too.
I am proud of that. I think it served her well both as an actress and as a person.
I understand that the two of you have worked together onstage several times.
We originated two plays in Gloucester, Massachusetts, at a theater run by the playwright Israel Horovitz. One of the plays was by him and one was by Frank Pugliese. The summer after 9/11, they each wrote a play for us. One had an amazing part in it for Lily, and we had such an easy and good time working together.
You could separate the mother-daughter relationship from the co-star relationship?
It was all one and the same. It's actually sort of mysterious how well it worked out. I don't quite understand it, but it just did.
How did you meet your husband, playwright David Rabe?
When I was younger, I was always auditioning for his plays in New York because I thought he was a great writer. So I had met him, but he was sitting there judging my acting and he was married then. When I moved to California, he got in touch with me because he wanted to do a movie of one of his plays. And then we started going out.
I did In the Boom Boom Room a long time ago in Long Beach, California.
Did your kids grow up knowing that Mom was a movie star and Dad was one of America's great contemporary playwrights?
It certainly wasn't the focus of our life during the time they were growing up. The focus was them—their soccer and their ballet, their school and their friends. We were pretty involved and excited by all of that.
Do you think your son, Michael, will go into show business?
I have no idea. He's taking an acting class in college this year, but he's also an athlete. He loves sports; he's a regular boy. My stepson [Jason Rabe] is a wonderful musician who has his own band in Los Angeles. He's been playing and writing for a while now.
After Barefoot in the Park, are there other plays you'd like to do?
I'd love to do All My Sons again, which I did with Doug Hughes in Westport. I'd just like to keep working.
Meanwhile, last season's revival of your husband's play Hurlyburly got great reviews. This is a good time for the whole Rabe family, huh?
Yeah, it's our 15 minutes!
See Jill Clayburgh in A Naked Girl on the Appian Way at the American Airlines Theatre, 227 West 42nd Street. Click for tickets and more information.