Mare Winningham
There's a good reason Mare Winningham is able to convincingly play six very different women in the Atlantic Theater Company's new musical Ten Million Miles—she has a wide range of experiences from her own eclectic life and career to tap into. The 48-year-old actress' personal journey includes attending high school with Kevin Spacey, having four kids beginning in her early 20s, a stint with the Brat Pack St. Elmo's Fire, an Oscar nomination Georgia, two Emmy Awards Amber Waves, George Wallace, three CDs as a singer/songwriter, memorable guest appearances on hit TV shows Grey's Anatomy, ER and a midlife turn to religion. Now she can add an off-Broadway musical to the list. Set to songs by folk artist Patty Griffin, with a book by Keith Bunin, 10 Million Miles follows a young couple named Duane Matthew Morrison and Molly Irene Molloy on a not-so-smooth road trip up the East Coast. Along the way, they encounter Winningham as an elderly factory worker, a worn down mother and an inebriated bride-to-be, among other roles. Though she appears onstage sporadically, Winningham manages—sometimes with just a few lines of dialogue—to imbue her characters with a rich inner life that makes them fully realized creations. During previews, the native Los Angeleno took time to chat about her New York stage debut and the winding path she took to get here.
You've done just about everything—stage, film, television, music. What made you decide now was the time to do a musical?
My youngest kid went to college [laughs]. Since I was a young girl, I've wanted to do a play in New York, but it just wasn't possible with the family. It was actually really calculated, though. When I was 21, I added up how old I would be when I had the last one, because I had them all very close together, and I thought, "Oh, I'll be a ripe middle-aged women; it might be right to go to New York and do a play." [Laughs.] It felt like a little shining star when I got the call about the audition because it was right on cue. The 18-year-old goes to college, and six months later Mom gets the chance to do a show.
Were you familiar with the Atlantic Theater before you got the call to audition?
I'm friends with Felicity Huffman and [Atlantic co-founder] Bill Macy, so I had met a lot of the Atlantic people at a birthday of Felicity's. I had seen some shows there, and it seemed like a real actor-y company. I love their choices. If I had made a wish list, it would have been to do a play in New York as soon as the kids grew up, have it be at the Atlantic—and why not have it be a musical with Patty Griffin songs?
I was. I came to her the way I think a lot of people do, which is that I'm a big Emmylou Harris fan and Emmylou records a lot of Patty's songs. Patty's voice is just magnificent, but also there are incredible stories in every song. She can be a homeless guy pacing on a street or an old factory worker making pies or somebody broken or somebody determined, but there's always a central character singing the song. They're unforgettable when you hear them in concert. I wonder if [book writer] Keith [Bunin] had that same experience, of going to her shows and getting swept into her world.
Have you gotten to meet her while working on the show?
Yes. When we met her, it was a little silly; everyone was so in awe of her. We had been working on the songs for a month, and the more you work on them the more you discover they are mysteriously powerful. By the time she showed up at rehearsal, nobody really knew what to say. [Director] Michael [Mayer] was very funny that day. He's a funny guy anyway, but he was hysterical that day; he broke the ice and made her laugh. It went really well. The following night we all went to see her at The Beacon, which was amazing. It was another great perk of this whole thing.
You've done plays before, but never a musical. How are you finding the experience?
I didn't know that you get a month of previews! I didn't know that there were six weeks of rehearsal, and that the first previews are like you're trying it out, like you're in Cincinnati or something. Huge changes took place during previews, all for the better. I mean, major rewrites. And that is apparently what they expect. The audience informs you; it becomes this play between the songs and the show and the audience.
Are you finding that process rewarding?
Very. And it's making me feel like I was a little bit of a Negative Nellie at first, because I just didn't know what was in store. They [Mayer and Bunin] knew that's how you find out where to push and where to pull back. I learned a big lesson. I think back to the phone calls I made home during the first week of previews that were like, "Well, we're doing our best." Now I think there is a real show there.
Does doing that kind of work bond you as a cast?
That actually happened pretty early. Most of the first week was just the music director and the four of us [Winningham and co-stars Morrison, Molloy, and Skipp Sudduth]. It was a very nice way to start, because we all love singing, and we were sitting around learning harmonies. It was built-in fun, like a campfire! We laughed all day. I look back on that as my favorite week—not that it's been downhill, but that we could bond like that.
The four of you have had very different career experiences.
Yeah! Very different, for all four of us having an affinity for folk rock stuff—although I'm sure Matt and Irene's voices would be good anywhere. Skipp and I are pretty stalwart folkies. I don't know how I would fit into a "normal" musical, vocally. There might be some shows that would work, but it's not a shoo-in like it is for Irene and Matt. They have a gift that is just unbelievable.
There's an authenticity that you all bring to the music.
I felt like the four of us were very good for this material. And, you know, not everybody is. Folk music is so simple, your mind could play a trick and say, "That's easy. Anybody could do that." But that's not always the case, so I do flatter us that way.
You play six characters in the show. What was it like developing those women?
Pure pleasure. Nothing is more fun that that. Of course there's always that time in rehearsal where you haven't quite figured it out yet and somebody's voice comes out of the other one. There's that embarrassing thing of, "Was I just Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies?" At one point Keith was like, "Hey, Glinda the Good Witch just came out." All I could say was, "I know. Where did she come from?" [Laughs.]
What was your inspiration for the character of the drunken newlywed Lois, and your hysterical drunk scene?
I definitely have someone in mind that I modeled her after. It had nothing to do with drinking, but there's some physical things I was checking out. She's on television every day, so somebody should be able to figure out who I'm doing. But I'm never gonna tell!
I actually found the most interesting character, and the hardest one, to be the mom [of Duane, played by Matthew Morrison]. That scene is like a vortex—something different happens every night, something deeply painful. It gets me every time that he spent his childhood with a dad who was physically abusive and a mom who just took it. The person who pretends that nothing happened is the one who slaughters me. That scene has changed a lot. It's come to me slower, in waves, and more like "Wow, look at that line." I didn't get it right off the bat.
So, you're working at the Atlantic with Michael Mayer and Tom Hulce as producer. Is there pressure for 10 Million Miles to break out in the way Spring Awakening did?
I hope not. I'm sure they must feel it, but they're not loading it onto us. It reminds me of music people who release their sophomore effort when the first one sold a gazillion copies. Neil Pepe, the artistic director of the Atlantic, pointed out that before Spring Awakening, they had never done a musical, and they chose it the same way they choose other material: This is new; this is innovative; this needs a chance.
I know you're from Northridge, California, and you went to high school with Kevin Spacey…
Yes! Kevin and I are supposed to have a dinner sometime this week.
Have you kept in touch since high school?
In the most sporadic way. But it's high school, so when we see each other, it really doesn't matter if five years have passed—and it's the same with [former classmate] Val Kilmer. We are the same people. It's sweet in a way. The older we get, the more wonderful it seems that we have that. I'm so impressed with what Kevin is doing at the Old Vic [in London, where Spacey is artistic director]. In a funny way you could have called it back then. He was such a serious actor, and so good. Whenever we would go to the Shakespeare festivals I would always do the comedies, and he was always doing Lear or Othello or Macbeth. And he always won! It was the Valley, but here he was, this trained actor. He seemed destined to grow up and take over the Old Vic. It's wild.
Let's talk about your music. You call the style of your new CD, Rock Refuge Sublime, country/folk/Jewish/bluegrass…
[Laughs] Right? What's up with that?
Are you creating your own genre?
Yes! I was in Arkansas about a year ago making a movie, and I met all of these bluegrass musicians. That's the stuff I love to sing. It's just that all gospel music is Jesus based, and I recently converted to Judaism, so I was a little bereft that I couldn't sing my little gospel tunes anymore. This one fellow I met said, "I would love to produce you." I said, "I'd love to do some old Israeli folk songs and some songs in Hebrew, but I'd love for them to have the country/bluegrass flavor." And he said, "Oh yeah, this is totally up my alley." So I went back to Arkansas and we recorded the whole CD in one day. Of all the recording I've done, this was by far the most genuine for my voice.
What kind of audience are you trying to reach with this recording?
I was originally envisioning it as a synagogue show. I get asked a lot to speak at synagogues, and I don't feel like speaking is something I'm very good at. But I did a couple of nights at a club in Los Angeles and found it's not just for a Jewish audience. Even though they are songs for God, it felt accessible. It's funny where the record is getting played. Apparently I'm big in El Paso, Texas! I've found that, especially in big cities, there is a lot of anti-religious sentiment. I'm willing to push that button [laughs].
You're pushing that button in New York at Joe's Pub.
On June 17. I'm very excited about it.
Your passion for Judaism is evident in your music. Do you find your spirituality influences your acting as well?
I hope so. My whole journey to Judaism is a really funny one, and it includes a proclamation of atheism. I felt very anti-religious and was resolutely secular, but something kept bothering me about that. I wanted to confirm [my feelings], so I thought, "I'm gonna go to school so I can talk about it in a more informed fashion." And then boom! [Laughs] Judaism a wonderful religion, with an emphasis on our behavior here, and what we do. It's very appealing to a little borderline atheist!
You reached a mass audience this past season as Meredith Grey's stepmother on Grey's Anatomy.
They killed me off!
There's been a lot of talk in the media about tension on the set. Did you feel that?
I didn't. I really spent very little time there, I'm sorry to say. I wish it had been more. You stick around longer if you're dysfunctional with Meredith. Once my character started getting kinda nice, I thought, "Ooh, I don't think I'm long for this world." That is a really talented group of people. Whenever you come into a show like that, they have their rhythms down and they know what they're doing. The train is on the track and you're just kinda stepping into their world.
I really hate it, and I'm Miss Grumpy about it. But I'm trying to change. I did TV movies for so many years, which felt mysteriously artistic to me [laughs]. They felt like little mini-movies; I couldn't distinguish between doing a TV movie and doing an indie film. But episodic television, I have always had a hate relationship with. The problem is they just aren't making TV movies anymore. Back in the '80s, you were either a television actor or a movie actor. I didn't get many films, but I kind of cornered the market on TV movies, because movie actresses wouldn't dare to stoop and do a TV movie. I got to play a lot of really great parts. But once Vanessa Redgrave did a TV movie, then more movie actors started doing TV and I was competing with the A-list. Things changed a lot.
You have done several well-known films, though, like St. Elmo's Fire…
Yeah, that seems to be the big one. I didn't know when we were making it that it would be big. I didn't even know afterwards. I didn't get it, because I was older. Most of the cast was in college, so that was their generation. I was 26 and pregnant with my third kid and didn't go to college. I didn't understand that the film tapped into that generation's college experience. People stop me all the time and tell me what that movie meant to them—kids that were in college at that time, and actually, it's having a little renaissance now. People are watching it again.
What about Georgia, for which you were nominated for an Academy Award?
I loved Georgia. People either love it or they hate it. That was sort of a career highlight for me, and I knew it at the time. The funny thing is I didn't even want to do it, because I had a CD coming out and I was afraid of playing a quote-unquote famous singer while I was trying to be this little upstart singer. Thank god someone knocked some sense into me.
And now you're singing Patty Griffin songs off-Broadway. How do you like living in New York?
I want to move here! I really did think I would live here at some point in my life, I just had no idea I would be almost 50 [laughs]. I could completely see myself moving here. When I've been here in the past I've usually been shooting, so I always felt like I was green off the apple cart.
You were the person who stopped in the middle of the street to look up at the buildings?
I was that person! But this has been a really great two months, because I've settled in. I'm in this little dinky sublet in Chelsea, and I love it there. I think I'm authentic now.
See Mare Winningham in Ten Million Miles at the Atlantic Theater Company.