LGBTQ Champion Judith Light on Receiving Her Special Tony Award, Mastering Her Red Carpet A-Game & More on Show People

Judith Light is hailed for her onscreen triumphs in One Life to Live, Who's the Boss?, Transparent and more, her strong red carpet looks and her Tony-winning performances in Other Desert Cities and The Assembled Parties. On June 9, she will receive her third Tony Award; not for her talent as a performer, but for her support of the LGBTQ community and her work to end HIV/AIDS. Light is the recipient of the 2019 Isabelle Stevenson Award, which pays tribute to a member of the theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations. She stopped by Show People with Paul Wontorek to discuss the honor, her red carpet A-game and what motivates her to use her fame for the greater good.

1. WHY SHE ALWAYS WORKS IT ON THE RED CARPET
“I love it, and I’ll tell you what I love about it. I have a brilliant stylist, and I know how hard he works. Fashion is an art. I’m just putting clothes on to demonstrate their art. When somebody asks, ‘Who are you wearing?’ the question goes deeper: What thought went into this? What is it representing? There are so many other components to it that I find fascinating. There’s a psychology and an art and an excitement to it.”

2. ELIZABETH TAYLOR WAS A HUGE INSPIRATION
“I always knew as I was growing up that if I ever was to receive any kind of notoriety, any kind of celebrity, I wanted to use it as a platform to be able to speak out. People wrote me when I did The Ryan White Story, and they said, ‘We’ll never watch you again.’ I was like, ‘I see what the world is. I see how it could be perceived in a whole other way.’ People said to me, ‘You know you’re going to ruin your career if you do this advocacy.’ I said, ‘No I won’t. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Anyway, it’s not going to stop me.’ You take inspiration from people like Elizabeth Taylor. She said, ‘Look, Rock Hudson’s my friend.’ She goes to Congress. I take a page from her heart and who she was.”

3. SHE'S DETERMINED TO BRING 'THE BEST TO EVERY INTERACTION'
“[I trust] the idea that life can work. I didn’t always come from that place. It wasn’t always true for me. I have had to really work on it. I’ve spent a lot of time in therapy and really looking at who I was and who I really wanted to be. So when people reflect back to me that I have meant something to them, it gives me the guidepost that I’m in the place that I have so longed to be. It tells me that they’re seeing something that also is in them. That delights me. I know that we all have the capacity to bring the best of everything to every interaction that we have. When I do that, it is illuminating for me and my heart and my soul.”

Other must-read highlights:

ON WHAT SPARKED HER HIV/AIDS ACTIVISM
“I saw that somebody that I had just been at the O’Neill Playwrights foundation with had passed away. He was so young. I thought, ‘Well that’s odd.’ And then all of a sudden, I began to hear about all of these people that I had been in repertory theater with—people that I knew were gay. Those were the days reading about it, and the CDC didn’t know what was happening. I was devastated by hearing what was happening and having no information at all. These really young men in our theater community—we were losing a generation. We’ve lost a generation of great talent and creativity. I thought, ‘This can’t be happening.’ No one seemed to know what to do. My friends were dying. I kept looking for what the key was: what was keeping this locked in place? And it was homophobia. It still is.”

ON TAKING ON WIT
“I had been doing a lot of speaking around the country for LGBTQ+ organizations. I was talking about the community and saying, ‘Your courage inspires me.’ I had the opportunity to audition for a play that Jonathan Tolins wrote. It was a play called If Memory Serves. It was about an aging sitcom star. The girl wasn’t having any of that! I was too frightened to go in and audition for it. That’s the truth of it. I said, ‘Wait a minute. I’m telling all of these people in the community how inspired I am by their bravery and their courage. I’m talking the talk. I’m not walking the walk.’ I said to my manager at the time, ‘The next play I have an audition for, I’ll go up for it.’ Well, it was Wit. It changed everything.”

ON AMPING UP HER WHO'S THE BOSS? WARDROBE
“I remember when we were first starting Who's the Boss?, I said to [creators Blake Hunter and Marty Cohan], 'Look, if you have this woman who's on Madison Avenue and in the advertizing business, you've got to have great clothes on her. You've just got to.' They said, 'Well, we don't know if we have the budget.' I said, 'Come to a luncheon.' I threw them a fashion show luncheon: a champagne luncheon in one of the big dressing rooms on the lot. The costume designer and I pulled all of these fabulous clothes. I modelled for them at this luncheon. I said, 'I am telling you that people will tune in to see not only this adorable, charming, amazing show, but they will tune in to see what we're wearing.' Indeed, they did. They said, 'Oh yes, that's how we want Angela to look!' I said, 'Well then you have to go get the money.' And they did.”

ON RECEIVING THE ISABELLE STEVENSON AWARD
“I’m quite astonished. This is beyond my wildest dreams. I’m so proud to be a part of this community. We are a shining example of how to be as a human being. There’s this kind of willingness and awareness. That’s who Isabelle Stevenson was.”

Watch the full episode of Show People with Paul Wontorek below!

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