Quotable Quotes: Chatting with the Illustrious Cast of On Golden Pond
WHERE: New 42nd Street Studios
WHEN: Monday, March 7, 2005
"I feel alive about it. I look forward to being there, to doing something there. But that's about as far as it goes. I can't say I'm thrilled about it, or I'm scared about it." -James Earl Jones on bringing the play to Broadway
"The truth is, playwrights never know anything. We just try to write about the human experience as we know it." -Playwright Ernest Thompson
"It's been absolutely a dream. It's been fabulous." -Director Leonard Foglia on working on this production.
"It's a different animal. It's a really different experience. The characters are the same, but the journey they go on is a little bit different." -Linda Powell on how the play differs from the movie
"Why not? Why not a black production? Because ultimately, the themes don't discriminate." -Playwright Ernest Thompson
"Its funny how things work in your life. This kind of fell out of the sky, and it was a beautiful gift. A beautiful gift." -Leslie Uggams on being cast in On Golden Pond
"He doesn't play it for the laughs, and yet it's the funniest production that I've ever seen because he just tells the truth. He just puts it right out there." -Playwright Ernest Thompson on James Earl Jones' performance in the play
"We slipped right into it. There was nothing that felt false. There was nothing that felt like, 'Oh, we've got to change this, we got to switch this,' which I think is a testament to Ernest's play. They're universal themes." -Linda Powell
"It pleases me that we've all aged so gracefully, the characters and I. But this play, this production, I think is everything that I hoped On Golden Pond would be when I wrote it." -Playwright Ernest Thompson on the play he wrote 27 years ago
"It's wonderfully funny, and that's very surprising to me. It jumps off the page in a completely different way. The characters are much more alive than you think." -Peter Francis James, who plays Bill Ray, on how the play is different than the movie
"Funny. This is very funny." -Leslie Uggams on her reaction to On Golden Pond
"That they had a pond in that one." -Alexander Mitchell on the difference between the movie and the play
"Everybody thinks they know him? They don't know him. He's a lot sillier than people expect and he's an incredibly gentle and generous human being and an amazing presence to stand with on stage." -Linda Powell on co-star James Earl Jones
"The magnitude of James Earl Jones taking on my little character in my little play signifies that it's not my play anymore. It's sort of gone out into the universe and become a universal piece for everybody." -Playwright Ernest Thompson
"He's coming back after 15 years and being able to take that journey with him is a thrill. There aren't too many greats left." -Director Leonard Foglia on James Earl Jones returning to Broadway
"He's delicious. He's very giving. He makes you raise the bar and I love that when I work with someone. You always strive to be up here and he's always up there, so he makes us all up there." -Leslie Uggams on James Earl Jones
"What you see is what you get with Leslie Uggams. She really is that nice, she really is that present and kind and generous and thoughtful." -Playwright Ernest Thompson
"It's rare when you get a company which feels so beautiful together." -Peter Francis James
"He's awesome. He's so humble. He's just great."-Alexander Mitchell on James Earl Jones
"I didn't know she could do what she does." -James Earl Jones on Leslie Uggams
"She's got all of the tools that you need to play a part like this and yet there's a simplicity and economy to her acting." -PlaywrightErnest Thompson on Leslie Uggams' performance in the play
"They're both incredibly wonderful actors and wonderful people as well, which is always a nice plus." -Linda Powell on cast members James Earl Jones and Leslie Uggams who play her parents
"She walks on stage and you just realize she's not afraid to laugh at herself, and she's able to put up with this prick of a guy that she's been married to for 48 years." -Ernest Thompson on Leslie Uggams' performance
"He helps to define the play geographically. We are geography. We are climate, we are seasons, and I thought it was necessary to have a white guy playing that role." -James Earl Jones on the mailman character
"Black folks get old. Black folks get mad at each other. Black folks do have summer houses on the lake. So, it's nice to be able to explore all these things." -Linda Powell
"I have a lot of work to do, and I hope I never quite grasp it all because there's always something to explore." -James Earl Jones on getting to know his character, Norman Thayer
"It works because this is a play that is about human beings who age. We all age, I don't care what nationality you are. It's about aging, its about change, environmentally, physically." Leslie Uggams
"She's at a moment in her life where she's either going to become bitter, or she's going to get over herself and move on." -Linda Powell on her character Chelsea
"He sort of gets normal a little bit so he's not California anymore. He's more Maine so he knows how to act in front of people now. So there's a sort of transition like, really California to Maine." -Alexander Mitchell on his character Billy Ray
"I'm still trying to understand him. Every character is a mystery. I think the daughter is the biggest mystery." -James Earl Jones
"It's amazing what you learn about yourself when your back is up against the wall." -Leslie Uggams on her experience watching other cast members perform
"To cherish it because in the show, they don't see their daughter for like eight or five years or something like that and to not be connected for that long sort of tears you apart a little bit, so always cherish your family." -Alexander Mitchell on what he thinks the play is trying to convey to audiences
"I really think I sat down to write about the end of an era. About a passing time and those characters, Norman and Ethel, really were symbols of that." -PlaywrightErnest Thompson on his inspiration to write the play
"I don't think it's a comedy no matter how many laughs we might get. Our director who has wisely said, 'Don't play it for the laughs. Play it for the depth so every person means what he says.' And to mean what you say, means you've got to go real deep. We're still digging." -James Earl Jones
Interviews by Paul Wontorek
Compiled by Grace Hernandez