Kathleen Turner on Acting by Kathleen Turner

Author:Kathleen Turner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510735484
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2018-09-10T16:00:00+00:00

READING REVIEWS

DUSTIN MORROW Do you always read your reviews?

KATHLEEN TURNER Always. I always read my reviews. Any actor who says they don’t is probably lying. If you don’t read them ­somebody’s going to quote them to you anyway. And I’m thin-skinned—bad reviews sting. But I have a mutual respect with critics, after thirty-­odd years having them evaluate my work.

D.M. Do you remember your first review?

K.T. I can’t remember my first stage review, but I sure remember my first film review. She really ripped me. It was quite an introduction to reading one’s reviews.

D.M. What was that?

K.T. Janet Maslin, for The New York Times.

D.M. Reviewing Body Heat?

K.T. Yes.

D.M. Do you still remember what she wrote?

K.T. I don’t remember the exact wording, but it was something to the effect of, “Mr. Kasdan demonstrates enough talent to breathe life into certain sections of the movie, particularly those parts that don’t involve Miss Turner.”

D.M. Ouch.

K.T. All of the other reviews were great, so it was fine, but it just so happened that the only really negative one was the first one I read. For a brief moment, I thought it was all over.

D.M. That had to be demoralizing.

K.T. No kidding. For about five minutes I thought my film career was done. But no art is universal. Any kind of art is going to be very personal, and its reception will always be subjective. You’re never going to appeal to everyone.

D.M. Do you find that your performances are ever affected by critics? Is there anything positive you can do with a review?

K.T. Not usually. But not because I’m one of those actors who is stridently anti-critic. It’s just that the reviews tend to be too general. Rare is the review that will pick out a specific moment in a play and provide feedback detailed enough to be useful. And it’s probably good that they are so general. Even praise, if it’s hyper-specific, can be problematic. It makes me a little crazy when someone says, “You know, I loved exactly how you said that one line tonight.” Because you find yourself in that spot in the show the next night, and you’re distracted into thinking, “Wait, how did I do it last night?” It takes you out of the moment. So don’t give me a specific compliment, because I might get hung up on that place for days.

D.M. This is probably a tough question for you to answer, because you got so famous so quickly, at such a young age, but do you think critics have gotten easier on you as you’ve grown professionally in stature, or is it maybe the other way around?

K.T. Well, I don’t exactly think I get a pass, but I’ve certainly reached a point in my career where most people will assume that I will be able to perform well with any role I take. When I came back to Broadway after doing a lot of big film roles, to do Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, there was an element of, “Oh yeah, Ms.

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