Kate Mulgrew today: toneelspeelster!
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Kate Mulgrew today: toneelspeelster!
Al dat geklaag over haar rol als Captain Janeway in Star Trek Voyager. Bah, soms lijkt het wel of het allemaal Kate Mulgrew's schuld is, terwijl het de producers en scriptschrijvers aangerekend moet worden.
Maar Kate Mulgrew zit zeker niet stil. Momenteel speelt ze haar rol als Katherine Hepburn met verve in de 'one man' toneelvoorstelling 'Tea At Five'. De one man voorstelling is inmiddels een groot succes, en heeft al verschillende awards gekregen.
In het interview hieronder schrijft ze openlijk over de drukte van deze toneelvoorstelling, de mislukte verkiezingscampagne van haar man Tim Hagan voor senator in Ohio, haar dodelijk zieke moeder, en natuurlijk veel insight in de voorstelling 'Tea At Five':
<<< Tuesday (August 30) was opening night for the Southern California run of "Tea at Five," Kate Mulgrew's award-winning one-woman play in which she portrays screen legend Katharine Hepburn. This is the ninth venue of the stage production in three years, but this is the first one so close to "the biz." Hence, many of Mulgrew's Hollywood friends, in the Star Trek world and beyond, were in attendance at the Pasadena Playhouse Tuesday night. They included Voyager guest stars John de Lancie ("Q"), Harry Groener ("Sacred Ground," etc.), and Sharon Lawrence ("The 37's"), along with executive producer Rick Berman. Other famous faces spotted there included Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), Jack Klugman, Jo Anne Worley and Martin Mull. Mulgrew's ex-boss Kerry McCluggage, former head of Paramount Television and currently chairman of the theatre's board of the directors, was also there, as was John Wentworth, executive vice-president of communications for Paramount TV.
"Tea at Five" will run through October 2 at the Pasadena Playhouse, the state theatre of California. (For those who've been to the Grand Slam convention held each spring, the Playhouse is a mere four blocks east of the Pasadena Convention Center.) Discount tickets are available to STARTREK.COM readers for the next two weekends; see details on this page.
We had an opportunity to sit down and chat with Mulgrew prior to the opening. We met with her in the Playhouse library, upstairs from the theatre, and she spoke very openly about the woman in whose life she has immersed herself so thoroughly, as well as her own. In fact, she was quite candid at times about some of the things going on in her private life. The following is the conversation that transpired.
Q: What do you consider home right now?
Kate Mulgrew: New York City is my home. My husband actually lives in Cleveland, he's a public official. So we do a lot of back and forth. But I'm based in New York.
Q: Do you still have a home here in L.A.?
KM: No, I sold it when the series was over. I'm staying in an apartment here, which is just fine. I'm here for six weeks, and then I go back to New York.
Q: You mentioned at the Las Vegas convention that you were thinking of taking this play to London.
KM: Yeah, London seems to be in the works right now. That would be in the Spring of '06. It's not definite yet, but I think it'll happen.
Q: Why don't we start with some background. How did this show come about?
KM: This play was written for me about three years ago by Matthew Lombardo. And serendipitously enough, we had a mutual friend who acted as the liaison. Her name was Nancy Addison, she was my great friend — she's since died. [Nancy Addison was a soap actress who died of cancer in 2002; the production is dedicated to her.] And they were watching an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, and he just said, "That actress should play Katharine Hepburn." And she said, "That actress is my best friend. You write it and I'll get it to her." And he did write it, he wrote it in three days. I read it in my dressing room at Paramount, and I thought two things: Would it be possible to do this with any kind of integrity, since she was such a huge personality? And then I thought: Well, it could be absolutely perfect as a segue out of television and back to the theatre, which I had been so longing to do anyway. My intention was never to go from the fire pan into the fire — a one-person show based on the life of a fascinating woman? I said, "Sure, let's try it."
Q: What kind of research did you do to prepare for the part? Did you watch certain films, interviews ...?
KM: I looked at everything. There is no piece of documentation that I have not seen. My research was exhaustive. And happily I was in Hartford, Connecticut, her birthplace, at the time, so the library was particularly verdant — a feast of information. I've seen all of her films, all of her documentaries, all the documentaries about her and about Spencer Tracy. And I read all the literature, every book, every biography, every autobiography, and every ancillary biography.
Q: How much time did you spend with this research?
KM: Weeks. Still do it.
A woman defined by sorrow
Q: What were some of the observations you had about Hepburn that you were able to incorporate into your performance?
KM: Well, they're endless. I go to the text first. And when we were watching her in her movies and reading carefully about her life, I would find what I think would be the pulse of her nature. In this case, it would be vulnerability, which I thought was the guiding light in Act 1. And in Act 2, the vulnerability enhanced by sorrow, which allows for her extraordinary, I think, revelations, and self-deprecation. She's very self-deprecating in Act 2, as she was as an older woman. Her humor was turned upon herself in a very honest and witty way. She forgave herself by the end and she was no longer showing off. In Act 1 when she was 31, she still is showing off. She's still very much a movie star. And desperate, really, on the most fundamental level that perhaps she will no longer be sought after in Hollywood — she'd just been labeled "box office poison," and she's come home to Fenwick, which she did very often throughout her life. It was her touchstone; her family was everything to her. She started quite young to protect herself and her personal life. And in so doing, she was masterful, because it was that very ardent discretion that made her so compelling to the public. Because she was a conflicted person whose conflict worked for everybody. And I think that's why she was so intriguing.
So, in Act 1 I try to extract the vulnerability from the very driven young Kate. Very much on a mission, still very much informed and defined by her parents. Not about to disappoint her father — which would be unacceptable to the young Kate on the heels of her brother's suicide — she made up her mind to be everything her brother would've been, plus everything she could be. And in the Hepburn family, greatness was the order of the day. So she couldn't just be an actress, she had to be a great one. She had to be a great star. The Hepburns were not in any way intrigued by Hollywood — they disdained it. They were intellectuals and they were political activists, and they were iconoclastic in their own right. And terribly smart; unconventional, unorthodox in their thinking, which shaped her. And so for Hepburn to win their approval meant that she had to be really quite disciplined at the craft. And you'll note, even after her parents died, that she never let go of that for one second. She always went back to the theatre, she always went back to what frightened her, she always went back to what really challenged her. The movies were her gravy. She was magical, easily magical, and the camera just adored her, as it does some people. But she felt that she had to brace herself on the stage. An audience would not necessarily wrap their arms around her. She had a very angular approach, in every way, both aesthetically and intrinsically.
A lot of bizarre parallels
So it's the life of a woman who was defined by sorrow very early in her life. And I understand that. So was I. A lot of bizarre parallels. I'm from a very large Irish-Catholic family; she's from a large family. I'm the oldest girl, she's the oldest girl. Her older brother was Tom, my older brother was Tom. He [Hepburn's brother] died, two of my sisters died, we were both the same age when it happened. And much was expected of us — I just took a different path, in terms of what I was prepared to sacrifice or not sacrifice. And my personal life was not one of the things I was willing to sacrifice.
Q: I believe she married once, briefly, but she never had children.
KM: She didn't want children. Or she said she didn't want them. She said she couldn't have both. And I guess if you want to have a career like that, you can't. But it certainly wasn't going to be my choice, since I know that we die, and there are other things, in my opinion, to live for. But, she made her choice, she was very clear about it, and she stood by it.
She had regrets about Luddie [Ludlow Ogden Smith, her husband of six years]. She loved her husband; he was very good to her. I think she regretted that she hurt him. That's the only regret she admitted to.
Q: With this show you're on the road for weeks or months at a time. How does that affect your personal life?
KM: It's hard. I do love my husband and family. I turned 50 in April, and something shifted. I wouldn't even know how to articulate it, to tell you the truth, except to say that I'm very aware that most of my life, now, has been lived. And I really don't want to screw around. I've been acting all my life, 35 years. So what?
Q: You can say, though, that you have taken your gift and shared it with others, right?
KM: I hope. But I'm now looking beyond that, as I stagger to my grave. I think I would like to have said other things as well, and explored other things as well. And time's moving very quickly. This is still very satisfying. But it gets harder. It gets harder. Because I feel that I am pulled. I want to spend more time with the people that I love. And I love solitude — I find myself more and more drawn to it. I suppose I always have been. I want to read, I want to think, I'd like to leave not a footprint on the sand. I say that, and then, you know, in a few months it changes — but I don't think so. My parents, they're dying — my father's dead, mom's on her way out. What's it all about? That's the question. Take the real risks. Who do I love — do I really? How well do I love them? How do I know that I love them? I've been so busy doing this, you know? And what does it mean? I don't get it anymore, as well as I used to get it.
Q: Maybe the more you know, you more you realize you don't know.
KM: That's it. And tremendous longings — unbearable longings, heartbreaking — that I never had when I was young. I was the breadwinner; I've been a man all my life. I'd like to just relax, I think. Which I did this summer with my son, and that's why you're sensing in me a kind of self-reflection. I've just come back from Ireland; we were alone in a very primitive place, the Beara Peninsula. I've been there many times, but with him it was just great. Spent five weeks. We went to write. Tiny little cottage, half the size of this room. On the most beautiful peninsula. I turned 50, and he turned 21, and it was mystical.
Q: Do you feel a particular connection to Ireland or the people there?
You know, I love Ireland, and I love the Irish, and I am Irish-American. They're a complicated, conflicted people, full of unresolved feelings. And I adore them. But I'm really an Anglophile. To me the English are the ones who've changed the world, and continue to do so. If I had to live somewhere out there, I think it might be England.
Q: If you do take the show to London, how long would you stay?
KM: It would be 8-12 weeks. We're looking at the Duke of York's [Theatre]. The producer's got three on his list, but the Duke of York would be everybody's first pick. The West End. It's a beautiful theatre, I've been in there. So I look forward to that. But we're just in the nascent stages.
"Who talks like that?"
Q: It should be a huge hit there.
KM: And they loved [Hepburn] there. She went over to do "The Millionairess" [on stage in the 1950s], which by all accounts was just outrageous, she was just all over the place. London simply fell down. I mean, [going into Hepburn voice] "All that stuff she does, they thought it was great!" You know? Thought it was great! She exemplifies to them the Yankee grit that they have such a fascination for. [Hepburn voice] "Who talks like that?" She made it up! Her brothers and sisters don't talk like that, at all. "Only she talks like that." And she was very careful to do it, and very smart to do it. Because if you walk into Hollywood and you "talk like that in 1935, people are gonna listen to you." Right? She knew exactly what she was doing.
Q: Are you saying she was calculated?
KM: Totally calculated. And I know just how calculated she was. If she went half a pound over 118, she'd starve for a week. Brutal diet, she watched everything.
Q: Did she write an autobiography?
KM: Dreadful. It's called "Me." She writes like she talks — staccato.
Q: Was it revealing?
KM: No, of course not! It's misleading! You know, there's stuff about John Huston and Humphrey Bogart, and she has cute little stories about they survived Africa because they were drunk all the time, because booze killed the malaria. But she never talked about her brother [who committed suicide as a teen]. She never talks about the sacrifice of [Spencer] Tracy. You know, it's very interesting to determine to become so unique, to be considered a maverick, and to bring down the door of the Boy's Club, to do all of those unprecedented things in the '30s, and then to live with a married man for 27 years, and take that shit. She took plenty of shit.
Q: Did they literally live together?
KM: They didn't live together. They went home. He never told his wife anything. He wanted to protect his wife. Also, why would he divorce Louise to marry Hepburn when he was sleeping with Ingrid Bergman? He slept with every woman in Hollywood! When he wasn't drunk. He was very smart, he was very talented, he was a wonderful guy. But he didn't want his style cramped. He could compartmentalize, Tracy.
Their love affair — this is sheer conjecture on my part, because you cannot find documentation on this, at least not specifically — their romantic sexual love affair was very brief. A few years, maybe. Their friendship lasted 27 years. It was a romantic friendship, yes. But I think that she took care of him — that's what she did, that's what she wanted to do.
Q: Was she in love with him?
KM: Yes, she was in love with him, certainly initially. She loved him. I think he's the only man who ever understood her. That's why he could put her down and get away with it.
And when Tracy died, Hepburn was with him, and she called Louise. Louise came right away, looked at Hepburn and said, "I thought you were just a rumor." It's all in the play. >>>
vervolg interview:
<<< Walking delicately through the minefield of her life
Q: Is there anything in the play that could qualify as conjectural or controversial?
KM: When I say dangerous things on the stage, I have asked for three sources of verification. Only two of the things that I say could be considered dangerous, and I have sought three sources of verification on both counts, and I have found them. This satisfies me, regarding the question of honor. This is a tribute to a woman whose very complexity she overcame. I'm down there to honor her, so I've walked very delicately through the minefield of her life, so as not to say anything that would be sheer speculation. This is not an imitation, it's a realization. Which is why I'm still doing it. I think I'd be bored to tears if it were just an impersonation, I wouldn't be able to go on. You know? But I find something new about her every time. Like she did herself. She was ceaselessly fascinated with herself.
This is what makes it work for me. When a woman is alone to that extent, she is fueled in a way that those of us who are not alone are not. She needed her career. I can call my son. I can sit on my husband's lap. It's enough. It's more than enough. She must have been, towards the end, frantic with the loneliness. Do you know what I mean? Especially after Tracy died. So the sacrifice was huge. See, I find it very moving.
"I am trying ... to solve ... a puzzle!"
And you know what her last words were? Dina Merrill told me this. You know who Dina Merrill is? The great actress, she was married to Cliff Robertson, great beauty, and an heiress of some kind. She was a great friend of Hepburn's. And she came to see this play in New York. She came backstage and she said, "That was just uncanny — you're just like her." And I said, "Tell me something about her." She said, "Well, I went up six months ago to Fenwick to see her..." At the end of her life she was living in her bedroom, infirmed — she was 96 for heaven's sake — and she would just stare out the window for hours at the sea. So Dina was sitting in the room with her, and Hepburn's just staring out the window. Dina leaned forward and said, "Kate, Kate, it's Dina. I just wanted to come and tell you that I miss you, and is there anything I can do for you?" Hepburn turned from the window to her, and she went, "I am trying ... to solve ... a puzzle!" She went back to the sea. I said, "What do you think it was, Dina?" She said, "The meaning of her life. You can't be that smart and that talented and not get to the meaning of your life."
I think she was saying, "What kind of a life have I lived? Who's the real Kate? Did I give up too much?" Questions any thoughtful person asks. But so few of us are huge movie stars, right? They always said she was the most popular person in the world next to the pope. There's a reason for all that — it's the conflict. And I would suggest she never resolved it herself, which is why the camera would just suck it up. [Hepburn voice] "She could be talking like that in her films, and be 'Woman of the Year,' blah blah..." I see an almost translucent, terrible vulnerability, the deep fragility of her nature, right under the surface. The camera just went, "Oh, baby, you're for me." I don't know — now I'm spinning off into psychology, but that's what I think.
Q: How much has this informed your performance?
KM: You'll have to see it for yourself. I hope that all of it has. Otherwise I really just don't think I'd go on doing it. Which I didn't think it would be like — I'd play her, put her to bed, get on with it. But it has the most curious little legs in the world, doesn't it? The play just keeps going on. If she were just simply Kate Hepburn, it would have died. She was America's sweetheart, you know, in the way that [Joan] Crawford and Bette Davis and all the others never quite were. She was everything we love, everything we're proud of. When we talk about a movie star, and we want to put up as an example our best, it's always Hepburn. She was so different. She makes women proud, and she makes men proud. It's curious.
Q: You were doing the show in New York when Hepburn died. What kind of impact did that have?
KM: Well, you can imagine. I went on stage that night. The marquee was darkened, as they all were across Broadway. And I stood in the wings, with a full house, and I thought, "This is the final irony. I'm about to go out and do a realization of an actress who wanted to do nothing more than what I'm about to do, and can no longer do it because she's dead." So I went out and I did it, and when it was over, I said to the audience, "This was tough. Why don't we all just sit down for a minute and remember her. And remember that this is the place that she loved the most." You could have heard a pin drop in that theatre for three minutes. And then explosive applause, for her. Not a dry eye in the house. Great person. Hard to believe even now she's dead. A big stamp, you know? Not many people have that impact.
Q: Was she aware that the play was being done?
KM: Sure. Her family went to see it in Hartford [Connecticut, where the play premiered]. They didn't like it. They liked me, they didn't like the text. Why would they? They're so private!
Q: Were there ever any legal issues over the play?
KM: I suppose if it had been controversial enough from their point of view [the family] could have litigated, but they didn't. Therefore, I'm suggesting everything's on the line here. What's been transgressed, if you want to say that, is the Hepburn legacy of fierce, fierce, privacy. But I think that if she were watching herself, she would not be displeased. I really do.
Q: So even though the family doesn't necessarily approve of the play, you had no requirement to gain their permission?
KM: Not at all. She's public property. We would not have achieved it — they would have said no. I know that Katharine Houghton probably really wanted this, wanted to write the play herself, or screenplay or whatever it was, about her aunt. And we just beat her to the punch. So naturally the reaction she would have would be less than pleasant, right? I don't blame her. I don't blame her — it seems unfair. But, that's life.
Q: What did you think of Cate Blanchett's performance as Hepburn in "The Aviator"?
KM: Well, I'm a big fan of hers. Of that whole crop of young actresses, she's my favorite. But it was not a movie about Kate Hepburn. Then she would have had a chance to find it. As it was, she had to take some pretty broad strokes. And for my money, hat's off — always go with the broad stroke if you get 30 minutes of film time. But, it was about Howard Hughes! What a waste! Scorsese should have done Hepburn's life! I liked her in it. Listen, you know, you're asking an actress who's played her for three years on the stage to compare it with 30 minutes of film — she shot for a month. I've had the luxury of all this time.
Q: Do you address Howard Hughes in the play?
KM: We do. She's trying to break up with him when the curtain goes up. Which she did, of course. I think he was a gigantic bore. Just a stultifying narcissist. You can take the genius and flush it down the toilet, because who cares? He was so self-obsessed! She laughed at it, and she was looking at her clocks the whole time, wasn't she? I think she fancied it, like other elements of her life, as intriguing. But over the dinner table, not really.
Not as busy as Patrick Stewart, but don't want to be
Q: Besides this play, what else can we look forward to seeing you in?
KM: The question should be: Who are you? You know, the problem with actors is that we're always defined by what we're doing, and what we're doing next. Are we still popular, are we still working, are we still sought after? Well, you know, I'm not as busy as Patrick Stewart! And I don't think I want to be. I'd like to play Cleopatra, and I will play Cleopatra next year, in New York. And I'll take this thing to London. And I want to do a new play called "Rich Women" by Eduardo Machado, who's a great friend of mine and a wonderful Cuban-American playwright, so I think we'll take that to the Humana Festival. So I'm doing a lot of theatre. And I need to spend a lot of time with my husband — he had a massive coronary last year.
Q: Is Tim still interested in politics? [Tim Hagan, her husband, ran for governor of Ohio in 2002, losing to the now beleaguered Republican Bob Taft.]
KM: He's a county commissioner in Ohio. They want him to look at the Senate seat. I'm worried about his health. But I'm not worried about his health as much as I'm worried about his happiness. If he wants to run for the Senate, or if he wants to go to the Moon, I'm behind him. But next time I would knock this sort of stuff off, and really be with him. I would stop working, I'd put it away. At least for a few years. Men need their small comforts, in a way that women don't, really. It's so little to ask. Besides which, I adore him. I don't want to have a huge regret when he dies, because of, "Yeah, I was playing Poughkeepsie..."
Q: They just had a huge tragedy, with Ohio losing 16 Marines in Iraq within a week around the beginning of August.
KM: And I went to the memorial with my husband. I met the mother of one of the sons who died. She said the grief was unspeakable. But the rage is very close to it.
Q: You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but how's your mother?
KM: Well, she's dying. She's in the final stage. She's been in bed a long time. about three times a year [in Kate's hometown of Dubuque, Iowa]. She doesn't know I'm there. The caregiver was the nanny to my boys for 19 years, with whom I have a mysterious and extraordinary bond. When mom got sick, and the kids were grown and gone, she said, "I'll go and take care of her, Señora. I want to do that." She's been an angel.
[My mother is] 77. So what will happen next is — I'm the national spokesperson for Alzheimer's now, so I've learned a great deal about it — her immune system will begin to shut down. Already she's sleeping all the time, she has to be fed. But she's completely incontinent, and soon when the feeding becomes a problem, we'll have to either move her or we'll go with hospice or something ... I'm reduced to absolute putty when I'm in my mother's presence ... And I really cannot talk about this right now.
Q: Well, thanks for being so open with us. We very much look forward to seeing the play.
KM: Good, I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think, all right? Lie if you don't like it. Life's way too short, right? I don't believe in all that honesty.
Q: Thank you for bringing it to Southern California.
KM: I'm delighted too. I have a good feeling about this theatre. Pasadena seems the right place. The stage is perfect. The acoustics are great — which is always a bugaboo for me — but this is terrific.
Q: And thank you so much for your time. Break a leg! >>>
Maar Kate Mulgrew zit zeker niet stil. Momenteel speelt ze haar rol als Katherine Hepburn met verve in de 'one man' toneelvoorstelling 'Tea At Five'. De one man voorstelling is inmiddels een groot succes, en heeft al verschillende awards gekregen.
In het interview hieronder schrijft ze openlijk over de drukte van deze toneelvoorstelling, de mislukte verkiezingscampagne van haar man Tim Hagan voor senator in Ohio, haar dodelijk zieke moeder, en natuurlijk veel insight in de voorstelling 'Tea At Five':
<<< Tuesday (August 30) was opening night for the Southern California run of "Tea at Five," Kate Mulgrew's award-winning one-woman play in which she portrays screen legend Katharine Hepburn. This is the ninth venue of the stage production in three years, but this is the first one so close to "the biz." Hence, many of Mulgrew's Hollywood friends, in the Star Trek world and beyond, were in attendance at the Pasadena Playhouse Tuesday night. They included Voyager guest stars John de Lancie ("Q"), Harry Groener ("Sacred Ground," etc.), and Sharon Lawrence ("The 37's"), along with executive producer Rick Berman. Other famous faces spotted there included Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), Jack Klugman, Jo Anne Worley and Martin Mull. Mulgrew's ex-boss Kerry McCluggage, former head of Paramount Television and currently chairman of the theatre's board of the directors, was also there, as was John Wentworth, executive vice-president of communications for Paramount TV.
"Tea at Five" will run through October 2 at the Pasadena Playhouse, the state theatre of California. (For those who've been to the Grand Slam convention held each spring, the Playhouse is a mere four blocks east of the Pasadena Convention Center.) Discount tickets are available to STARTREK.COM readers for the next two weekends; see details on this page.
We had an opportunity to sit down and chat with Mulgrew prior to the opening. We met with her in the Playhouse library, upstairs from the theatre, and she spoke very openly about the woman in whose life she has immersed herself so thoroughly, as well as her own. In fact, she was quite candid at times about some of the things going on in her private life. The following is the conversation that transpired.
Q: What do you consider home right now?
Kate Mulgrew: New York City is my home. My husband actually lives in Cleveland, he's a public official. So we do a lot of back and forth. But I'm based in New York.
Q: Do you still have a home here in L.A.?
KM: No, I sold it when the series was over. I'm staying in an apartment here, which is just fine. I'm here for six weeks, and then I go back to New York.
Q: You mentioned at the Las Vegas convention that you were thinking of taking this play to London.
KM: Yeah, London seems to be in the works right now. That would be in the Spring of '06. It's not definite yet, but I think it'll happen.
Q: Why don't we start with some background. How did this show come about?
KM: This play was written for me about three years ago by Matthew Lombardo. And serendipitously enough, we had a mutual friend who acted as the liaison. Her name was Nancy Addison, she was my great friend — she's since died. [Nancy Addison was a soap actress who died of cancer in 2002; the production is dedicated to her.] And they were watching an episode of Star Trek: Voyager, and he just said, "That actress should play Katharine Hepburn." And she said, "That actress is my best friend. You write it and I'll get it to her." And he did write it, he wrote it in three days. I read it in my dressing room at Paramount, and I thought two things: Would it be possible to do this with any kind of integrity, since she was such a huge personality? And then I thought: Well, it could be absolutely perfect as a segue out of television and back to the theatre, which I had been so longing to do anyway. My intention was never to go from the fire pan into the fire — a one-person show based on the life of a fascinating woman? I said, "Sure, let's try it."
Q: What kind of research did you do to prepare for the part? Did you watch certain films, interviews ...?
KM: I looked at everything. There is no piece of documentation that I have not seen. My research was exhaustive. And happily I was in Hartford, Connecticut, her birthplace, at the time, so the library was particularly verdant — a feast of information. I've seen all of her films, all of her documentaries, all the documentaries about her and about Spencer Tracy. And I read all the literature, every book, every biography, every autobiography, and every ancillary biography.
Q: How much time did you spend with this research?
KM: Weeks. Still do it.
A woman defined by sorrow
Q: What were some of the observations you had about Hepburn that you were able to incorporate into your performance?
KM: Well, they're endless. I go to the text first. And when we were watching her in her movies and reading carefully about her life, I would find what I think would be the pulse of her nature. In this case, it would be vulnerability, which I thought was the guiding light in Act 1. And in Act 2, the vulnerability enhanced by sorrow, which allows for her extraordinary, I think, revelations, and self-deprecation. She's very self-deprecating in Act 2, as she was as an older woman. Her humor was turned upon herself in a very honest and witty way. She forgave herself by the end and she was no longer showing off. In Act 1 when she was 31, she still is showing off. She's still very much a movie star. And desperate, really, on the most fundamental level that perhaps she will no longer be sought after in Hollywood — she'd just been labeled "box office poison," and she's come home to Fenwick, which she did very often throughout her life. It was her touchstone; her family was everything to her. She started quite young to protect herself and her personal life. And in so doing, she was masterful, because it was that very ardent discretion that made her so compelling to the public. Because she was a conflicted person whose conflict worked for everybody. And I think that's why she was so intriguing.
So, in Act 1 I try to extract the vulnerability from the very driven young Kate. Very much on a mission, still very much informed and defined by her parents. Not about to disappoint her father — which would be unacceptable to the young Kate on the heels of her brother's suicide — she made up her mind to be everything her brother would've been, plus everything she could be. And in the Hepburn family, greatness was the order of the day. So she couldn't just be an actress, she had to be a great one. She had to be a great star. The Hepburns were not in any way intrigued by Hollywood — they disdained it. They were intellectuals and they were political activists, and they were iconoclastic in their own right. And terribly smart; unconventional, unorthodox in their thinking, which shaped her. And so for Hepburn to win their approval meant that she had to be really quite disciplined at the craft. And you'll note, even after her parents died, that she never let go of that for one second. She always went back to the theatre, she always went back to what frightened her, she always went back to what really challenged her. The movies were her gravy. She was magical, easily magical, and the camera just adored her, as it does some people. But she felt that she had to brace herself on the stage. An audience would not necessarily wrap their arms around her. She had a very angular approach, in every way, both aesthetically and intrinsically.
A lot of bizarre parallels
So it's the life of a woman who was defined by sorrow very early in her life. And I understand that. So was I. A lot of bizarre parallels. I'm from a very large Irish-Catholic family; she's from a large family. I'm the oldest girl, she's the oldest girl. Her older brother was Tom, my older brother was Tom. He [Hepburn's brother] died, two of my sisters died, we were both the same age when it happened. And much was expected of us — I just took a different path, in terms of what I was prepared to sacrifice or not sacrifice. And my personal life was not one of the things I was willing to sacrifice.
Q: I believe she married once, briefly, but she never had children.
KM: She didn't want children. Or she said she didn't want them. She said she couldn't have both. And I guess if you want to have a career like that, you can't. But it certainly wasn't going to be my choice, since I know that we die, and there are other things, in my opinion, to live for. But, she made her choice, she was very clear about it, and she stood by it.
She had regrets about Luddie [Ludlow Ogden Smith, her husband of six years]. She loved her husband; he was very good to her. I think she regretted that she hurt him. That's the only regret she admitted to.
Q: With this show you're on the road for weeks or months at a time. How does that affect your personal life?
KM: It's hard. I do love my husband and family. I turned 50 in April, and something shifted. I wouldn't even know how to articulate it, to tell you the truth, except to say that I'm very aware that most of my life, now, has been lived. And I really don't want to screw around. I've been acting all my life, 35 years. So what?
Q: You can say, though, that you have taken your gift and shared it with others, right?
KM: I hope. But I'm now looking beyond that, as I stagger to my grave. I think I would like to have said other things as well, and explored other things as well. And time's moving very quickly. This is still very satisfying. But it gets harder. It gets harder. Because I feel that I am pulled. I want to spend more time with the people that I love. And I love solitude — I find myself more and more drawn to it. I suppose I always have been. I want to read, I want to think, I'd like to leave not a footprint on the sand. I say that, and then, you know, in a few months it changes — but I don't think so. My parents, they're dying — my father's dead, mom's on her way out. What's it all about? That's the question. Take the real risks. Who do I love — do I really? How well do I love them? How do I know that I love them? I've been so busy doing this, you know? And what does it mean? I don't get it anymore, as well as I used to get it.
Q: Maybe the more you know, you more you realize you don't know.
KM: That's it. And tremendous longings — unbearable longings, heartbreaking — that I never had when I was young. I was the breadwinner; I've been a man all my life. I'd like to just relax, I think. Which I did this summer with my son, and that's why you're sensing in me a kind of self-reflection. I've just come back from Ireland; we were alone in a very primitive place, the Beara Peninsula. I've been there many times, but with him it was just great. Spent five weeks. We went to write. Tiny little cottage, half the size of this room. On the most beautiful peninsula. I turned 50, and he turned 21, and it was mystical.
Q: Do you feel a particular connection to Ireland or the people there?
You know, I love Ireland, and I love the Irish, and I am Irish-American. They're a complicated, conflicted people, full of unresolved feelings. And I adore them. But I'm really an Anglophile. To me the English are the ones who've changed the world, and continue to do so. If I had to live somewhere out there, I think it might be England.
Q: If you do take the show to London, how long would you stay?
KM: It would be 8-12 weeks. We're looking at the Duke of York's [Theatre]. The producer's got three on his list, but the Duke of York would be everybody's first pick. The West End. It's a beautiful theatre, I've been in there. So I look forward to that. But we're just in the nascent stages.
"Who talks like that?"
Q: It should be a huge hit there.
KM: And they loved [Hepburn] there. She went over to do "The Millionairess" [on stage in the 1950s], which by all accounts was just outrageous, she was just all over the place. London simply fell down. I mean, [going into Hepburn voice] "All that stuff she does, they thought it was great!" You know? Thought it was great! She exemplifies to them the Yankee grit that they have such a fascination for. [Hepburn voice] "Who talks like that?" She made it up! Her brothers and sisters don't talk like that, at all. "Only she talks like that." And she was very careful to do it, and very smart to do it. Because if you walk into Hollywood and you "talk like that in 1935, people are gonna listen to you." Right? She knew exactly what she was doing.
Q: Are you saying she was calculated?
KM: Totally calculated. And I know just how calculated she was. If she went half a pound over 118, she'd starve for a week. Brutal diet, she watched everything.
Q: Did she write an autobiography?
KM: Dreadful. It's called "Me." She writes like she talks — staccato.
Q: Was it revealing?
KM: No, of course not! It's misleading! You know, there's stuff about John Huston and Humphrey Bogart, and she has cute little stories about they survived Africa because they were drunk all the time, because booze killed the malaria. But she never talked about her brother [who committed suicide as a teen]. She never talks about the sacrifice of [Spencer] Tracy. You know, it's very interesting to determine to become so unique, to be considered a maverick, and to bring down the door of the Boy's Club, to do all of those unprecedented things in the '30s, and then to live with a married man for 27 years, and take that shit. She took plenty of shit.
Q: Did they literally live together?
KM: They didn't live together. They went home. He never told his wife anything. He wanted to protect his wife. Also, why would he divorce Louise to marry Hepburn when he was sleeping with Ingrid Bergman? He slept with every woman in Hollywood! When he wasn't drunk. He was very smart, he was very talented, he was a wonderful guy. But he didn't want his style cramped. He could compartmentalize, Tracy.
Their love affair — this is sheer conjecture on my part, because you cannot find documentation on this, at least not specifically — their romantic sexual love affair was very brief. A few years, maybe. Their friendship lasted 27 years. It was a romantic friendship, yes. But I think that she took care of him — that's what she did, that's what she wanted to do.
Q: Was she in love with him?
KM: Yes, she was in love with him, certainly initially. She loved him. I think he's the only man who ever understood her. That's why he could put her down and get away with it.
And when Tracy died, Hepburn was with him, and she called Louise. Louise came right away, looked at Hepburn and said, "I thought you were just a rumor." It's all in the play. >>>
vervolg interview:
<<< Walking delicately through the minefield of her life
Q: Is there anything in the play that could qualify as conjectural or controversial?
KM: When I say dangerous things on the stage, I have asked for three sources of verification. Only two of the things that I say could be considered dangerous, and I have sought three sources of verification on both counts, and I have found them. This satisfies me, regarding the question of honor. This is a tribute to a woman whose very complexity she overcame. I'm down there to honor her, so I've walked very delicately through the minefield of her life, so as not to say anything that would be sheer speculation. This is not an imitation, it's a realization. Which is why I'm still doing it. I think I'd be bored to tears if it were just an impersonation, I wouldn't be able to go on. You know? But I find something new about her every time. Like she did herself. She was ceaselessly fascinated with herself.
This is what makes it work for me. When a woman is alone to that extent, she is fueled in a way that those of us who are not alone are not. She needed her career. I can call my son. I can sit on my husband's lap. It's enough. It's more than enough. She must have been, towards the end, frantic with the loneliness. Do you know what I mean? Especially after Tracy died. So the sacrifice was huge. See, I find it very moving.
"I am trying ... to solve ... a puzzle!"
And you know what her last words were? Dina Merrill told me this. You know who Dina Merrill is? The great actress, she was married to Cliff Robertson, great beauty, and an heiress of some kind. She was a great friend of Hepburn's. And she came to see this play in New York. She came backstage and she said, "That was just uncanny — you're just like her." And I said, "Tell me something about her." She said, "Well, I went up six months ago to Fenwick to see her..." At the end of her life she was living in her bedroom, infirmed — she was 96 for heaven's sake — and she would just stare out the window for hours at the sea. So Dina was sitting in the room with her, and Hepburn's just staring out the window. Dina leaned forward and said, "Kate, Kate, it's Dina. I just wanted to come and tell you that I miss you, and is there anything I can do for you?" Hepburn turned from the window to her, and she went, "I am trying ... to solve ... a puzzle!" She went back to the sea. I said, "What do you think it was, Dina?" She said, "The meaning of her life. You can't be that smart and that talented and not get to the meaning of your life."
I think she was saying, "What kind of a life have I lived? Who's the real Kate? Did I give up too much?" Questions any thoughtful person asks. But so few of us are huge movie stars, right? They always said she was the most popular person in the world next to the pope. There's a reason for all that — it's the conflict. And I would suggest she never resolved it herself, which is why the camera would just suck it up. [Hepburn voice] "She could be talking like that in her films, and be 'Woman of the Year,' blah blah..." I see an almost translucent, terrible vulnerability, the deep fragility of her nature, right under the surface. The camera just went, "Oh, baby, you're for me." I don't know — now I'm spinning off into psychology, but that's what I think.
Q: How much has this informed your performance?
KM: You'll have to see it for yourself. I hope that all of it has. Otherwise I really just don't think I'd go on doing it. Which I didn't think it would be like — I'd play her, put her to bed, get on with it. But it has the most curious little legs in the world, doesn't it? The play just keeps going on. If she were just simply Kate Hepburn, it would have died. She was America's sweetheart, you know, in the way that [Joan] Crawford and Bette Davis and all the others never quite were. She was everything we love, everything we're proud of. When we talk about a movie star, and we want to put up as an example our best, it's always Hepburn. She was so different. She makes women proud, and she makes men proud. It's curious.
Q: You were doing the show in New York when Hepburn died. What kind of impact did that have?
KM: Well, you can imagine. I went on stage that night. The marquee was darkened, as they all were across Broadway. And I stood in the wings, with a full house, and I thought, "This is the final irony. I'm about to go out and do a realization of an actress who wanted to do nothing more than what I'm about to do, and can no longer do it because she's dead." So I went out and I did it, and when it was over, I said to the audience, "This was tough. Why don't we all just sit down for a minute and remember her. And remember that this is the place that she loved the most." You could have heard a pin drop in that theatre for three minutes. And then explosive applause, for her. Not a dry eye in the house. Great person. Hard to believe even now she's dead. A big stamp, you know? Not many people have that impact.
Q: Was she aware that the play was being done?
KM: Sure. Her family went to see it in Hartford [Connecticut, where the play premiered]. They didn't like it. They liked me, they didn't like the text. Why would they? They're so private!
Q: Were there ever any legal issues over the play?
KM: I suppose if it had been controversial enough from their point of view [the family] could have litigated, but they didn't. Therefore, I'm suggesting everything's on the line here. What's been transgressed, if you want to say that, is the Hepburn legacy of fierce, fierce, privacy. But I think that if she were watching herself, she would not be displeased. I really do.
Q: So even though the family doesn't necessarily approve of the play, you had no requirement to gain their permission?
KM: Not at all. She's public property. We would not have achieved it — they would have said no. I know that Katharine Houghton probably really wanted this, wanted to write the play herself, or screenplay or whatever it was, about her aunt. And we just beat her to the punch. So naturally the reaction she would have would be less than pleasant, right? I don't blame her. I don't blame her — it seems unfair. But, that's life.
Q: What did you think of Cate Blanchett's performance as Hepburn in "The Aviator"?
KM: Well, I'm a big fan of hers. Of that whole crop of young actresses, she's my favorite. But it was not a movie about Kate Hepburn. Then she would have had a chance to find it. As it was, she had to take some pretty broad strokes. And for my money, hat's off — always go with the broad stroke if you get 30 minutes of film time. But, it was about Howard Hughes! What a waste! Scorsese should have done Hepburn's life! I liked her in it. Listen, you know, you're asking an actress who's played her for three years on the stage to compare it with 30 minutes of film — she shot for a month. I've had the luxury of all this time.
Q: Do you address Howard Hughes in the play?
KM: We do. She's trying to break up with him when the curtain goes up. Which she did, of course. I think he was a gigantic bore. Just a stultifying narcissist. You can take the genius and flush it down the toilet, because who cares? He was so self-obsessed! She laughed at it, and she was looking at her clocks the whole time, wasn't she? I think she fancied it, like other elements of her life, as intriguing. But over the dinner table, not really.
Not as busy as Patrick Stewart, but don't want to be
Q: Besides this play, what else can we look forward to seeing you in?
KM: The question should be: Who are you? You know, the problem with actors is that we're always defined by what we're doing, and what we're doing next. Are we still popular, are we still working, are we still sought after? Well, you know, I'm not as busy as Patrick Stewart! And I don't think I want to be. I'd like to play Cleopatra, and I will play Cleopatra next year, in New York. And I'll take this thing to London. And I want to do a new play called "Rich Women" by Eduardo Machado, who's a great friend of mine and a wonderful Cuban-American playwright, so I think we'll take that to the Humana Festival. So I'm doing a lot of theatre. And I need to spend a lot of time with my husband — he had a massive coronary last year.
Q: Is Tim still interested in politics? [Tim Hagan, her husband, ran for governor of Ohio in 2002, losing to the now beleaguered Republican Bob Taft.]
KM: He's a county commissioner in Ohio. They want him to look at the Senate seat. I'm worried about his health. But I'm not worried about his health as much as I'm worried about his happiness. If he wants to run for the Senate, or if he wants to go to the Moon, I'm behind him. But next time I would knock this sort of stuff off, and really be with him. I would stop working, I'd put it away. At least for a few years. Men need their small comforts, in a way that women don't, really. It's so little to ask. Besides which, I adore him. I don't want to have a huge regret when he dies, because of, "Yeah, I was playing Poughkeepsie..."
Q: They just had a huge tragedy, with Ohio losing 16 Marines in Iraq within a week around the beginning of August.
KM: And I went to the memorial with my husband. I met the mother of one of the sons who died. She said the grief was unspeakable. But the rage is very close to it.
Q: You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but how's your mother?
KM: Well, she's dying. She's in the final stage. She's been in bed a long time. about three times a year [in Kate's hometown of Dubuque, Iowa]. She doesn't know I'm there. The caregiver was the nanny to my boys for 19 years, with whom I have a mysterious and extraordinary bond. When mom got sick, and the kids were grown and gone, she said, "I'll go and take care of her, Señora. I want to do that." She's been an angel.
[My mother is] 77. So what will happen next is — I'm the national spokesperson for Alzheimer's now, so I've learned a great deal about it — her immune system will begin to shut down. Already she's sleeping all the time, she has to be fed. But she's completely incontinent, and soon when the feeding becomes a problem, we'll have to either move her or we'll go with hospice or something ... I'm reduced to absolute putty when I'm in my mother's presence ... And I really cannot talk about this right now.
Q: Well, thanks for being so open with us. We very much look forward to seeing the play.
KM: Good, I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think, all right? Lie if you don't like it. Life's way too short, right? I don't believe in all that honesty.
Q: Thank you for bringing it to Southern California.
KM: I'm delighted too. I have a good feeling about this theatre. Pasadena seems the right place. The stage is perfect. The acoustics are great — which is always a bugaboo for me — but this is terrific.
Q: And thank you so much for your time. Break a leg! >>>
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3rd RemataKlan
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spam
Daarom gebeurt dat laatste ook hoofdzakelijk. Dus waarom jij bij het idee komt dat men Kate Mulgrew alle schuld geeft is een compleet raadsel. Nou ja, niet een compleet raadsel gezien het feit dat jij het beweert.Mr Hayes schreef:Al dat geklaag over haar rol als Captain Janeway in Star Trek Voyager. Bah, soms lijkt het wel of het allemaal Kate Mulgrew's schuld is, terwijl het de producers en scriptschrijvers aangerekend moet worden.
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Mr Hayes
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Het blijkt al weer dat jij een mens bent zonder weinig gevoel of emotie. Ikzelf had altijd het gevoel dat dit gebeurde. En mij leek het daarom op z'n plaats om eens wat meer van Kate Mulgrew's andere acteerwerk in de schijnwerpers te plaatsen. Geen HOND op dit forum die daarop komt 
Maar please, reageer eens op het topic 3rd. Volg jij iets van haaar als actrice? Of ben je alleen maar geïnteresseerd in het 'spugen' op Captain Janeway? Want laten we eerlijk zijn, ik kan er redelijk mee inkomen dat haar rol behoorlijk slecht is ontwikkeld, maar 'Endgame' dateert alweer uit 2001 en we zijn al 4 jaar verder. Wordt het niet ietwat zielig om hier constant over door te gaan? En PLEASE, probeer eens te reageren op dit TOPIC!
- Volg jij iets van haar andere 'acting jobs'?
- Heb je een opname gezien van 'Tea At Five'?
- Wat vind je van haar verregaande steun voor haar man's 'running for senator of Ohio'?
Ik ben benieuwd als je daar op kunt ingaan. We shall see
Maar please, reageer eens op het topic 3rd. Volg jij iets van haaar als actrice? Of ben je alleen maar geïnteresseerd in het 'spugen' op Captain Janeway? Want laten we eerlijk zijn, ik kan er redelijk mee inkomen dat haar rol behoorlijk slecht is ontwikkeld, maar 'Endgame' dateert alweer uit 2001 en we zijn al 4 jaar verder. Wordt het niet ietwat zielig om hier constant over door te gaan? En PLEASE, probeer eens te reageren op dit TOPIC!
- Volg jij iets van haar andere 'acting jobs'?
- Heb je een opname gezien van 'Tea At Five'?
- Wat vind je van haar verregaande steun voor haar man's 'running for senator of Ohio'?
Ik ben benieuwd als je daar op kunt ingaan. We shall see
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Raynor's Revenge
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Peti
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ja, en laten we het dan ook niet meer hebben over TOS, die is immers al jaaaaren geleden gemaakt... en TNG is ook al oud, en DS9... ja, laten we het alleen nog maar over ENT hebben! goed plan! goede redenering!Mr Hayes schreef:Maar please, reageer eens op het topic 3rd. Volg jij iets van haaar als actrice? Of ben je alleen maar geïnteresseerd in het 'spugen' op Captain Janeway? Want laten we eerlijk zijn, ik kan er redelijk mee inkomen dat haar rol behoorlijk slecht is ontwikkeld, maar 'Endgame' dateert alweer uit 2001 en we zijn al 4 jaar verder. Wordt het niet ietwat zielig om hier constant over door te gaan?
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WeyounsLastClone
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Mr. Hayes zegt niet dat we alleen op haar recente werk moeten focusen, maar dat we ook op haar recente werk focusen.Peti schreef:ja, en laten we het dan ook niet meer hebben over TOS, die is immers al jaaaaren geleden gemaakt... en TNG is ook al oud, en DS9... ja, laten we het alleen nog maar over ENT hebben! goed plan! goede redenering!Mr Hayes schreef:Maar please, reageer eens op het topic 3rd. Volg jij iets van haaar als actrice? Of ben je alleen maar geïnteresseerd in het 'spugen' op Captain Janeway? Want laten we eerlijk zijn, ik kan er redelijk mee inkomen dat haar rol behoorlijk slecht is ontwikkeld, maar 'Endgame' dateert alweer uit 2001 en we zijn al 4 jaar verder. Wordt het niet ietwat zielig om hier constant over door te gaan?
Aangezien mensen hier graag focusen op de slechte dingen van Voyager (en Enterprise) en niet op de goede dingen van Voyager (waar bij DS9 en TOS wel alleen maar op gefocused wordt), vind ik het nog niet eens zo'n vreemd idee om Kate Mulgrew in een breder perspectief te zien.
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Peti
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Mr Hayes
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Wat zeur je dan? Ik bedoel...........TOS, TNG en DS9 zijn ook al behoorlijk oud, en het is nog langer geleden sinds DIE series hun premiere hadden. Maar het is gewoon een feit dat er in het Voyager forum meer gal wordt gespuugd. Als dat nou oprecht is, ja of de nee, laat ik mooi open, en kan leuk gediscussieerd worden in die veeeele andere Voyager topics. Maar ik ben erg benieuwd, Peti, of je 'iets' vindt van Kate Mulgrew's andere acteerwerk
Ik bedoel...........TOS, TNG en DS9 zijn ook al behoorlijk oud, en het is nog langer geleden sinds DIE series hun premiere hadden. Maar het is gewoon een feit dat er in het Voyager forum meer gal wordt gespuugd. Als dat nou oprecht is, ja of de nee, laat ik mooi open, en kan leuk gediscussieerd worden in die veeeele andere Voyager topics. Maar ik ben erg benieuwd, Peti, of je 'iets' vindt van Kate Mulgrew's andere acteerwerk -
3rd RemataKlan
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WeyounsLastClone
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Mr Hayes
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Ja hallo, ik mag toch wel kansen benutten om mezelf hier te verdedigen hier?3rd RemataKlan schreef:Wat vind JIJ eigenlijk? Naast back to back posten, copy pasten en zeuren zie ik verder niets van je hier.
Anyway, ik vind Kate Mulgrew als actrice meer dan goed. Ikzelf heb gelukkig al een paar fragmenten gezien van 'Tea at Five', en heb zelfs het audio/cd pakket gekocht via Amazon. Het 'audiobook' bevat een live opname van Kate Mulgrew's optreden, en ze verrastte me daadwerkelijk met haar versie van Katherine Hepburn. Vooral erg leuk was, om wat opmerkingen van haar te horen over de opnames van Hepburn's film 'On Golden Pond'. Aanrader van een film trouwens!!
Het toneelstuk is jammergenoeg alleen nog niet te zien in Nederland. En mocht dat gebeuren, dan zal er wel weer zo'n slechte Albert Verlinden adaptatie komen. Nee, mocht 'Tea at Five' naar London komen, dan ben ik daar bij! Gelukkig laat Kate al doorschemeren dat dit daadwerkelijk in de planning zit. En aangezien ik volgend jaar een half jaar op stage ga in London, wordt de kans alleen maar groter dat ik er dan bij ben.
Maar haar goede acteerwerk is niet alleen af te leiden uit deze toneelvoorstelling. De weinige films en series waar ze in speelt (ze slaat heel vaak belangrijke rollen af, vanwege haar familie, haar man, en moeder) geven OOK een goed beeld van haar acteertalent.
Neem nu de spinn-off serie Mrs. Columbo. Het was een soort tegenhanger van Jessica Fletcher, maar dan toch goed gedaan. In Mrs. Columbo speelt ze de vrouw van de alom bekende Mr. Columbo en lost ze haar eigen moordzaken op.
Ook heeft ze belangrijke gastrollen gehad in o.a. Dallas en Jessica Fletcher. En in één van de weinige films waarin ze speelde, 'Love Spell' (Tristan en Isolde), zet ze een erg goede Isolde neer naast Richard Burton.
Maar we moeten niet vergeten, dat Kate Mulgrew vooral een toneelactrice is.........in hart en nieren. Iedereen kent haar als Captain Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager, maar als toneelactrice komt ze ook heel goed tot haar recht.
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Peti
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nee hoor, maar ik heb sowieso nooit iets gezegd over haar acteerwerkMr Hayes schreef:Wat zeur je dan?
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Mr Hayes
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Ace of Spades
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Peti
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Ace of Spades
- Fleet Admiral
- Berichten: 17638
- Lid geworden op: 29 mei 2004, 10:28
- Locatie: Prachtig Dellûf
Jij houdt je toch allang niet meer bezig met Trek?Peti schreef:wtf?? sinds wanneer ben ik een voyager hater??Mr Hayes schreef:Wat doe je dan in dit topic. Spammen? De woordjes 'Kate Mulgrew' en 'Star Trek: Voyager' hoeven maar te dicht op elkaar in een zin te staan, en menig Voyager hater spammed al. Jij ook
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Mr Hayes
- Fleet Captain
- Berichten: 3691
- Lid geworden op: 11 jun 2002, 12:54
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Voel jij je aangesproken??? Ik heb het over 'menig' Voyager hater. Maar het feit dat jij je aangesproken voelt zegt al genoeg.......................Peti schreef:wtf?? sinds wanneer ben ik een voyager hater??Mr Hayes schreef:Wat doe je dan in dit topic. Spammen? De woordjes 'Kate Mulgrew' en 'Star Trek: Voyager' hoeven maar te dicht op elkaar in een zin te staan, en menig Voyager hater spammed al. Jij ook
................EN WEER WORDEN TOPICS OP DEZE MANIER BEVUILD. * ZUCHT*
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3rd RemataKlan
- Vice Admiral
- Berichten: 9931
- Lid geworden op: 02 jun 2002, 14:04
Mr Hayes schreef:Voel jij je aangesproken??? Ik heb het over 'menig' Voyager hater. Maar het feit dat jij je aangesproken voelt zegt al genoeg.......................Peti schreef:wtf?? sinds wanneer ben ik een voyager hater??Mr Hayes schreef:Wat doe je dan in dit topic. Spammen? De woordjes 'Kate Mulgrew' en 'Star Trek: Voyager' hoeven maar te dicht op elkaar in een zin te staan, en menig Voyager hater spammed al. Jij ook
................EN WEER WORDEN TOPICS OP DEZE MANIER BEVUILD. * ZUCHT*
En de enige die hier spamt en dit topic vervuilt, ben jij.Mr Hayes schreef:Wat doe je dan in dit topic. Spammen? De woordjes 'Kate Mulgrew' en 'Star Trek: Voyager' hoeven maar te dicht op elkaar in een zin te staan, en menig Voyager hater spammed al. Jij ook
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Peti
- Vice Admiral
- Berichten: 7308
- Lid geworden op: 11 jun 2002, 22:03
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Raynor's Revenge
- Moderator
- Berichten: 12796
- Lid geworden op: 18 jul 2002, 10:54
- Locatie: Bilthoven
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Mr Hayes
- Fleet Captain
- Berichten: 3691
- Lid geworden op: 11 jun 2002, 12:54
- Locatie: Barcelona
- Contacteer:
Maar goed, ik heb het topic ook zelf opgestart he 3rd3rd RemataKlan schreef:Mr Hayes schreef:Voel jij je aangesproken??? Ik heb het over 'menig' Voyager hater. Maar het feit dat jij je aangesproken voelt zegt al genoeg.......................Peti schreef:wtf?? sinds wanneer ben ik een voyager hater??Mr Hayes schreef:Wat doe je dan in dit topic. Spammen? De woordjes 'Kate Mulgrew' en 'Star Trek: Voyager' hoeven maar te dicht op elkaar in een zin te staan, en menig Voyager hater spammed al. Jij ook
................EN WEER WORDEN TOPICS OP DEZE MANIER BEVUILD. * ZUCHT*En de enige die hier spamt en dit topic vervuilt, ben jij.Mr Hayes schreef:Wat doe je dan in dit topic. Spammen? De woordjes 'Kate Mulgrew' en 'Star Trek: Voyager' hoeven maar te dicht op elkaar in een zin te staan, en menig Voyager hater spammed al. Jij ook
. Maar goed, ik heb m'n zegje gedaan over wat ik vond van Kate Mulgrew als actrice. Heb jij daar een mening over 3rd? -
sirdupre
- Commander
- Berichten: 1575
- Lid geworden op: 10 jun 2002, 20:56
- Contacteer:
Sjezus Mr Hayes, kan je je ook gewoon een keer niet gedragen als een aanstellerig oud wijf?
"Oh, 3rd, reageer PLEASE op mijn post. Ik heb het nodig, jongen...."
En dat je je door een toevallige remark van Peti meteen in je handtasje gegraaid voelt en haar tot Voyager-Hater gaat bombarderen, is natuurlijk ook compleet ridicuul.
Maar goed, klop jezelf maar op de borst. "Nou jongen, dat hebben we toch maar mooi gedaan voor Kate". En misschien kun je ondertussen Wilson ff PM-en of je nickname niet in Mr OudWijf veranderd kan worden.
"Oh, 3rd, reageer PLEASE op mijn post. Ik heb het nodig, jongen...."
En dat je je door een toevallige remark van Peti meteen in je handtasje gegraaid voelt en haar tot Voyager-Hater gaat bombarderen, is natuurlijk ook compleet ridicuul.
Maar goed, klop jezelf maar op de borst. "Nou jongen, dat hebben we toch maar mooi gedaan voor Kate". En misschien kun je ondertussen Wilson ff PM-en of je nickname niet in Mr OudWijf veranderd kan worden.
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Mr Hayes
- Fleet Captain
- Berichten: 3691
- Lid geworden op: 11 jun 2002, 12:54
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sirdupre
- Commander
- Berichten: 1575
- Lid geworden op: 10 jun 2002, 20:56
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Maar het is sowieso dan best vreemd om dat in het Voyager-forum te posten en vervolgens te gaan verkondigen dat ze niet permanent in verband gebracht moet worden met Voyager. Dat riekt wat mij betreft toch wel een beetje naar rellen. En ik denk dat de mensen met "flauwe" reacties dat ook zo opgevat hebben. Als je haar op een serieuze toon had willen bespreken, had je het in het Film, TV en Media-forum moeten zetten en dat begrijp je zelf denk ik ook wel.
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GPS
- Vice Admiral
- Berichten: 9095
- Lid geworden op: 24 jul 2004, 23:41
Maar goed. Even terug naar de kernvraag. Is ze een goede actrice, die de pech heeft gehad zeven jaar lang een rol te moeten spelen die door de makers van de serie vakkundig om zeep werd geholpen (niet alleen die rol trouwens)? Of kan ze er geen hout van.
Ik heb heel weinig films van haar gezien en toneelstukken al helemaal niet. (ik behoor helaas niet tot die groep van bevoorrechte mensen die even naar Londen of de States kunnen gaan). Maar in alle gevallen acteert ze toch gewoon goed. Daar valt niets op aan te merken.
Ik heb heel weinig films van haar gezien en toneelstukken al helemaal niet. (ik behoor helaas niet tot die groep van bevoorrechte mensen die even naar Londen of de States kunnen gaan). Maar in alle gevallen acteert ze toch gewoon goed. Daar valt niets op aan te merken.
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Mr Hayes
- Fleet Captain
- Berichten: 3691
- Lid geworden op: 11 jun 2002, 12:54
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Tja, dat vind ik nou ook. En om even terug te komen op datgene wat sirdupre zei: Kate Mulgrew zélf gaf een uitstekende Captain Janeway weer. Oké, hoe de schrijvers van de serie haar rol hebben ingevuld, valt te betwisten, maar datgene wat ze moest doen deed ze. Ze deed het met veel flair, en ze heeft ook een erg mooie stem. Geneviève Bujould zou het toch anders hebben gedaan.
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sirdupre
- Commander
- Berichten: 1575
- Lid geworden op: 10 jun 2002, 20:56
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Dat is nog steeds geen reden om een topic over een toneelstuk dat in jouw ogen niet in verband gebracht moet worden met Voyager in het Voyager-forum te posten.Mr Hayes schreef:Kate Mulgrew zélf gaf een uitstekende Captain Janeway weer. Oké, hoe de schrijvers van de serie haar rol hebben ingevuld, valt te betwisten, maar datgene wat ze moest doen deed ze.
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Mr Hayes
- Fleet Captain
- Berichten: 3691
- Lid geworden op: 11 jun 2002, 12:54
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Haar stem irritant??? Hmmm, denken meer mensen dat? Zo ja, zou dat bijdragen aan de haat jegens Captain Janeway?Brunt schreef:Dat was nou net mijn ergste Mulgrew ergernis. Als actrice is ze wel aardig, alleen de rol die ze moest spelen was slecht.Mr Hayes schreef:en ze heeft ook een erg mooie stem.
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GPS
- Vice Admiral
- Berichten: 9095
- Lid geworden op: 24 jul 2004, 23:41
De "haat" jegens captain Janeway komt voor uit hoe die rol is geschreven. Niet uit door wie die rol gepeeld wordt. En dat weet je best.Mr Hayes schreef:Haar stem irritant??? Hmmm, denken meer mensen dat? Zo ja, zou dat bijdragen aan de haat jegens Captain Janeway?Brunt schreef:Dat was nou net mijn ergste Mulgrew ergernis. Als actrice is ze wel aardig, alleen de rol die ze moest spelen was slecht.Mr Hayes schreef:en ze heeft ook een erg mooie stem.