New York Magazine - USA (2019-12-09)

104 newyork| december9–22, 2019

TheCULTUREPAGES

Ellen Burstyn

Has Some

Questions for You

Oneofthemostdisarminglegendsofstageand

screen(andnewInsidetheActorsStudio

co-host)talksaboutherdogs,cosmology, and

whyshelovesactingsomuch.ByMattZollerSeitz

insidetheactorsstudioisonOvation.

PhotographbyMarcoGrob

E

llen burstyn’s first request of any new guest visiting

her apartment overlooking Central Park is to feed treats to

her tiny, aged dog, Zoe. “Here, take two,” she says, handing

them to me, “and lean down when you give them to her,

because she’s old and she doesn’t jump.” The apartment,

which she moved into not long ago after spending decades in Nyack, is an

archive of her life and career: All around us are pictures commemorating

her experiences as an actress, a mother, a grandmother, an arts administra-

tor, a producer, and a performer. Burstyn’s face is instantly recognizable,

and she has been one of our finest actors for decades, but despite her event-

ful life and career, she has managed to avoid the kind of notoriety that

might have limited her freedom, talent, and generosity. Among the pictures

in her apartment is a black-and-white close-up of Marilyn Monroe from

the early 1960s. “I didn’t know her, but I adored her,” she explains. “And

she was so troubled and vulnerable because she had what I call ‘scary fame,’

the kind that jumps out like this,” she says, snarling like a predator and

clawingat theair. “I neverhadthat kindoffame.”

blackness. I heard a lady, front row, say,

“Isn’t she cute?” I thought, I hope my

mother heard that. You know those pho-

tographs your brain takes, that you’ve got

for your whole life, but it’s actually a mov-

ing picture? And you can relive that

moment anytime? That was the moment.

Confronting that big blackness and all

that it was alive with.

Something in me woke up. Something

went, Oh. In school, I was always in the

shows. In high school, I was president of

the drama club and produced the gradu-

ating musical, as I recall. Then there came

a point when I wrote down what I thought

were the possibilities for employment for

me. One was modeling, which I did do.

Two was—well, I don’t remember the

order, but certainly actress. And then vet-

erinarian, and lawyer, and nun. I was a

model from high school until I was 23.

Then one day I said, “Okay, I made up my

mind. I’m going to be an actress. I’m

going to do a Broadway play this fall.”

After that, I said to every person I met,

“I’m going to do a Broadway play this fall.

Do you know how to get an audition?”

Not lacking in confidence.

No, but then, amazingly, somebody said,

“Yes, actually, I do know how to get an

audition.” She was a secretary to an agent,

and she said, “I know of a play that’s being

cast, and they’re looking for someone to

play a model.” So I auditioned for a lead on

Broadway. It was the first time I was ever

on a New York stage, it was the Ethel Bar-

rymore Theatre, and I got the part, in a

play called Fair Game. I played Susan

Hammerly, a model who came to New

York from Chicago, where she’d lost her

husband to a smarter girl, and decided she

needed an education. I always say, when I

tell this story in public speaking, “You

know how often that happens—you lose

your husband to a smarter girl.”

You joined the Actors Studio in 1967.

What was that like?

I took Lee Strasberg’s private classes.

I had a career already by that point. I was

working as an actress, but I realized after

a certain point that there were actresses

who knew something I didn’t know, and

they were almost all members of the

Actors Studio. So I went to Lee’s private

classes, and I studied with him for a few

years. Then when I felt I was ready, I audi-

tioned for the Studio.

Tell me about New York theater in the

late ’60s.

There were a lot more plays than there

are now and fewer musicals, and more of

the musicals were original. There were no

Disney musicals, no musicals based on

movies. There weren’t as many visitors

She has acted in blockbusters and cult
classics, including The Last Picture
Show, The Exorcist, Requiem for a
Dream, The Fountain, and Interstellar.
She has been nominated for six Oscars
(winning one for 1974’s Alice Doesn’t Live
Here Anymore) and nine Emmys (win-
ning two, for a 2008 episode of Law &
Order: Special Victims Unit and 2012’s
Political Animals). She also has a Tony,
for the original 1975 run of Same Time,
Next Year. Burstyn has been a teacher
and an authority figure for generations
of actors, playwrights, and filmmakers.
Since 2000, she h ved alo Al
Pacino, Harvey K nd Alec in
as co-president of the ActorsStudio,

where she was accepted as a lifetime

member 52 years ago, and is now among

the hosts of Inside the Actors Studio,

which just started its 23rd season in

October (longtime host James Lipton

retired last year). And she remains quite

busy as an actress. In 2019, she appeared

in the films Lucy in the Sky and Ameri-

can Woman as well as a revival of Moisés

Kaufman’s 33 Variations in Melbourne.

When did you realize that acting could be a

job you wanted to do?

I remember the first time I was ever on

the stage. I was in boarding school in

Canada, and I was between 6 and 7 years

old. I recited “Little Miss Muffet” to this