Nicole Sullivan, Swoosie Kurtz and Natalie Dreyfuss in RITA ROCKS
Swoosie Kurtz has had a impressive career in television (Love, Sidney, Sisters), film (Dangerous Liaisons, Cruel Intentions) and theater (she’s won Tonys for Fifth of July and The House of Blue Leaves). On the heels of her role as Lily on the dearly departed Pushing Daisies, she’s beginning a multi-episode arc tonight on Lifetime’s sitcom hit Rita Rocks as the mother to Nicole Sullivan’s Rita.
Late last week, my phone rang and a sweet, friendly voice said “Hello, Jim. It’s Swoosie Kurtz.” During our chat, we talked about her experience on Rita Rocks as well as her remembrances of her earlier work and what would lure her back to Broadway.
Jim Halterman: Rita Rocks tends to surprise me because as funny as it is, there is also such a sweetness about it. Do you agree?
Swoosie Kurtz: I think that’s a really good word for it. There’s a sweetness and a heart to it. At first, I just thought ‘Oh, sitcom…’ and then I put it on and I found myself laughing out loud, which I rarely do, and I was really moved by it. There was something very, very relatable about it and the things that families go through. It’s very real where there were stretches where it wasn’t about laughs or jokes and that’s what attracted me about the writing. The laughs would come out of character things and not jokes.
Natalie Dreyfuss and Swoosie Kurtz
JH: From the episode I saw, I suspect there are more layers to your character that will come out in the coming episodes. Are my instincts right?
SK: You’re right on. You’re absolutely right on. In the episode you saw, this woman, Marilyn, is obviously very, very critical and judgmental and I think was probably a pretty healthy drinker [laughs] and now she’s mellowed somewhat and she’s into pilates and therapy and having this great sex with her husband and not what Rita had gotten everyone up to expect. There’s a real wonderful mother/daughter thing there. You know, I get offered a lot of mother roles. Suddenly, I’m ‘the mother’ and I’ve done a lot of those but what attracted me to this was that very often ‘the mother’ is written very generically and just sort of a satellite to whoever the grown child is. This woman I found…whew! They gave me some really juicy stuff to do. She has her own mind, her own point of view; she was a real character on the page so I was off and running.
Kurtz as Lily on PUSHING DAISIES
JH: Any chance you could end up sticking around full time?
SK: They have said as much to me and this gang has made me feel as if I walk on water! They are so wonderful to me. I’ve never been treated so royally and you just feel so appreciated and valued beyond beyond. Originally, I had signed for three but then they had back again for a fourth. Now I think the main priority, of course, is how the show does and I’m not in the loop on that but that’s always the first thing. I just have a wonderful time every time I go there. It’s so funny because the producers have now become my friends – Stan Zimmerman and Jim Berg – they met my father years ago at the opening of Private Lives in Los Angeles with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. I guess I was in New York at that point but they were chatting in the theater and they said they were writers for television and this was way back then and my father said “You have to write something for my daughter then!” and they never forgot that! They’re just great. In my last episode, I was saying goodbye and I had a line on my exit like “Okay, girls, walk me out to the car.” It was a perfect fine line but I thought we should have some fun with it. I said to the writers ‘Maybe we can give this a little more spice if I said something on my way out to Rita’ and within ten minutes they come to me with a choice of about 14 lines. ‘What do you think?’ Talk about communication and openness…some writers just say ‘Say it that way. That’s how I wrote it. Don’t change a word’ but the entire staff were like ‘What do you want there? What do you think?’ And I can’t begin to tell you what a joy Nicole is. Part of when I decide to do a job it’s not only the character on the page but also who am I working with, am I working with my peers? I knew her from MadTV so I was already a fan but she’s the consummate professional and you can see why Lifetime would feel so strongly about the show based on what Nicole delivers on a weekly basis. She is so involved in the writing of the show and the direction of the stories and she’s so good at it and she has such a great way of giving notes when she’s collaborating with the writers and the other actors; just an amazing, savvy instinct for comedy and truth. There’s just no ego between her and her work.
JH: It must be a big change from what you were doing on Pushing Daisies, which was so out there. I know there were talks about a movie. Do you know anything?
SK: I had dinner with Bryan Fuller a little while ago and he’s finishing up the comic book so that should come out soon and then, ya know, I think there’s talk about a movie. I don’t know how real it is. I never know. I think it would make a fantastic movie.
Kurtz with LOVE, SIDNEY co-star Tony Randall
JH: I was a big fan of yours on Sisters. Do you miss that kind of drama and do you miss Alex? She was six years of your life!
SK: I don’t miss Alex. I will love Alex forever but that was a part of my life and you move on to other characters and you want to play stuff that you haven’t played before. I loved her and Sisters was such a blessing that came into my life, I just couldn’t believe it. It seems like lifetimes ago because I feel like I’ve done so many things since then but it’s a great landmark in my life. It’s hard to believe I’ve been able to play all these characters. I’ve been so blessed. That was my dream to play a wild, huge range of characters. It was never my dream to be a movie star or a television star but to play other people besides myself.
JH: One more thing from the past I want to ask about was Love, Sidney. Were you concerned about the show at the time? You weren’t the gay character but in 1981 just being associated with a project like that could have damaged your career.
SK: Well, I think it made me even more enthusiastic about the show because in some sense it promised – if only slightly – to be groundbreaking. We forget now because it’s so open but this was 1981 and this was unheard of even to refer to this on network television. Even before the first episode aired, affiliates were pulling out right and left because they had heard. They hadn’t seen the show, mind you, and there was no reference at all, practically. I never even thought about it in terms of my career because I was coming from the New York theater because this was such a part of my everyday life that I wouldn’t even think about it. I just thought ‘Great! Get it on network television’ and Tony [Randall] had the power to do that. It’s kind of sad to think that it was such a narrow-minded landscape back then but kinda great to think that we were a little bit of pioneers even when it turned out that he was just a happy bachelor.
JH: Any chance we’re going to see you on Broadway again?
SK: Oh, there’s always the threat of that. [laughs] Absolutely and people, thank God, keep coming to me with plays but it just has to be the right one because to show up in that way eight times a week and put my entire life on hold, I love doing that but it’s got to be something that is so compelling to me that I can’t say no. So far it hasn’t happened.
JH: Where do you keep your Tony awards?
SK: In New York on my fireplace along with most of my Hirschfelds. I have a few and am lucky that I have those but that is very special to me.
Swoosie Kurtz can be seen on Lifetime’s Rita Rocks beginning tonight at 10/9c.
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