The Incredible Thinking Woman

Lily Tomlin’s career is still in full bloom—funnier and smarter than ever!

9 to 5, the hugely-successful ’80s comedy starring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton was on television the night before I interviewed Lily Tomlin. I’d forgotten what a zany flick it was—particularly the scene where the trio share a joint and fantasize about offing their boss. In the blockbuster hit, Tomlin is—as usual—hilarious as the talented but underpaid, underappreciated and, when it comes time to get a long-awaited promotion, overlooked head secretary Violet Newstead. In real life Tomlin may have been underpaid on a few occasions, but she’s gotten lots of appreciation and enjoyed success on the stage and on screens both small and silver over the decades. And the smoky session in 9 to 5 isn’t the only time the comedian/actress—who was named by TIME Magazine as the “New Queen of Comedy” in 1977—has played a marijuana-using character. Just this past year, she played a pot-smoking mother on FX hit Eastbound & Down and Web Therapy with Lisa Kudrow. This fall, Tomlin will play a mother who uses medical marijuana on a new ABC comedy Malibu Country starring Reba McEntire. She is truly a one-of-a-kind talent who has created dozens of memorable characters over her epic career . . . and she’s not done yet.

I heard you’re from Detroit originally.

Well I was in New York at the time. I would have gone from Detroit to anyplace.

So when was this?

I guess it was 1962. I got my Equity [theatrical actors’ union] card [by getting into a mime show. Of course I was never trained as a mime . . . you better ask me direct questions or I’ll just meander.

Sure, but I want to hear more about this. The whole mime thing fascinates me.

(Laughs) Yeah, okay! I’d had success in college in Detroit at Wayne State University where I was in pre-med—which was a total joke. So I got into a college play where I had a walk-on, and I had to improve it every night and it was like a sensation. I was just fooling around, you know. Because I put on shows all my life since I was a little kid in my apartment house. I didn’t know that people did that for a living. So when I got the opportunity to fool around on the stage, it was just normal to me; it just felt right.

Seems like it’s worked out. You’ve won just about every award they made. You’ve got Grammys, Tonys, BAFTAs, Emmys and you’ve been nominated for an Oscar. Did I forget any?

Yeah, you are. You’re just missing a load of them.

Heh-heh. Well it’s a very impressive list of awards, and I don’t think there are that many comedians who have been recognized for their work in so many mediums. Would you say you’re a restless person creatively?

Somewhat. (Laughs). Less so than I was when I was 30. I would like to be more creative in my own life.

How do you choose what you’re going to do next?

It’s kind of broken field stride. Some stuff comes to you happily. You want something more off-the-wall or something you haven’t done. The only current things at the moment are I’ve been playing Lisa Kudrow’s mother on Web Therapy [on Showtime] which I really get a kick out of because it’s improv’d and it’s so off-the-wall. It’s very over-the-top. I play a very upper-class Bostonian who’s out of her mind. And then I’m also—I don’t know if you know this show—Eastbound & Down on HBO.

Kenny f*#king Powers? Brilliant show.

Oh, God. I didn’t even know it was on the air. I got this bid to do [Season 3]. Anyway, so I watched the whole first two seasons and loved Kenny Powers. I just fell in love with him.

The first episode is such a classic, when his major-league career is over and they show him in a classroom being trained to be a substitute teacher. The guy behind him is on the phone talking about him and he says, “You’ll never guess who’s sitting in front of me. Kenny f*#king Powers! Yeah, he looks like shit. He looks like a big bag of mashed-up assholes.” I use that one as much as possible.

He’s just outrageously great. So I did a couple of those.

I see you’re doing your famous one-woman shows around the country this year and into 2013. What do you have planned?

It’s kind of my version of stand-up, but I always do characters. So I do 10 or 12 characters. And I use some multimedia in the show where I put pieces together sort of satirizing being a celebrity or a person who doesn’t know who she is because she does so many people. And I have clips where characters interrelate . . . I just try to make it fun.

Do you ever putter around the house in character and forget who you are?

No. (Laughs) Remember [’60s and ’70s era comedian and political impressionist] David Frye? Remember everybody said David Frye got into Nixon and he couldn’t get out? No, I’ve never had that problem. But they’ve said Jonathan Winters has gotten into character and kind of flipped.

Johnny Depp did those pirate movies then started dressing like a pirate in real life all the time.

Oh, he does. See? I should go around as Ernestine. If I did I would have my way everywhere.

I wouldn’t mess with Ernestine myself. Your kooky characters are kind of your trademark. Where do you get the inspiration for these crazy creatures?

I don’t know. Sometimes they’re just wonderful serendipitous surprises. You get a notion for something and it just sort of springs to life. And other times you work like hell to make something make sense. And then of course I’ve done a lot of specials—in the old days with the television specials—and I would get a concept for a special and then I would try to people it. I did one special back in the ’80s, Lily For President?, when Reagan was in the White House. You know—an actor playing the president. I did everything. I was the filmmaker, I was the President, I was the secretary.

Since then you’ve gone back to the White House, right? You were in The West Wing.

Oh, yeah. I was four years on West Wing playing President Bartlett’s secretary.

Good show. I like it when intelligent shows are successful on television.

Yeah, I loved it. It was great.

What do you think about the reality television . . . infestation? Now they have shows about people who run truck stops and people who do tattoos . . . sewer cleaners.

(Laughs) A certain amount of it interests me because you get to go into a world a little. It’s still show business. They’re making a show and somehow it’s a bit constructed. It has to be.

Yeah, but they don’t have to pay actors or writers.

Oh, yeah sure. That’s the big thing. They don’t get residuals or anything. It’s really tough for actors. Especially character actors. They can hardly make a living anymore.

Not many people can pull off a one-man or one-woman show. Just getting up on stage and letting it rip.

The gun goes off and you just start.

How do you go about creating one of those? Do you ever get blank page syndrome?

No, but I always say that to Jane [Wagner] my partner. She always says she has to face the empty page, and I say I have to face the full one! Yeah, of course. You think you’ll never think of anything again as long as you live, and you feel totally out of it. But then you get an idea, you get so inspired. I mean every time I decided to try a different culture type I’d be so excited—just on fire. I found an old box of tapes from when I was working on Edith Ann [Editor’s note: one of Tomlin’s characters, a precocious 5-year-old girl]—years and years ago—you know, cassettes. And I thought, “What are these?” And they were nothing but me talking into a tape recorder as Edith Ann. Just improv’ing; trying to create a life for her. And I’m like obsessive [going into character] for hours!

Could you hear yourself slowly building her backstory?

Yeah, you know trying to get ideas, and you use your own life and your own family and other kids in your neighborhood and you start to build a life for Edith. I had a lot going in because my Dad was a big gambler and a drinker, and I used to go to the bookie joints with him and the racetrack and the bars with him. And Sunday I’d go to church with my mother.

So you experienced a whole spectrum of crazy people.

My mom and dad were Southern—from Kentucky. They come up to Detroit to work. We lived in the inner city in Detroit in a predominantly black neighborhood in an old apartment house with every kind of person you can think of. It was a glorious childhood.

Got any advice for aspiring young creative types who want to do it (singing) “my way?”

You must know who [1950s and ’60s era stage and film actress] Mildred Natwick is—the character film actress? Well, when I was 18, people would say to me, “You know someday you’re going to get all of Mildred Natwick’s parts.” She was about 55 then. I said, “Well, I can’t wait that long.” So I had to create vehicles for myself.

So you think people should just get on with it, huh?

Yeah. That’s what I did! Being famous was not that important—at least I certainly didn’t think it was. In fact, I thought it was an impediment. In those days, in my time coming up, we really were idealistic. We felt you should only do well by doing good. At least the people I hung with.

Couldn’t agree more. Let me ask your opinions about some issues. I know you’re an advocate for marijuana legalization.

Yes, yes. Of course.

What do you think about the federal crackdown going on right now?

I just don’t get it. I don’t know how we can have one law and the feds can have another, and can come in and do whatever they want to do.

I wonder why the feds making such a big deal about it. Why do they care?

I don’t either. Why do they care about half what they care about?

Any favorite kinds of cannabis? Strains?

I wish I was that sophisticated.

Do you have a doctor’s recommendation?

No, I don’t! Can you get me one? I don’t have anything like that. I have to rely on the kindness of strangers. I don’t use everyday. I’m not that fresh and hip.

Are you still an Obama fan?

Well, I’m more realistic about it because I don’t know how anybody could have done much more. He comes in with a liability, too, because he’s the first black president, and I think he actually thought that what worked as an organizer in Chicago in the neighborhoods would somehow work with Congress.

That he could negotiate in good faith?

And come to some kind of compromise; some kind of nice understanding. Well, they’re just lethal.

They’re crazy people. You can’t negotiate with crazy people.

They are. They’re just off the deep end. It’s all such incredibly inflated BS about what they do profess to care about. That base. I’m really stunned, though, that they’re showing just how cruel and stupid they are. I mean they’re showing it so blatantly.

But I don’t see how anybody could have missed it! How could people be so dense?

Oh, I know. Any kind of person with a little bit of alertness. But, nonetheless, now it’s just absolutely flat-out. I mean all this stuff they get standing ovations for (in the Republican debates). I start thinking maybe they know something I don’t. They know that Jesus really is coming back.

Well, we have the conservative media led by Fox News, and they’ve spawned a whole section of the American public who have their own twisted reality—and it’s completely untethered from the real world. You can have a discussion with someone who has a different opinion. You can’t argue with someone who has their own facts.

No, no you can’t. It’s impossible.

You were talking about your partner Jane before. You’ve been together for a while now. Have you ever thought about getting married?

No.

Not necessary?

Well, we’ve been together so long and people tell me it’s wonderful to have these public commitment ceremonies and have your friends over and all that. But we would never even get there on time. And I don’t even want to start. Where do you go with the wardrobe?

How long have you been together now?

40 years.

So, I guess marriage seems kind of redundant at this point?

(Laughs) It does. I think we might like it . . . but it takes so much planning.

www.lilytomlin.com

Dialed In

One of Lily Tomlin’s memorable characters—which appeared on ’70s sketch comedy show Laugh-In—was Ernestine, an obnoxious and arrogant telephone operator who delivered very questionable customer service while manning a switchboard. With a severe hairdo and her “one ring-dingy” one-liner, Ernestine was the last person you wanted to pick up the line when you dialed 0.