| How I created the gritty role of a dirt poor cotton picker
named Mrs. Latcher, for the made for tv movie based on
John Grisham's "A Painted House"
It was cold. Ice cold. Frigid cold. I was in a little town in Arkansas, just across the way from Memphis, Tennessee, and we were getting ready to film the scene in the rain. Those who don't act may think that acting is easy. Sometimes, maybe, but there's nothing easy about being out in the frigid cold all day, getting soaked with cold water over and over.
I was playing a wonderful, gritty role. I was Mrs. Darla Latcher, my favorite character from John Grisham's book "A Painted House". The wife of a dirt-poor cotton farmer, Darla had six children and a very hard life.
Then, as if life were not hard enough, she finds out her unmarried young daughter, Libby, is pregnant and won't tell her who is the father of her unborn child.
And it gets worse.....Their home floods and they have to seek refuge with "Chandlers" whose son is the father of their daughter's illegitimate son. Typical southern stereotypes, yes, but real people nonetheless, from Grisham's childhood, so I pay tribute to that as I flesh out the role of Darla.
It wasn't an easy role to nab. I drove to Memphis, Tennessee three times to audition, again and again, before being cast.
I shoulda phoned it in.... On the final call-back, just as I began my taped audition, the director's cell phone rang. He answered it and walked to the back of the room as I was filming. There was a part of me that felt violated and disrespected. There was another part that was laughing at the very idea of getting a job this way. There was a third part that stayed focused on my character. As I left, I thought that he probably would never even look at the final audition and this trip was probably a waste of my time.
Some time later, I got the call. I was cast as Mrs. Darla Latcher, a scrapping poor wife with six children and a very hard row to hoe, figurartively and literally. Wow.
An accent challenge I was not expecting.......Coming from Alabama, southern accents are natural to me. I can easily move from my normal Alabama dialect to Mississippi or Antebellum South. With a bit more focus, I can find the Georgia, Texas and Appalachian flavors.
Pride cometh before a fall.....When I was cast in the part of Mrs. Darla Latcher I felt fairly confident of dialect success. However, I wanted to be as accurate with "1950's Arkansas" accent as I could be. I assumed the best way to do that would be to rent the book on tape.
I got the book and practiced the phonetics and rhythm I heard from the paid actor who read the story on tape (by the way, when I listened to the book on tape, I thought Mrs. Latcher was the most interesting character in the book and the one that most clearly represented the chasm between the haves and the have-nots which made me even more excited to be playing the role). I lived wth that book on tape, day and night, practicing, practicing and practicing.
Meeting the stars.....On the set that first day, I met Logan Lerman who played the lead character in A Painted House, screen veteran Scott Glenn , Robert Sean Leonard (I remembered his performance from Dead Poets Society - of course, he's done many other roles but that one stands out) and Melinda Dillon (Melinda became a friend. A lovely woman and talented actress). Scott told me about his upcoming films which have since aired - Buffalo Soldiers was one of them.
While I listened in rapt attention, Scott shared about working with Ron Howard in Backdraft. Apparently, that scene where Scott is hanging off the building and the flames are below him was just as hairy for him as it looked for us in the audience. Made me hope I never got cast for a scene like that!
Why I love Ron Howard......Ron is one of my all-time favorite directors. I believe Ron Howard has an uncanny ability to weave together a cohesive group of just the right people, to create just the right chemistry for magic. That's something that has nothing to do with giving an actor tons of direction, but with picking the right people (from cast to crew) who will work together in the best way to create excellence.
In fact, among my loftiest acting goals - to work for Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Rob Reiner and Sydney Pollack, even if it's a one-line role. Just to be in their presence and part of something they believe in excites me more than a larger role for any director who is just in it for the money.
My Scott Glenn favorite......Scott also shared with me about the character research that went into that all-time favorite Scott Glenn role - the mean boyfriend in Urban Cowboy.
It's funny how everyone I meet remembers him sucking the worm out of the bottom of that Tequila bottle. Somehow, the character's name always escapes me but I think that's because Scott captured an essence there of that type of person that goes beyond the individual. Also, I'm very bad with names.
I know Scott probably gets very tired of people remembering a previous role more than current ones but he was very gracious as I went on about how much I loved to hate that guy but found him oddly vulnerable too.
Scott's dedication to realism for the role in Urban Cowboy was intense. In fact, he actually spent some time with prisoners, researching the reality of prison existence, to help develop the character for that role.
Filming Mrs. Latcher: I filmed a couple of very brief scenes on my first day in Memphis. One of them was in the rain. It was cold, muddy and wonderful that day. I had the luxury of sitting in the pick up truck with my daugher Libby and the new baby, while my poor film children had to stand out in the "rain" and be totally soaked with water. They were real troopers, those kids.
My film husband, another Tennesse actor named Richard Crowe, was at the Chandler's door, asking if they could take us in as our farm had flooded. Just as an aside, if you've read the book you may recall that there was a scene during the flood when the Latchers are rescued by boat. Although they wanted to do that scene, the cost and time involved to film it proved too much so that scene was cut.
There were a lot of scenes cut. Even before my biggest scenes were filmed, I would nervously check the sides each morning (These are excerpts of the scenes that will film each day, including any changes that have been made from the previous day) to see if any of my scenes had been cut. Amazingly, they ended up keeping all of them except two but one which was cut hurt a lot.
After filming those few brief scenes that first day, I had to wait around for four days before filming the bulk of my scenes. I had to film them all in one day, nearing the end of usable sunlight and could not be kept an extra day as the production was behind-schedule. No pressure, right?
So, I perform my main scene, the one where Mrs. Latcher has to tell Mrs. Chandler that her unwed daughter, Libby, is pregnant. I do the scene, the director (Alfonzo Arau) calls "cut" and then walks over to me. He has a puzzled look on his face. He says "Your accent?" I say "Yes?" He says "Your accent? What is it?" I tell him I got it from the book on tape. He says "Tape? What tape?"
In the words of Eddie on Absolutely Fabulous....I'm here, don't panic.....but I was panicked. Yeah. I realize that I've heard several comments about fading daylight. We have to get the scenes now or not get them at all. It's an actors biggest nightmare....your part cut because there is no time left to film it.
I certainly get the point that Alfonzo doesn't like the accent. He communicates that well but, due to his own accent, we have trouble more clearly defining what is lacking for him. So, after a few very intense seconds of futile trying, I still end up with no idea what he wants to hear coming out of my mouth. He says to me that I'm southern and should just be a southern woman. This is even more confusing since there are at least 6 or 7 distinct southern accents I can do. Oh God, what kind of "southern" does he want?
Now, you might think why didn't I just use my normal Alabama accent? Because he had never heard it. I did all three auditions with the same dialect I learned on the tape so it never occurred to me that he would want Alabama.
We go again immediately, rushing to get the scene wrapped before the sun wrapped for the day.
I feel my mouth also wrapping itself around some undetermined "southern woman" cadence.
I try to channel the mind of Alfonzo Arau. It does not work.
We do several more takes. After each one, I hear the camera operator commenting on "losing light". I speed up as much as I can and still be real, speak as "southern woman" as I'm able, and finally, we get all but my favorite scene done.
Later, I asked some of the other actor's what they had done about the dialect and found out there had been a meeting in which certain phonetic choices had been made but unfortunately, I was not privy to that meeting, so I was on my own. To this day, I'd love to know if the accent actor David Lansing used in the book on tape was authentic. If it was, then I was. In any case, they kept the first take.
The director comes over and thanks me. My day is over. My favorite scene is cut because there is no more daylight. It was the scene that would have demanded the most of me, emotionally and the one I most wanted to tackle.
In the book version of A Painted House, Mrs. Latcher whips her children with a switch, to the point of child abuse. While this type of parenting is abhorent to me as a person, this is the exactly the kind of dramatic scene an actor craves, where there is a journey required from acceptable behavior into the extremes of human behavior that are not acceptable. I heard the director say he wanted to turn the camera and get the whipping of the children but there was simply no sun left for that. Such is the way of film making.
Some time after the filming, I received an invitation to come out to Los Angeles for the screening This was all happening at a very painful and difficult time in my own personal life. I had been thru a devastating personal loss and was at the point in my life where drastic changes have been required. During a visit witha friend, I spoke out the truth of my life. I said "I have no joy in my life anymore". She said "What would give you joy?" I said that acting used to give me joy but that I couldn't do that, I'd starve to death. my friend reminded me that I would not starve because i had my internet business.
The proverbial lightbulb went off over my head as I realized that, for the first time in my life, I could do something I wanted to and not worry about money. That was one thing that had made it so impossible the last time I visited Tinseltown. Trying to work a full time job and somehow still be available for auditions is crazy-making. But, I didn't have to do it that way this time! So, in this frame of mind, with nothing in my life that was requiring me to do otherwise, I decided to pack up the car and drive out to Los Angeles. Not just for the premiere but to stay a while, train a while, see how Hollywood felt to me after being away from it for 12 years. I spent almost a year in Los Angeles. During that time I secured a commercial agent and a theatrical manager and was well-poised to work. However, my heart remained in the south and it is there I have returned to live. Asphalt, traffic, smog and the fast pace of city life is not for me. I plan to return to Los Angeles for pilot season and also, periodically, to freshen up my training, and of course I'd be happy to travel there for acting work, but I plan to base myself in the south and I'm grateful that more and more work is coming into Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina..
Attending the premiere was a magical experience (photo at left is me at the premiere. I was accompanied by another friend, who acted as my publicist and told everyone there how great I was. Matt also provided the beautiful flowers. Yet another friend, loaned me the beautiful white dress I wore and sent along her camera. I had not even thought of taking a camera but I'm so glad she did. I get by with a little help from my friends....thank you. Seeing "A Painted House" on the huge screen was so exciting and Hallmark could not have been more courteous to all the cast members. They announced the stars who were there, of course, but I was taken totally by surprise when I heard my own name called out and was asked to stand for applause from the audience who had come to attend the screening. Magical moments....seeing myself on that huge screen.....hearing the applause at the end. I remember breathing a huge sigh of relief as my big scene ended, realizing that they had not cut a word nor an expression. I was there, in tact. And I was good in my own estimation. I was also good in the estimation of my friend, Melinda. I kept a voicemail message from her on my machine for a long time and listened to it a lot during my first few weeks back in Los Angeles. Whenever I needed a lift I'd play the message and hear Melinda saying "You were so good, you were soooooooo good!" Thank you Melinda. That meant more to me that you can know.
I approach acting from a spiritual point of view, which is a little different. For me, creativity is an expression of divinity. To me, acting fully is like living fully in the flow of life. I teach an online acting class from that same perspective. It's not for everyone but if you are metaphysical, you might enjoy it. It's called The Power Connection A Painted House |
