Page 8
"T h e re is a
trem endous
am ount of
p ro d u ct th is
season about
o ld e r people,
no t to m ention
gay people o r
themes. X hope
th is is n 't an
aberration .
X hope i t
continues
across
the board
— d iffe re n t
a p p re cia tio n
across the
board fo r
a ll ages of
h u m a n ity ."
LILY TOMLIN
News
Street Roots • Jan. 15-21,2016
News
Page 9
Lily Tomlin has
niquely Lily
BY SUE ZALOKAR
S T A F F W R IT E R
ily Tomlin, at age 76, has already had a
long and storied career as an actress,
comedian, writer, singer and producer.
But looking back at 2015, one might think
she’s just getting started.
Last year, Tomlin co-starred in the hit
Netflix series “Grace and Frankie” with
longtime friend Jane Fonda. They have already
filmed a second season set to release June 1
and are planning a third.
Tomlin also plays the lead role in
“Grandma,” a film directed by Paul Weitz
that was released last year. Tomlin plays
Elie, a lesbian poet coping with the death
of her long-term life partner when she
receives a visit from her 18-year-old
granddaughter, Sage. Sage is pregnant and
needs help finding $630 for an abortion.
Both the television show and the film
. put people in their 70s in lead roles,
I addressing the tangible issues of aging
alongside the nuances of coming of age.
Tomlin has a stockpile of awards and
honors to her name, including the 1986 Tony
Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play for
• “The Search for Signs of Intelligent
Life in the Universe,” which was
written by her wife, Jane
Wagner.
This weekend, Tomlin
will play to a sold-out
I audience and bring
I dozens of her timeless
H characters - such as
¡1 Ernestine, Sister
I Boogie Woman, Mrs.
Beasley and Edith Ann
- to the Arlene
Schnitzer Concert Hall in
Portland.
I spoke to Tomlin on the
1 phone, and she greeted me
p cheerily as I answered her
call: “Hi. This is Lily, rooting
for the streets!”
When she realized I was
speaking to her from my
apartment, she shared memories
of her youth growing up in an
apartment building in Detroit.
B
J8
Sue Zalokar: What did you think of
apartment living?
Lily Tomlin.: It was fabulous! It was my
life. I used to go from apartment to apartment,
and I would play the room. You know, so I
could stick around. I was so mad for everybody
- the old people, the young people, the
divorced people.
There was'only one divorced person, and
she became (a friend). Her boyfriend used to
P H O T O B Y J E N N Y FWSHÊR
Street Roots • Jan. 15-21, 2016
sleep over, so she was kind of the building
hussy, you know.
S.Z.: Oh my, yes.
L.T.: All the women in the lobby room
gossiped about her. But she was
imperturbable. She was so great and vivacious.
S.Z.: So now I have this image of a young Lily
running around the apartment building and
building her character repertoire.
L.T.: I was! That’s what I was doing,
unconsciously. I put on shows all the time.
S.Z.: What kind?
L.T.: First of all, two boys moved into the
building, from Georgia. They were brothers
and had red haip and freckles. I was always
looking at it like a producer. So I would create
material. Then I would play the characters
around them. I
Bub I; could never get them to rehearse, or
show up. They jvere just a pain in the neck.
I started doing a single, because I couldn’t
count on the kids. I would imitate people I
saw on television. I incorporated dance
because I took tap and ballet lessons at the
Department of Parks and Recreation. It was a
pretty rough neighborhood, and they had a lot
of programs to keep kids off the street.
S.Z.: Your parents were working class, and
you were a working-class Detroit kid?
L.T.: Oh yeah. My mother and dad were
from Kentucky. My dad worked; my mother
didn’t work right away. She started working
when I was about 12. My dad was a Southern
boy. He didn’t want his woman to work.
S.Z.: It was a sign of the times, really, that
mentality. I can’t imagine not working.
L.T.: Oh, absolutely! And my dad, he never
owed a bill. He would pay cash for everything.
He was a scream. I’d go to the horse track
with him every Saturday. By the time I was
about 14, when I could pass for 20, I’d place
his bets.
S.Z.: Did you guys ever wifi?
L.T.: No. I’d hold the money back
sometimes. My dad lost i t He would lose very
easily. He made $100 a week or something
like that. He’d bet $100 on a horse if he had it.
S.Z.: Wouldn’t he know if you didn’t have a
ticket?
L.T.: No, I would nary get back by the time
something to say
about women,
aging and comedy
the race was over. And he’d be on to the next
race. I’d try to feel it. I wouldn’t do it every
race; I’d do it like once or twice a night so I
could take the money home to my mother.
Not that it was a major problem, but money
is money.
S.Z.: There’s always something “uniquely
Lily” - a part of you that comes out in all of
your characters. Do you agree? Grandma
seems to be one of those characters. You used
your own clothes. Even the ’55 Dodge that
Elie and Sage drive around in for much of
the film is yours.
Lily Tomlin will reimst
ph ° t o by m a t t
characters in a Jan. 16 herf™
mostf am°us
Schnitzer Concert Hall inPo^tiand
Arlme
L.T.: That’s my vehicle; that’s right. One
.day, Paul (Weitz) told me he was going to
go look at an old car for the movie. I told him
I had an old car. So we went over to my house,
and we looked at it. It’s kind of snazzy. We
decided to use it.
S.Z.: You worked with Paul Weitz before, on
his 2013 film “Admission.” You played the
mother of Tina Fey’s character. How has comedy
evolved for women in the span of your career?
L.T.: From the time I started, most women
who were well-known then, I could almost
count on one hand. (Today) there are many
more women doing stand-up. They don’t make
themselves the butt of the joke. They have a
point of view.
I find that people who are really ridiculing
of the species, I see them losing their
popularity. I don’t know if that is true or not;
it may just be the people that I’ve noticed as
they were coming up and I think, “Oh God.
Here’s another sort of macho comic doing
misogynistic material.” I think that kind of
comedy is falling out of favor. I don’t know if
that’s true. I hope it is.
S.Z.: “Grace and Frankie” seems as much
about presenting aging people as vital and sexy
as it is about the friendship of these two women
whose husbands of decades have come out as gay
and want to marry each other.
L.T.: That’s a huge point: to make these
older characters as vibrant as young ones are.
Jane and I have always wanted to do a show
where we could call attention to how
dismissed older people are, particularly older
S.Z.: Whoopi Goldberg just pronounced on
“The Noice” that she thinks 74 is the new middle
age. What are your thoughts about ageism in
Hollywood?
L.T.: It’s been present for a long time.
There is a tremendous amount of product this
season about older people, not to mention gay
people or themes.
I hope this isn’t an aberration. I hope it
continues across the board - different
appreciation across the board for all ages of
humanity.
Be like Joan Rivers and just give them the
finger. She totally went out there and really
changed her face. She’s an old friend of mine.
We both worked at the Upstairs. She was a
headliner, and I was in the review.
I remember when I first saw her (after she
had some work done). I went on her radio
show.
She was so changed. It was a bit jarring.
She had no cheekbones, nothing, and then
suddenly her face, because it was so filled out,
(was so different). I hate to speak about her
because she is dead, goddamn i t It makes me
so fucking mad I can’t even think about it
She would make fun of herself. She
weathered that, but she had been around a
long time.
S.Z.: You had been in a committed
relationship with Jane Wagner for 42 years before
the two of you formally married in 2013. So, you
are looking at 45 years together.
L.T.: In March.
S.Z.: How do you and Jane make a long-term
relationship work?
L.T.: We just don’t want to lose it, so we
don’t.
S.Z.: You’ve never really been “in the closet.”
In a very matter-of-fact way, you have always
simply been who you are.
L.T.: Through the ’70s, we didn’t do that
kind of stuff. I never called a press conference
or anything, but I certainly wasn’t closeted.
So many of my fans across the country
were really like middle Americans. And they
would have been more shocked than anything.
hoyle
People on the East and West Coast,
they wouldn’t have thought a thing
about it
In 1975, my publicist called me
and told me that Time wanted to give
me the cover of the magazine. This
was in ’75, so it was worth something
at that point. And they just want you
to come out. You know, publicly.
I puzzled over it for a while and
then I decided, Jane and I were in the
recording studio doing my third album,
“Modern Scream.” So I decided that I
would put that piece on it: “The
Heterosexual Conversation.” I thought
that would be my answer to Time
magazine for trying to lure me onto the
cover.
S.Z.: What do you think about the impending
presidential election?
L.T.: I don’t know if we can make things
right with one presidency. Look at poor
Obama. He’s just sort of vanquished in terms
of his aspirations. The Republicans just
absolutely set out to decapitate him.
S.Z.: You should run for president.
L.T.: Nooooooo. No I shouldn’t. You would
be really disappointed if I ran for president.
Maybe I’d give an address as Ernestine?
S.Z.: I don’t know. I ’m thinking it might just
work.
L.T.: Or Tommy Velour - sing it. I’d sing it
to you. (Tomlin breaks into song.) “Because
you got a good day coming along . ..”
S.Z.: What are you thinking for 2016?
L.T.: Well, I’m thinking of my third season
on “Grace and Frankie,” and I’m enjoying the
idea of that. In the second season, we deal
with a lot of issues that come out at an older
age. The third season? Well, I’ll just tell you
it’s going to be good!
S.Z.: Do you think about the time you have
left on the planet?
L.T.: I do. I think about it very, very, very,
very often. The two decades between 70 and
90 are probably the most trying to get through
in good health. So I just hope to stay in good
health. You, on the other hand, will just about
be getting ready to get your Social Security -
if they still have such a thing. If only things
could be set right
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