Madeleine Stowe: Mad About the Girl

"I'm glad you brought that up," I say. "I wanted to ask you...what were you doing at the end of the movie? Wasn't your husband about to get killed and you were having a yogurt or something? What the fuck was going on there?"

Stowe laughs her full-throated whoop. "All of a sudden, I was told to crouch down, on the floor in the bathroom, freaking out. I mean, I had no idea what was going on, it made no sense. All they knew is they wanted to kill Ray over and over and over again. It was a thriller, y'know? Most of them don't work too well."

"They've gotta be killed twice in a thriller now."

"Three times," she says. "And for some reason it's okay."

"There was this amazing scene in Mohicans," I say, "when you and Daniel are hiding from the Huron war party and you tell him how surprised you are by America and he says he's sorry you're disappointed."

"And I say, 'On the contrary, it's more deeply stirring to my blood than any imagining could possibly have been...'"

"When I heard that line, I almost died. I loved it. There aren't too many actresses that could get away with that line."

"Let me tell you, we had lines in that movie that had me rolling on the floor. But Michael [Mann, the director] pulled it off. He really did. I love him, because he had this great vision and he kept to it. He knew from the beginning exactly what he wanted, and that's what he got."

We stop to buy Tootsie Roll Pops and some harsh, lemon-tasting gum that Stowe loves, and you can tell that the checkout guy recognizes her but can't place her.

"Does that happen to you a lot?" I ask.

"More to Brian than to me. Brian thinks it's hilarious. He really, really gets off on all this. He's sweet with people who come over to him. I don't deal with it well. But I don't have the kind of face or personality where people come over to me the way they do to him. I was coming off an airplane after I finished Blink, and Brian came to pick me up, and right away there were like six photographers who leapt in front of us and started taking pictures. I felt really horrible. I mean, my arms were shaking and I kept my head down and I was ill. I understand that you should be thrilled in a sense over that kind of recognition, but I was so upset and shaken by it."

"Now you understand why Sean Penn punches photographers."

"Totally, because something feels really dirty about it, like that they were catching somebody, you know, fucking or something."

"How long have you guys been together?"

"Brian and I? Since 1980."

"That's a long time. In Hollywood years, that's probably a century."

"Yeah. When I was a kid, my biggest crush was on Joel McCrea. And--"

"Your biggest crush was Joel McCrea?"

"Yeah, he's a wonderful actor."

"How old were you?"

"I don't know, but young. When I was a kid I used to watch all his stuff. I still have a huge crush on him. I really wanted to meet him, but I think that maybe he died. But I just love him. You know who he reminds me of? Harrison Ford. So why am I telling you this?"

"Beats me," I say. "How do you and Brian manage when you're apart so much?"

"We talk on the phone, at least twice a day," she says. "It's so important. Do you speak to your boyfriend when you're here?"

"Morning, noon and night. It's what makes me able to stay on the road so long."

"I wonder what it's going to be like when one of us is alone," she says.

"You mean, alone, like not together, or alone, like one of you is dead?"

"When one of us leaves this earth and the other one's left there. I wonder if that's why I want to have a baby, so that when I'm old, I'll have someone to be with if Brian's croaked on me. Do you understand?"

"Perfectly. Sometimes I ride along in my car and I get uncontrollably morose at the thought that Steve has died. I cry and scream and then...I realize he's fine! I get so overwhelmed with happiness."

"Martha," she says, "you really are crazy."

"Told you."

"You're a very social creature though, aren't you? You have a lot of friends, right?"

"Yeah, I do." I say. "How about you?"

"No. I was thinking about it the other day. I have about maybe two good friends."

"Well, you're fucked, Madeleine."

"I am totally fucked. I have one person I call on a day-to-day basis aside from my husband, and other people I feel really, like, you know, great about, and maybe one other person, maybe two, but I really don't have friends. I have some acquaintances. It's starting to take its toll on me. And it's not as if the opportunity is not afforded me. I just...I tend to get on really, really well with people I work with. I feel this affection toward most of them, the people that I really like, and I enjoy seeing them every day. But I don't have the energy or time to go out and socialize because it's about getting up and doing the work and going back to bed and conserving a certain amount of energy. It's turning out to be one of the real regrets in my life. I really have to do something to change that, you know."

"Okay, let's see, the list is...get more settled, make more friends..."

"It's the same thing, Martha. If I fix one, the other will be fixed, too. But it's not all that bad. When we were at the ranch today, I was thinking that I'm about to turn 35. And my dreams for myself were that by the time I got to this age, I'd like to be happy with someone, have a ranch with horses, be doing really well at my work. And I'm doing every single thing I ever said I would do when I was a kid."

"So what's the punch line?"

"I'm totally happy! It just took me by surprise."

When we pull up to Madeleine's house, I gather my things and head for my car. "Don't you want to come in?" she asks.

I feel as if I've been given a gift, and so, for the first time in my life, I don't snoop around, I don't ask a million questions. I just sit and have a glass of juice and watch Madeleine try to act as if this is the kind of thing she does every day.

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Martha Frankel interviewed Jeff Bridges for the cover story in the September Movieline.

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