Rebecca De Mornay: The Mini-Star with Many Faces

"OK, are we ever going to see your novel?"

"What happened is, I became famous again. I really started writing it during the downtime, and then suddenly everything's moving and I'm doing other movies. I have to wait till things slow down, which is starting to happen, by the way. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle is wearing off. If my new film, Never Talk to Strangers, doesn't really click, I might be spending a lot more time on my novel! I've got to finish it, though, because it's good. I should never have spoken about it in the first place, but I did and then I had to keep talking about it when really, what I should have been doing is writing."

"Let's talk about your films ..."

De Mornay groans.

"Come on," I urge her. "You've made some good ones."

"Oh. I've made some great ones. Risky Business still stands up. It's timeless. They study that film in film school. And because of that movie. I had a 10-year run, until The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. I just kept getting work, which is a thrill. I liked Runaway Train, although not too many people saw it. The Trip to Bountiful I love. I just adore it."

"It's beyond tedious to watch," I say.

"Maybe to you it is, but I'll tell you something. You have no idea how much that movie has affected people. Although I know what you mean. It's one of those slow films."

"I kept thinking, 'Maybe they should take the train to Bountiful instead of the bus.'"

"Truthfully. I'm with you. I grew up in Europe, and I used to like those very slow-moving European films. I've been contaminated by the American TV culture, and I just want things to move faster now. But it's a beautiful movie, Martha, it really is."

"What about And God Created Woman?"

De Mornay just laughs.

"Well, I guess maybe you wouldn't have worked that year if you didn't do that, right?"

"Exactly."

"How about Feds and Dealers? I've never heard of either one."

"Let's just keep it that way."

"Backdraft?"

De Mornay makes a little sound in her throat that translates to. "Uggghhhh." "Did you see Getting Out?" she asks.

"Never heard of that one either."

"It was for TV, I did it last year, and it's based on the Marsha Norman award-winning play. That is one of the best things I've ever done. What an incredible film. Ellen Burstyn plays my evil, sadistic mother. I'm this white-trash girl. I have this thick accent. And I get out of prison, and I have a baby, and I get it back, and it's up for adoption, and I'm fighting with my ex-pimp and all this stuff."

"I hope nobody's listening at the door," I say.

De Mornay talks a bit louder. "I'm fighting with my ex-pimp, and my mother's this evil bitch..." She laughs. "You know, people talk to me about my films as if I did them while I could have been doing others. Sometimes you do a film because that is all you're being offered. Period. And you need to keep working so you do them."

"Do you have people who you depend on to read scripts with you? Or do you make all these choices on your own?"

"Every single choice I made on my own. I stand by it. There were some choices, in retrospect, that were probably bad. but I know that the alternative would have been to not work in that time period. Every step I made. I made myself. I can't say, 'Oh. no, my agent told me or my manager told me to do it.' I've never had a manager, and I've had various agents, and, fortunately or unfortunately, I've been blessed. I've had two huge hit films, A lot of actors don't have any. But I've also made a lot of forgettable things. I don't regret any of it."

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Comments

  • aitchcs says:

    Quite telling about celebrity culture. Do writers and critics usually tell the actors they hated one or more of their films. LIke Martha stating how she hates Trip to Bountiful.