Don't judge this weekend's two-part Liftetime movie Everything She Ever Wanted (premiering Saturday) by its cover. As basic-cable pulp goes, the adaptation of Ann Rule's true-crime bestseller is actually some wicked grade-A melodrama with a killer lead performance by Gina Gershon. Literally -- the actress plays the infamous Pat Allanson, a Southern social striver best known for marrying a younger man in pursuit of his family's fortune at whatever cost. A few gun deaths, poisonings and imprisonments later, Pat turns her predatory eye on her own sister (Rachel Blanchard), who may know too much -- or does she? Gershon settles brilliantly into those plot and character ambiguities beneath Allanson's cutthroat, larger-than-life persona.
Movieline caught up with Gershon on her way to a matinee of Bye Bye Birdie (in which she's also currently starring on Broadway) for a chat about true stories, bad girls and what makes a camp classic.
So I watched Everything She Ever Wanted. I can't believe that story actually happened.
I know! Isn't it crazy? Truth really is stranger than fiction.
Are you a true-crime buff?
I'm definitely fascinated by it. I don't know if I'd say I'm a buff.
What appealed to you about Pat Allanson?
Well, look, she had me at the Gone With the Wind wedding. Anyone who is so obsessed with Scarlett O'Hara already has me. She's clearly a sociopath, and she's operating by different emotional rules as a lot of sociopaths do. I found her whole way of reasoning -- how she would feel or not feel -- really fascinating.
How much did you know about Allanson going into this project, and how much did you want to know going forward with it?
I knew absolutely nothing about her. I didn't know the story at all. This came together so quickly that I had very little time to do any research. And fortunately I had already been doing research with sociopathic behavior, and I already knew about Münchausen syndrome and Münchausen by proxy and all those. I was researching those for something else, so that was kind of lucky. I would have loved to have spoken to her, but she was in jail at the time. And I guess she's not in jail now. I hope she likes it if she sees it. It's so strange; we can all say this is allegedly what happened, but there are many truths to a story. There's what the court said, and there's what Ann Rule said. I'm sure she has her own version of the story.
You're perhaps best-known for portraying well-drawn women with ruthless, occasionally pathological ambition. What appeals to you about these characters, and why do they keep coming back to you?
It's so funny, because I've really only played a few of them. I'm playing Rosie in Bye Bye Birdie, for God's sake. When people say say that to me, I have to actually think of what parts they're talking about. [Pauses] What parts are you talking about? ...
There's Showgirls, obviously. Now this movie, and of course Bound--
Yeah, see, that's funny because to me, in Bound, I saw her as so sensitive and a vulnerable person. She just happened to be a criminal, and she happened to fall in love with the wrong person. But I thought she had such a conscience. I would not put her in the same category as this one. I don't think I've ever really played anyone like this. No -- I did once in this movie that a lot of people didn't see. She was kind of a sociopath.
Which film?
No, that's just an aside. Anyway, I always think that: "Which parts are they talking about?" What was your question?
It was about why that shared quality of those characters comes back to you.
I can't speak to all my roles, because I can only name two. But I'm interested in complex personalities. I don't think there's any such thing as, "Oh, there's a bad person." There are people with diseases and issues, and they see the world the way they see it.
There's also a certain campiness associated with these films. Is that something that you spot in them, that draws you to them?
Again, the only campy thing I've done is Showgirls. I think that would fall under the category of what you're talking about. Bye Bye Birdie, I wish it were more campy. I love camp. I wish Everything She Ever Wanted were more camp, but it's not. People go for the seriousness. I just think maybe you're getting your words mixed up, that's all.
I don't know, I think it has a very campy quality in parts. You wanted more?
I tried to inject as much as I can. I wish it had more. I think she's an eccentric character; maybe that's what your calling "camp"? I mean, if John Waters had directed it, it would have been reallycamp, which would have been really camp. That would have been genius. But everything that's there was kind of in the book. When something's campy, it kind of winks at the audience. For me, I made that character in Showgirls as campy as I could just because I think she had fun with that. It was the world she was in. But with Everything She Ever Wanted, it was weirdly just her life and the way she saw it. I think she was full of life and excessive in her behavior, but it wasn't to be campy. She liked to be noticed, but I think that was part of her pathology of needing more attention. It's a subtle difference, but it's a big difference.
What about Love Ranch, which I guess is kind of in limbo right now? Where does your character fall in the spectrum between Helen Mirren and Bai Ling?
And Joe Pesci! It was more like Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci. Bai Ling. That was bizarre. I don't know what's happening with that, but I wish it would come out. They keep telling me it's coming out, but I have no idea. I play Helen Mirren's best friend; she's kind of the head prostitute at the brothel. It's a really interesting story, because it's basically the birth of legalized prostitution during the '70s -- one of my favorite time periods, just aesthetically. I thought it was great-looking. And it was another true story. The true stories are really compelling to me.
Why?
Well, truth is stranger than fiction. If you make it up, people would be like, "Nobody would ever believe this." But no -- it actually happened. You can get away with facts. If Pat Allanson's story wasn't true, we'd be poking so many holes in it: "Really? There's no way." And yet, allegedly, it did. You can't sit there and argue. The facts are the road map, and you build your character from there.
Of course you're back on Broadway now as well. What does the stage do for you creatively that movies and TV don't, and vice versa?
It's an interesting thing, because there's nothing like live theater and performing in front of a live audience. But at the same time I really enjoy the intimacy of film. I had done Boeing Boeing last year, which was a ball. We really had a great time. We won best revival, and it was a show I loved doing. But I had no intention of coming back to Broadway. I think Broadway is a great exercise, and it's really artistically satisfying because you can flesh out your character. You can go through the whole show without any editing or anything like that. But at the same time, it's exhausting. Doing eight shows a week is not for the timid. So initially I said I didn't want to do another show for a while, but Bye Bye Birdie... I don't know. I just had a soft spot for it. It was the first show I'd ever done, when I was 14. And it was such a different kind of part. It's fun to sing and dance with a big orchestra behind you. Let's be honest, you know? But I'm definitely planning to go back to film and television after this. It takes a lot out of you.