Ellen Burstyn: 'I Never Had the Option of Being Conventional'

When you say you were "wild," what do you mean? How does that quality inform characters like these?

Well, I've experienced a lot. I haven't led a regulation, breaststroke life. I haven't been in the box -- ever. I grew up in a home with three different fathers; my mother was married three times by the time I was 6. So I had an unconventional upbringing in every conceivable way. I never had the option of being conventional. I just didn't know what to do with it. I mean, it's one thing to be out of the box, but then you have the whole world as a possibility of where you choose to fit in, if anywhere. It takes actual experience to know where you fit in, where you belong. I'd say a lot of my life was in search of belonging.

So when you started coming up as an actor, what did the work of Tennessee Williams -- the stories, the characters, the eras, the themes, all of it -- mean to you?

I used to do scenes of Tennessee Williams at the Actors Studio -- actually in the private classes with Lee Strasberg before I became a member of the Actors Studio. Last night we did a panel discussion; Eli Wallach was there, and they showed a scene from Baby Doll with Eli. That scene they showed was a scene I'd done for Lee Strasberg, and I remember that as a kind of hallmark of certain things I'd learned right then doing that scene. So I've had experiences working on Tennessee's material for my own development, but I've just never done a full production. I thought I'd missed it, and then along comes this.

Yet while his plays are indelible and produced to this day, after the early to mid '60s Tennessee Williams films kind of fell by the wayside. What separates the classic Williams film era from the kind of desert that followed it?

That's a question for a film historian. I'm not sure I know the answer to that. It might have something to do with [Elia] Kazan, because Kazan really was the director for Williams. And you know, at a certain point Kazan stopped directing and became more of a writer. I don't know if Williams found his replacement for Kazan. Jodie told me -- and I didn't know this -- that he'd written [Diamond] in 1957. She found some material that said -- after Summer and Smoke opened on Broadway to disastrous reviews -- he was very wounded and went away and couldn't write for a while. He had writer's block, and this was the first thing he wrote coming out of that. Those experiences are so painful for artists, whether it's writers or actors or whoever. I'm not sure when Kazan stopped directing Williams, but I think that was a perfect combination.

Totally changing subjects, but like everybody, I'm a big fan of The Last Picture Show and The Exorcist -- both of whose directors have recut and altered them in recent years. Have you seen the new versions of those films?

I saw the recut Exorcist, and I know [William Friedkin] put some material back in that he'd taken out. I don't think it makes a major difference whether it's in or out. The Last Picture Show? I didn't know that had been reedited.

Sort of. It's heartbreaking: Instead of cutting away from Jacy and Abilene's pool-hall tryst, then showing the Jacy coming home to you, Bogdanovich shows the whole thing. It changes everything.

Oh. I'm sorry they did that.

Really?

Well, from my own point of view, I always liked it that there's that scene where I hear Abilene's car and I think, "Oh, great! My lover's here!" And then I go to the door and think: "Oh God. It's not my lover, it's my daughter. Wait a second! My lover's been with my daughter! Wait a minute! My daughter's just had sex!" I had to play all of that, so that's how the audience found out what happened. So I really liked that. I don't know if I'll like it as much the other way. I'll have to take a look at it.

Do you ever re-watch your films otherwise?

Every once in a while, if one happens to playing on television and I'm channel-surfing. I'll stop and watch a little bit. Or when The Exorcist was re-released for its 25th anniversary. But that's it. It's not like I'm going to be putting on a tape or anything.

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