Kathleen Turner is a Hollywood legend, and since the release of her most-recent, ruthlessly unfiltered interview in Vulture, I promise you she’s your new personal icon.
Turner is an award-winning actor and director who rose to fame in the 80’s and continues to add to her massive list of Hollywood credentials. She’s known for her signature husky voice and for all the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. fans out there, you’ll remember her role as Chandler Bing’s feminine-presenting father.
With over 40 years in the industry under her belt, Kathleen Turner has had to deal far more sh** than anyone should ever have to and she’s clearly past staying silent about it. In the extensive interview she calls out pretty much everyone in Hollywood from Trump to ‘method acting’ as a concept.
F.R.I.E.N.D.S fans will be disappointed to hear that Turner didn’t have anything hugely positive to say about her time appearing on the show, which she actually found quite unwelcoming.
“I’ll be quite honest, which is my wont: I didn’t feel very welcomed by the cast.” Turner told Vulture.
“I remember I was wearing this difficult sequined gown — and my high heels were absolutely killing me. I found it odd that none of the actors thought to offer me a seat.”
“Finally it was one of the older crew members that said, “Get Miss Turner a chair.” The Friends actors were such a clique — but I don’t think my experience with them was unique. I think it was simply that they were such a tight little group that nobody from the outside mattered.”
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She also spoke her mind about Nicolas Cage and her time working with him on Peggy Sue Got Married, in which he decided his character would speak with a bizarre voice. Just your usual Nicolas Cage antics.
“It was tough to not say, ‘Cut it out.’ But it wasn’t my job to say to another actor what he should or shouldn’t do,” she said.
“So I went to [director] Francis [Ford Coppola]. I asked him, ‘You approved this choice?’ It was very touchy. He [Nicolas Cage] was very difficult on set. But the director allowed what Nicolas wanted to do with his role, so I wasn’t in a position to do much except play with what I’d been given. If anything, it [Cage’s portrayal] only further illustrated my character’s disillusionment with the past. The way I saw it was, yeah, he was that asshole.”
When asked if she was referring to Cage or his character, Turner responds, “Listen, I made it work, honey.”
2019 is going to be the Year of Women's Rage and Kathleen Turner is our high priestess pic.twitter.com/6P3irBbDiO
— andi zeisler (@andizeisler) August 7, 2018
The interview is overflowing with Hollywood injustices, many of them gendered, that Turner has endured. She tells a particularly distasteful story about some of Hollywood’s biggest male stars competing to see who could bed her first.
“You have to remember that my first big role was Body Heat, and after that I was a sexual target.” Turner says. “I understood later, from Michael Douglas, that there was a competition between him and Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty about who would get me first. None of them did, by the by,” she said. “I don’t like being thought of as a trophy.”
The whole interview traverses much more of Turner’s career and Hollywood’s weak points (and people), and it is well worth reading.
One crucial take away is that Kathleen Turner is a god damn legend and she is fearlessly herself and basically we should all be more like Kathleen Turner.