My interview with Susan Sullivan
Diner
http://dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2016/05/28/talking-susan-sullivan-steel-magnolias-bucks-county-playhouse/
I think the interview turned out really well - but it almost turned out horribly. I spoke to her on the phone last Saturday night for 25 minutes, had a wonderful, free-wheeling, frank conversation... but the friggin' Call Recorder app on my Android phone didn't work, and I lost the whole damn thing.
I basically had a panic attack at that point. There's no way I would have been able to recall quotes from memory. But fortunately she agreed to do the whole thing over again, and we spoke for 18 minutes on Friday morning, with me asking her most of the same questions. (Though I did throw in a new one, the one about James Garner.)
As you'll see, I used JW's suggestion and asked her about Johnny Carson. In the first interview I used Kevin's suggestion and asked her why she left "Falcon Crest," though I decided to skip that question the second time. Her answer: She said the producers hired Gregory Harrison to juice things up in the final season, and they fired her so that they could afford Gregory Harrison's salary! And she didn't mind having her character Maggie get killed off, but she found the way they killed her off - having Maggie drown in a swimming pool when she dived to the bottom to retrieve a ring - to be really distasteful.
Another question I skipped the second time was what she thought of the final episode of "Castle." Basically, she hated it - not just the final scene, which she felt seemed very slapdash and unsatisfying, but the plot, which she felt was too convoluted and over the top. When I said that I thought the scene where Nathan Fillion was injected with truth serum and forced to talk was ridiculous, she said she actually liked that part because he cried when he had to give up his mother's name - she was really touched by the way he played that scene.
Then last night I went to the opening of the play... but it turned out that it started at 7pm, not 8pm as I had thought, so I got there an hour late and missed it. I rescheduled my ticket for the Sunday matinee.
As I waited for her at the stage door, I was hanging around with a bunch of fans and autograph seekers. One of the women was a Jessica Walter fanatic who had flown in from Nashville to see the show, and had seen all four performances that weekend!
Anyway, Susan was very happy to see me, and had me walk her across the narrow and very busy main street of New Hope (it's always busy on the weekend, but holiday weekends are ridiculous). Her co-stars Jessica Walter, Lucy DeVito and Clea Alsip were on the opposite sidewalk waiting for her. Jessica was carrying a duffel bag into which she had stuffed flowers that a fan (not the woman I mentioned earlier) had given her.
Susan said to Jessica, "This is Tim - he wrote a very nice article about me. Here, Tim will carry your flowers."
I said, "Um, yes. Yes, I will."
(Don't worry, I gave them back when they got to their restaurant.)
-Tim
JW
Melissa P
A really enjoyable read -- and tale of your encounter(s) with her.
I was wondering if she'd mention her soap opera experience -- as I first became aware of her existence long ago when she took over the role of Lenore Curtin on Another World. (Lenore's husband Walter let her take the blame for a murder he committed.) At my advancing age, it's incredible what you remember. And, what you don't. For example, I was a regular viewer of Falcon Crest, and I don't remember her at all on the series. I do remember her first Johnny Carson appearance.
And, I really remember her as Greg's mother. I went to a taping of the show, and at one point, the actor who played her husband sat down next to me. They had worked together on Another World, I believe, and I asked him about that. Unfortunately, I don't remember what he said.
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Diner
I didn't bring up Another World because I wanted to keep the interview short, and because it's not one of my areas of expertise. :)