Affairs of the heart
Winger sparks romance in unlikely place in ‘Lovers’
Debra Winger, who returns to the big screen in Friday's comedy “The Lovers,” retains her status as a brilliantly multifaceted actress.
Beginning with 1980's “Urban Cowboy,” her fearlessness, assertive sexuality and emotional transparency saw her Oscar nominated for “An Officer and a Gentleman,” “Terms of Endearment” and “Shadowlands.”
Now 61, she teams in “The Lovers” with Tonywinning playwright and actor Tracy Letts (TV's “Homeland,” “August: Osage County”) as Mary and Michael, a longmarried couple who are each carrying on longterm affairs.
When their respective amours demand they divorce, surprisingly a spark is reignited, and Mary and Michael begin a secret “affair” so as not to upset their lovers.
“To me, it's a little gem,” Winger said. “Its flavor reminds me a lot of films of the '70s and '80s that I miss so much: Hal Ashby, (John) Cassavetes even.
“You have a script that's very succinct but sparse, that left a lot of room for the actors.”
“Lovers,” she said, is much more than a celebration of a midlife couple able to enjoy sex.
“It's a beautiful prismatic reflection of what a small independent movie can be. It has the scorch of truth. It's pretty bold, you know, firing on so many more levels, up to and including what's happened to upwardly mobile America.
“It's a reflection on the institution of marriage,” she added, “because we go for a dream and we find ourselves in a trap really. Unless we can keep waking each other up.”
On that score Winger isn't just talking, she's living that ethos with actor-director Arliss Howard since 1993, married since '96.
“What really happens in marriage is you stop `seeing' each other when you've been married for too long. I love when I walk in a room and maybe we haven't been together for a few days.
“For whatever reason,” she said with a laugh, “I get a kick out of the fact that I see him and it's like brand new. That's a gift. And if we ever lose it, we get into trouble.”
As for Oprah Winfrey's announced remake of “Terms of Endearment,” Winger doesn't know the “details.”
“But the only reason to remake anything is to have a new idea. So I'll be in the ticket buyers' line the first weekend it opens to see their take.”