For local actress Margaret Bowman, every character has a backstory
Margaret Bowman, an 88-year-old Texas native who lives in Humble, has done the near impossible: She’s had a breakout performance as an aging character actor.
Now, for the unfamiliar, character actors play the often small, unnamed roles — waiters, cab drivers, bank tellers, etc. — that flesh out a movie’s world like scenery. It’s not every day a character actor takes center stage in a film.
But if you’ve seen “Hell or High Water,” the modern Western starring Chris Pine and Jeff Bridges that’s currently in theaters, then you’ll recognize Bowman as the scene-stealing T-Bone Waitress, a no-nonsense denizen of Coleman, Texas, who doesn’t take orders. She gives them.
The film, directed by David Mackenzie, is being hailed as the best film of 2016 to date. And inside those critical valentines are raves about the unforgettable Bowman, who puts two Texas Rangers, played by Bridges and Gil Birmingham, in their place during a stop at a small-town restaurant while tracking down a pair of bankrobbing brothers.
For a role that doesn’t get a name beyond “T-Bone Waitress,” that’s quite a feat.
In the scene, before either of the Rangers can get a word in, Bowman tells them exactly what they’re going to order: a Tbone steak, medium rare, with iced tea, and either corn on the cob or green beans.
Her line, “What don’t you want?” is memorable to the level of meme-worthy. In a story about history, tradition and people’s relationships to their land, what could have been a throwaway scene becomes vital to the film’s evocation of West Texas.
“I had that character in mind before I even auditioned,” Bowman says over a chicken salad at Trigg’s Humble Inn on a recent afternoon. She’s a regular here, and says her T-Bone Waitress is inspired by her favorite waitress, Sharon Harris.
“If you want to be a good character actor, you have to observe the people around you. I look at Sharon and see how she walks with her hand on her back. Her back hurts. She’s been working on her feet for decades.”
Harris, walking over to Bowman, offers the kind of friendly gesture that’s nowhere to be found in “Hell or High Water.” Putting her hand on the longtime customer, Harris smiles and asks, “When do I get to see the movie?”
Bowman, who will appear in the fifth season of “Longmire” (available Friday on Netflix), spends her free time observing the people around her, sitting on benches or hanging around airports and making up storylines for the passers-by. She also gives each of her characters backstories and starts to inhabit her roles before the camera turns on.
But it’s no surprise she applies method acting to small roles — she attended the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, Calif., while in her 50s, alongside a cadre of bright-eyed 19 and 20-year-olds.
Bowman had a stint in Nashville’s musical theater scene and became a veteran of Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston. Now, with television and film credits dating back to 1989, Bowman’s a go-to person for directors looking for older Texan or western women.
She worked with Clint Eastwood when she played Trick ’r Treat Lady in 1993’s “A Perfect World,” Tommy Lee Jones when she was Mrs. Faversham in the 1995 TV movie “The Good Old Boys” and the Coen brothers when she appeared as Del Rio Motel Clerk in “No Country for Old Men.”
She even gave the thankless role of Fat Lady in the recent “Lone Ranger” remake a story worthy of its own film.
“She’s a sanctimonious, upper-class woman wearing black silk, married to a senator,” Bowman says. “But she started as a prostitute in New Orleans, became a madame and ended up owning a string of brothels. She hides all this with her holier-than-thou act.”
Even T-Bone Waitress of “Hell or High Water” fame has a name: Maisie, who moved back to her hometown to take care of her sick mother-in-law and ended up staying for 44 years.
“Everyone has a story,” Bowman says. “Nobody’s cardboard.”