TEEN SPIRIT
Martha Plimpton returns to TV for new HBO Max teen drama
PROLIFIC actress Martha Plimpton skates easily between the stage and screens both big and small. She’s currently co-starring in the HBO Max teen drama series “Generation” (new episodes premiere Thursdays) as Megan, the conservative mother of Nathan (Uly Schlesinger) and Naomi (Chloe East). Plimpton, 50 — the daughter of actors Keith Carradine and Shelley Plimpton— is also known for “The Goonies,” “Raising Hope,” “The Good Wife,” “Brockmire” and Broadway’s “Cymbeline.”
She answered some questions for The Post about “Generation” and about her acting career.
What attracted you to “Generation?”
[The fact] that it was created by this teenager and her dad. Zelda Barnz [the teenager] is just an incredibly smart, intuitive, conscious human being. And I just loved the scripts and I loved what she and [co-creator Daniel Barnz] had created together as a family. It was the first time I was reading something about teenagers that really felt authentic and real and honest. Usually these things are written by adults sort of trying, and failing, to make their words sound like a teenager’s words, but this felt different and new to me.
Tell me about Megan.
She’s nothing like me at all — she’s not a terribly articulate person — and she doesn’t have a facility with words. So I really have to concentrate because sometimes her sentences come out a little funny. They have a different rhythm than the way I speak. She wears a lot of Tory Burch [and] is very interested in material things. I looked into a lot of the gospel of prosperity and this version of evangelism that she comes from — this sort of philosophy that God wants us to be wealthy and enjoy the fruits of our labors — I think that’s how she justifies the way she lives her life.
What was the most enjoyable aspect of the role?
Working with these kids. They’re such fine actors, all of them — Justice Smith and Chloe East and Uly Schlessinger. They’re all really smart and they understand what they’re doing. They pay attention and I just love the way they work [and] their honesty. That’s the part I admire the most, besides being married to Sam Trammell [on the series]. He’s a wonderful guy.
Are there certain elements you look for in your roles?
It’s not so much the qualities, it’s whether or not I can see something in them that’s serving the bigger picture. Sigourney Weaver said something interesting in an interview ... about what makes her choose a script — that the sum of its parts is bigger than what appears on the page. I think she nailed it when she said that. That’s something I do as well. Is it telling a larger story?
Did you get a lot of acting advice from your parents?
My mom definitely was very smart in the way she guided me, because I started at 8 years old. I was very young and she always kept reminding me to keep it about the work and not get caught up in celebrity and that sort of thing. I think growing up in New York helped with that.
Do you have a preference for stage or the screen?
I do really miss the theater — especially after this year... the process of making a play and being onstage and that experience of being in a live space with people. Nothing really takes the pace of that. But to be honest I love it all. I’ll go wherever I’m wanted.