‘I STILL DON’T THINK THE PEOPLE IN THIS CULTURE KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH WOMEN’

to after making her debut on Broadway in Oklahoma! at 16 before embarking on an impressive career that includes six Oscar nominations, six Emmy nods and lots of acclaim over decades.

Unlike her Last Word character the actress is more moderate in her approach, compromising on some things but refusing to settle on others. She does agree that Harriet, and the film, represent a kind of old school feminism that she appreciates. “I still don’t think the people in this culture know what to do with women,” MacLaine says. “The women know what to do with women, but I think (others) feel more secure with a label, and then they can ascertain whether a woman fits it or not.”

The prejudice applies to senior citizens, too, and MacLaine says that she’d like to follow up The Last Word with more material on the subject.

She’s developing two more stories for the octogenarian set, although she refuses to reveal what they entail. She does admit that the senior citizen crowd have been neglected by Hollywood and she promises to change that by becoming the queen of the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) scene. “I do think that aging people are under served in this culture big time and I want to stay healthy so I can serve that community and be a kind of voice to it,” she says. “Yes, I want to be queen of AARP, and I want to say what they feel. It’s awful that they seem to be made invisible.”

Meanwhile, MacLaine continues to pursue her special kind of spirituality and she maintains her belief in reincarnation. In fact, she didn’t attend the funerals of friends Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds last December because she doesn’t recognize the concept. She first befriended them when she played the showbiz mother in 1990s’ Postcards From the Edge opposite Meryl Streep. The film was based on Fisher’s semi-autobiographical book detailing her life with Reynolds, her mom. Which brings us to what she would like the title of her final book to be.

Without missing a beat, MacLaine says, “So far, I like this lifetime the best.”