Metcalf faces down her fears
Oscar buzz surrounds Lady Bird actress
LOS ANGELES Laurie Metcalf has won three Emmys and a Tony Award in her nearly 40-year career, but the veteran stage and screen actress still feels uncomfortable in front of a camera.
“Even after all those years on Roseanne, I have a real fear of cameras. They make me inhibited,” Metcalf, 62, said recently in Los Angeles. “I think ‘Why don’t I know where to put my hands?’ All of a sudden the spotlight is right on you and every pore on your face in high definition and you think, ‘Oh this is all I can think about.’ I can’t just turn it off. You’d think after all these years I’d be used to it!”
This year she’s also found herself even more out of her element with the nominations and awards attention being given to her work in Lady Bird.
Not only is it her first film in a decade, but it’s the first time she’s had a serious shot at getting an Oscar nomination (she’s already got supporting actress nods from the Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globes and Independent Spirit Awards).
In the film, Metcalf plays the mother, Marion, to a 17-year-old girl, Christine (Saoirse Ronan), who has begun systematically rejecting everything her mother has given her — from her hair (which she has died pink), to her name (she demands that everyone call her Lady Bird). The story is loosely based on writer and director Greta Gerwig’s own life growing up in Sacramento.
“They’re misinterpreting each other. They’re looking for buttons to push. They’re passive aggressive,” Metcalf said. “We know that Marion and Lady Bird have a strong relationship, but it’s just dysfunctional at this particular moment that we’re watching. But it hasn’t always been like that and they’ll grow out of it.”
In one of her most memorable scenes in the film, she is entirely alone circling the Sacramento airport and having an emotional change of heart during the loop.
The execution was a complicated dance of both trying to physically drive while only being able to see out of a sliver of windshield with the camera setup obstructing most of the view, and also being able to go through the emotional trajectory necessary. And it’s one that pays off beautifully.
While Metcalf might have some impostor syndrome, her co-star Ronan is only in awe. “Everything she does is groundbreaking. People talk about her performances the way they talk about Meryl Streep.
“And Laurie has always been attracted to good work. You can tell she’s never done it to get more exposure, she’s never done it for any other reason than she wants to do good work,” Ronan said. “She enriches everything that she’s in because she’s genuinely in it. I just think she’s magic.”
Metcalf only met Gerwig’s mother during the last two weeks of filming — but it was revelatory.
“I saw her mother watching her daughter as the director of this movie happening in her hometown. I saw a really strong relationship and I could imagine the parallels. I was able to see, ‘Oh that’s where we’re headed. Look at Greta and her mom standing in the parking lot.
“Things will be fine.’”