“New Normal’s” Ellen Barkin not afraid to speak her mind
NEW YORK — Ellen Barkin does not come with a mute button. If she isn’t saying it, she’s typing it on Twitter.
“I can be inappropriate,” the actress admits. “I’m overly opinionated. On occasion, I talk first and think later. Then I realize, ‘Oh, God, should I really have said that?’ ”
The 58-year-old Barkin bursts into throaty laughter.
‘Opinionated woman’
“I’m an opinionated woman,” she says. “I’m as educated as the average person. I’m not a politician. I don’t know the ins and outs of every bill. I haven’t read the budget plans entirely. I think, just by my nature, I speak my mind. It’s hard for me not to speak out.”
That’s also a characteristic of Jane Forrest, her character on the new series “The New Normal,” airing Tuesday nights on NBC. A greatgrandmother who doesn’t appreciate that her granddaughter has chosen to serve as a surrogate for a same-sex couple ( Justin Bartha and Andrew Rannells), Jane isn’t shy in expressing her opinions — which aren’t always what you might expect.
“She’s not just some uninformed lunatic,” Barkin says, speaking by telephone from Los Angeles. “She’s not an ignorant bigot.”
The show, which was created by Ryan Murphy and Ali Adler, explores some cutting-edge topics, and at least one NBC affiliate has decided not to air it.
“If you don’t want to watch, use your remote,” Barkin says. “I do think it’s a form of censorship to ban a show because of — I think the words were — ‘explicit characterizations’ and ‘inappropriate behavior and dialogue.’
“I don’t understand why a show I happen to love like ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,’ with rape, murder and child slavery in very graphic detail, is in family viewing time,” she continues, “but a show about a very loving, committed, same-sex couple wanting to raise a child is explicit and offensive. People allow their children to watch a TV show where they use words like ‘anal tearing’ and ‘vaginal tearing’ and ‘child slavery.’ That’s OK, but watching two men kiss each other and cry because they’ve decided to raise a child together is not OK.
“I don’t get it. But let both sides weigh in and defend their positions. It’s fine with me, as long as they weigh in without slander and without misinterpretation of anyone’s remarks. Let them stay honest on both sides. Let’s talk about it.”
The New York native has made occasional television movies and series guest shots, but “The New Normal” is her first outing as a series regular.
New Archie Bunker
Her character has been dubbed an Archie Bunker for the 21st century, which is OK with her.
“I think any actors who wouldn’t be interested in bringing Archie Bunker types back into the conversation at this point in our history would need to have their heads examined,” Barkin says. “This is an un-PC character, but she is whip mart, extremely well informed and extremely articulate … (not) a stereotypical liberal’s version of someone who is anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-any-ethnic or anti-foreigner.”
Barkin hopes that the show will make viewers consider other lifestyles in a more tolerant light.
“I hope it opens minds,” she says. “God, I hope so. That’s one of the main purposes of the show. What I really hope my character teaches is that her idea of normal no more applies to her family than it does to a same-sex family.”
The current state of the world, the actress says, boils down to one word: fear.
“I look at all of the divisiveness that is going on in the country,” Barkin says. “So much of it is based around fear of the other and anyone who doesn’t look like me, walk like me, talk like me or have sex like me. They’re the other, and I’m afraid of them.
‘We will learn’
“Hopefully we will learn that it’s just not that scary,” she says. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
After a career on the big screen, Barkin is ready to explore television, which these days seems to be addressing some of the edgier issues of contemporary society — and, not coincidentally, offering meatier roles to actresses in their 40s and beyond.
“I actually think that television is the best way, right now, to reach the broadest population,” she says. “I think you should be able to say important things to the biggest audience.”
As for Murphy, Barkin didn’t need to be sold on him: She was a big fan of “Nip/Tuck” and, despite herself, also watches his other current show, the FX series “American Horror Story.”
“I had never in my life seen a horror movie until about four years ago,” the actress says, laughing. “I never saw ‘Jaws’ (1975), I never saw ‘The Exorcist’ (1973). I’m terrified of horror movies … and then I became addicted to ‘American Horror Story.’ ”
Barkin grew up in New York, where she absorbed her liberal values from her parents, a chemical salesman and a hospital administrator.
“We were very much working-class Jews in a very mixed ethnic neighborhood,” she recalls. “There were all kinds of people there. I grew up in a very mixed community with heterosexuals and same-sex couples. My friends were always a pretty mixed bag of all kinds of different people.”
Barkin began acting as a teen, and attended Manhattan’s High School of the Performing Arts before studying history and drama at Hunter College in New York. Then she waited on tables while studying at the prestigious Actor’s Studio and performing in off-Broadway shows. She made her film debut in the classic “Diner” (1982).