Shirley MacLaine, on time and prepared for Chandler
Shirley MacLaine describes herself as having the temperament of a dancer, one of the many iterations the 84-yearold star has had in her decades-spanning career.
“Well, you gotta be on time and you’ve gotta be prepared. That came from dancing, but maybe that’s just my personality,” MacLaine remarked.
MacLaine, who will be at the Chandler Center for the Performing Arts on Feb. 10, spoke about her life spent dancing, acting and discovering herself.
On Oscars, remakes and acting
MacLaine’s film debut, in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Trouble With Harry,” garnered her a Golden Globe for New Star of the Year in 1955 and she quickly ascended. Her first Academy Award nomination came three years later for “Some Came Running” at age 24. Six decades later, she’s subsequently nabbed an Oscar (”Terms of Endearment”), several Golden Globes (including a Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998) and an Emmy.
This year’s Academy Awards ceremony (set for Sunday, Feb. 24) is sanshost for the first time in 30 years. MacLaine, who hosted the ceremony alongside Bob Hope and her Rat Pack buddies Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., said the absence of a host mirrors the state of the nation.
“I think it’s reflective of the country.
There’s so many divergent points of view and so many people feeling different ways that I think it might be a good idea,” she said. “I don’t think we have a leader, really. We have an arguer. Let the people lead, which will happen with America, too.”
These days there’s discussions of remaking her most noteworthy films, if they haven’t already been mined by the studios already. MacLaine is ambivalent about the spate of remakes, reboots and revivals.
“What can I say? I like the memories of the originals but remakes can be original, themselves. Like ‘A Star Is Born.’ If the script has a sense of the time and identify an audience that can find it, it can work in modern times,” she said. “I want to see more movies about real people, not super heroes from another planet.”
MacLaine by others
One story about real people, “Fosse/ Verdon,” is a biographical miniseries about famed choreographer-director Bob Fosse and actress-dancer Gwen Verdon that’s slated to premiere on FX this year. Tony-nominated actress Laura Osnes will portray MacLaine, who starred in Fosse’s “Sweet Charity.”
“I don’t know who it is playing me but if anyone wants to call, I’m happy to talk. I think it could be interesting to see,” she chuckled.
MacLaine, herself, is in the rare position of actually having played herself – in a 1987 television adaptation of her book “Out On A Limb.” She mentioned the biggest challenge: “Well, in playing myself, I can’t look at myself objectively.”
In recent years, the Hollywood legend has regularly popped up on both the big and small screens for roles in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and “The Last Word” in addition to guest arcs on “Downton Abbey” and “Glee.” She’s currently filming the Disney-produced holiday film “Noelle,” also starring Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader, in which Santa Claus’ daughter must take over the family business.
“We started this picture a year ago. It’s the story about why there’s no female Santa Claus and it’s full of special effects and reindeer,” the actress said in a phone call before being called back to set in Georgia.
Her live show
When she’s not acting, MacLaine tours the country in a speaking series dedicated to candid discussions about her memorable movie moments, life and a spiritual journey that has inspired a number of her books. Her latest release, “Out on a Leash: How Terry’s Death Gave Me New Life,” focuses on her relationship with her beloved dog, hit shelves in 2017.
“What I’ve discovered is that most people want to know about my books and all that. I think they’re so upset with what is going on in their realities that they want some way to figure it out,” she said. “Each city has a different approach, but, of course, they ask about Hollywood. It’s mostly centered on what they can do in this time period, though. I’ve come to understand who they are by what’s on their minds; it’s instructive.”
The solution to divisiveness? Laughter, MacLaine assures.
“Life itself. I love to hear jokes that are good and hearing people laugh. It’s very important to me to laugh and, of course, I don’t hear enough of it; there’s not enough,” she said. “It would be a good remedy if we could be inspired by and laugh at more of the same things.”