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Both playsearned Metcalf Tony Awards.
Metcalfs Hillary is often exasperated and conflicted, a contrast to Metcalf herself, who is charming and self-effacing.
In betweenHillary and Clintons midafternoon and evening performances recently, Metcalf remained in her dressing room.
Much ofHillary and Clintonfocuses on questions involving luck and destiny.
She kept going in the face of a lot of adversity.
Youre playing such a powerful and well-known woman, though the play is fiction.
I wish things were based in that system also, but theyre not always.
But Im different in that I get to hide a lot more.
I dont present as myself, which is much more vulnerable.
The way Im seen is hiding behind a character.
I dont need to be personally invested like she does.
Congratulations onyour recent Tony nomination, by the way.Thank you.
That would be great to see her win.It would be.
I saw her performance, and she was absolutely breathtaking.
She made it look not even like acting.
She did some sort of disappearing magic act inside that character.
I was thrilled to see her inThe Waverly Gallery.
Its not one of my favorite ways of working, so that was fine with me.
So nothing was ever planned.
I mean, I just sort of went with the ebb and flow of where the work was.
I dont even really count it.
Because Id hate for that to happen.
I have such a passion, mostly about theater, that I want to protect that.
So its good that I can go off and do other things.
Internal Affairs?Thats what it was.
That one I had a great time doing because I partnered up with Andy.
That part was written for a male, but Mike Figgis, the director, gave it to me.
So I was Andys gay partner.
I thought that was a cool twist on what it had originally been written as.
And you have a cameo in FiggissLeaving Las Vegas.I played a landlady.
I came in for only a couple of days, maybe one day.
I think [Internal Affairs] mightve been the first movie I ever did.
Oh, no, no that wasDesperately Seeking Susan.
The Madonna one!Yeah, that goes way back.
That was a lot of fun.
That was a good learning curve for me because Id never done anything except for theater.
I hadnt done TV or film.
So getting that film was a big deal for me.
And I think I only got it because I was in town in New York doing a play.
The casting directors were really into theater; that movie had a lot of theater actors in it.
What was it like working with John Hughes and John CandyonUncle Buck?Oh God.
That was, first of all, a lot of fun.
They worked so loosely.
That was new to me also.
I guess I have done more movies than I thought!
Thatll take about three months August, September, October, November no, longer than that.
Were going to do at least 13 of them, maybe more.
Then Im due back in New York in January to startVirginia Woolf.
I think it was my first trip to New York ever.
I didnt know anybody and I was put up in a hotel.
They put me in a business suit and sent me out on the street with a little minicamera crew.
I was so out of my element; I had no idea what I was doing.
But I know that I did it because thereisproof, there is footage.
When I see that, I realize I was very naive and brave about it in a way.
Like,Okay, you want me to do this?
Okay, lets go.
So that wasnt your idea, or something you pitched?No, no.
What do you remember about that sketch?It was me andEmily Prager.
We were both interns on the show.
We had not been added to the cast we were there to be tested, you know.
Obviously [the sketch] didnt work because they cut it before airtime.
Which was a huge relief to me because I was scared to death.
I was not cut out to do something like that.
First of all, you feel so under-rehearsed anyway.
You have to be really loose and really confident.
I dont necessarily have those two traits.
Live TV is completely nerve-racking to me.
I really admire people who can do it.
So you wouldnt hostSNL?
Have they ever broached you about doing it?No.
I dont think I could anyway.
I would have nightmares about it before and after.
