On Broadway in a new production ofAll My Sons,shell overprepare and then wing it.
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Some actors are superintellectual; others navigate by instinct.
Bening strikes me as embodying the best of both worlds.
On her way into the Bowery Hotel, she walks past a film shoot without turning a single head.
Her invisibility cloak must be on.
Shes guarding her energy.
Faulty planes, people dying … where have we heard that recently?
Miller evidently thought the racial component would throw the play off balance.
The production now features black actors in key roles, just not all in one family.)
But there is something momentous about this particular gig.
Shes free to work in New York whenever and as long as she wants.
(She stayed with it until the run ended in January 1988.)
Benings stage work helped to shape her design for living.
Her mentor was ACT director William Ball, who had a philosophy he called positation.
Acting would be about searching for those gray areas.
(Bening still misses the volatile Ball, who killed himself in 1991.)
She was 28 when she came East and played Holly to hats-in-the-air reviews.
Id always had to confirm everybody in the room could hear me.
That was, like, my job, right?
He taught me a lot by basically saying, No, thats phony, she says.
His whole thing was No, no, no, its all the same.
Dont pose, dont preen.
Thats what he would say, over and over, Natural, natural.
Bening loved that Forman, unlike most film directors, was verbose.
It made her feel closer to the stage.
As Levinson and Toback chuckle, Beatty sits back with an enigmatic grin, as is his wont.
The world knew they were a couple when Bening became pregnant.
Shell always throw the spotlight off herself.
But she didnt do any of the rowdy stuff.
She was focused on the kids.
Shed always wanted a family.
She was born in Kansas to Iowan parents with heartland values.
I was just talking to them yesterday, she says.
Theyre living alone in their house together.
Theyve been married 68 years.
She could take chances in amazing underseen movies likeBeing Julia, Mother and Child,20th Century Women,andThe Seagull.
That approach is on display inBugsywhen Virginia receives the news that her gangster lover is dead.
Benings Virginia cant manage a single conclusive response and so, in the end, she says nothing.
Its the most packed nothing Ive ever seen.
Bening: Thank you.
Me: But its not something you worked out?
Bening: I mean, no, not really.
But then in those moments, no.
Youre hopefully able to just let go.
Thats interesting, she says.
I never thought of it that way.
Ill have to think about that.
Its like when the Sundance Kid says, You just keep thinkin, Butch.
Thats what youre good at.
But if you say that to her, I could see her just shutting down.
First of all, its way too complimentary.
Shes not going to endorse such a high opinion of herself.
He remembers one scene that blew him away: She was just on fire.
And she squeezes my hand and says, I hope so, sweetie, and disappears.
Bening is certainly effusive about other peoples work.
We could talk all day about other actors as well as books and Broadway shows and politics.
She went to community college for almost nothing and look where she is.
Working more than ever, for one thing.
Its intense, high-wire material but the most grueling test of all is her current endeavor.
Her vulnerability is extraordinary.
Im still in the process of figuring that [lying] out, she tells me.
When do we not know were lying when we are lying?
Letts, by the way, is stupendous he has his own force field.
Bening says she loves working with him.
Bening: He doesnt talk a lot about his process, to his credit.
Me: To his credit.
Bening: To his credit, yeah, yeah.
Me: Because people, actors, who talk about their process are a little bit dreary.
Bening: Its probably best to avoid it, even in an interview.
You know whos very good at that is Isabelle Huppert.
Im a huge fan, and I know her.
People will say, How do you do this, and how do you do that?
And she says something like, Im free.
And I think,Yeah, good for you.
All My Sonsis at American Airlines Theatre, through June 23.
