Mary Steenburgen says her career is the best it's ever been, and it's largely due to television.
When she was breaking into Hollywood in the 1970s, TV roles were viewed as a step backward for an up-and-coming actress. But these days, TV is more often the home for adventurous and experimental content.
And for Steenburgen, who professes that she's "always wanted to go where the writing is," the quality of the project is most important — so important, in fact, that it trumps her own role.
In fact,Steenburgen joined her current project, "The Last Man on Earth," before she even knew the particulars of her character. But she says she'd never read a movie script that was more "strange, unpredictable, hilarious and wonderful" than this television series.
"The Last Man on Earth," starring and created by comic Will Forte, tells the story of a post-apocalyptic world where a virus has killed all but a handful of people. It's currently in its second season.
"The Last Man on Earth" has allowed Steenburgen to showcase some of her other talents, too. Steenburgen is a talented musician, and ever since the day when she whipped out an accordion on set to pick out a tune for a scene, the show has kept "throwing bizarre things" at her to play.
Steenburgen's musical talent was as much a surprise to her as it was to her collaborators; she only started to write and play music at the age of 54, after developing synesthesia after undergoing general anesthesia for a routine arm operation.
Mary Steenburgen joined The Frame to discuss her love of excellent writing, her mysterious journey into music, and how she balances Hollywood's social demands.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
How have you noticed your career change now that you're in your 60s?
I’m having maybe the best time of my career right now. It’s nice to be in this business, in a position where people want to work with you, but I fly slightly under everyone’s radar. I also have battled all my life a shyness, so the social aspects of this business – the parties and the big events — I wasn’t great at navigating. So I moved up to Ojai when my son was first born. It’s a little town a couple hours north of L.A. That world made sense to me. So I did pick and choose [work]. Simply because every time I did work, I would always be leaving Ojai, and it had to be for a good reason.
When you were growing up, television was something that people looked at as kind of mindless entertainment. And people worked in television to get into film. But now, to look at television today, how radical a transformation is that in your mind?
1977 is the year I made my first movie. Shortly after, I was offered quite nice roles in television. The general consensus among everyone was that I’d be out of my mind to do that. And I do think that television has become way less formulaic. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a movie that’s as strange and unpredictable and hilarious and wonderful as the stuff we’re doing on "The Last Man on Earth.” It’s jaw-dropping, every week when I get a script, because it goes to such strange places.
Like outer space!
Yeah, and I’ve always wanted to go where the writing is. I’ve felt the same way for years about independent films. I know a lot of people don’t want to do them because you don’t make any money and they’re usually quite uncomfortable. But for me, there are these wonderful, young directors and actors with all their dreams in front of them and that wonderful edge in guerilla filmmaking, and I really enjoy that.
If there’s a great part for you, but the show itself isn’t that good, is that less likely to draw your interest?
I always look at the show first. With "The Last Man On Earth," there was nothing to show me. There were no pages.
You agreed to be in the show without knowing what the character was?
Absolutely. She was being invented as we went along. I loved the luxury of finding somebody and figuring out — with these brilliant writers — who this person is.
I like being part of a team. I’m married to [Ted Danson], who was on “Cheers” for 11 years. One of the things I was always jealous of was that he got to be a part of such a great team. For me, acting has often been solitary. You’re all together and then boom, you’re gone. But with "The Last Man On Earth" I look forward to seeing these people every day.
Do you think television has a better sense of taking actors who are older than say, 40, and giving them meaningful parts?
The flip has happened and television at the moment, is a little more risk-taking. There’s still a lot of pressure on directors to cast people who bring money. So it’s not so much about casting the best actor as it is casting somebody who everybody’s heard of, who will help you get your financing and your distribution. Whereas I think television has become more about the ideas. It all, in the end, has to do with the writers. My husband has just done “Fargo.” Noah Hawley created the most extraordinary world. We were watching it last night and I have to literally tell myself to breathe. It’s brilliant. And I don’t know of a movie that’s smarter or better than that.
You’re in a creative marriage. Is the nature of your conversations about what you should and should not do different from what your representatives feel you should and should not do?
I should say that I’m probably the best represented I’ve ever been. The team of people working for me are partly why this is all happening. They have to work much harder for me than for their young clients. The time that Ted and I spend talking about our careers is almost infinitesimally small. We mostly talk about our kids and our grandkids. I think we talk about our careers if something funny happened at work. We’re very childlike in many ways.
There’s a scene in "The Last Man On Earth" where you pull out an accordion. Can you talk about how that scene came about and your interest in music?
There was a sad scene. I heard the director talking to Will Forte about how they wished we had some sad music to highlight the scene. I said, "What would the sad music be?" They said it would be that death march. I said I had an accordion in my car and I could probably pick that out. And they said, "Wait, you play an accordion?" So now they keep throwing bizarre things at me to play.
But you’re also a songwriter. There must be something that maybe complements what you do as an actor. Do you find it stimulates a different part of your creative spirit?
I wrote my first song when I was 54 years old. That’s eight years ago. The reason that happened is slightly mysterious. I had a surgery on my arm. It was a very inconsequential surgery except that I had to go under general anesthetic. When I came out from underneath it, I felt that my brain felt different. I would look at a street sign and it would get transformed into music, or someone would say a phrase or word. And it was not a pleasant thing. It was very distressing. I just wanted my brain back. I felt like something bad had happened to me.
It’s led me down a path that I’ve finally said yes to. I didn’t have a desire to play music at first — that’s come later — but I wanted to make musical what I heard in my head. So I started studying songwriting and I started writing music. I’m not a great singer but a few weeks ago I sang with Seth MacFarlane and his 60-piece orchestra. I had written a funny love song for Ted and I played accordion with the orchestra.
So the accordion came from just having a desire to play music. Somehow I have slowly taught myself.
The second season of "The Last Man on Earth" is currently airing on Fox.
