“I’ve always tried to pride myself on being versatile. Though when people say that they think I’m versatile, my first thought, usually, is, Well, isn’t that my job?” Jean Smart speaks with rachsyme.
Jean Smart has been working steadily for more than forty years, from her first onscreen appearance, a small walk-on part as “Woman Bather” in the 1979 made-for-television movie “Before and After,” to her starring role as a millionaire standup comedian on HBO Max’s “Hacks.” In that sense, the current chatter about a Jean Smart renaissance is a bit surprising—she never went away. But it must be said that Smart is having a remarkable year.
You started being a working actor right away, and then you were just a working actor forever. That’s very rare.My mother insisted that I stay in Seattle for college. I had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when I was thirteen, and she still hadn’t gotten over that by the time I was getting ready to graduate high school. She was afraid, I think, for me to go out of state to school. My big sister went to Washington State, on the other side of the state, so I thought, Oh, I’ll go there.
I certainly can tap into that edge, and I’m not sure why. Because I’m not a bitter person at all. I am a very optimistic and gullible person. If my husband was still with us, he would tell you stories. Next season will get a little bit more into what happened between her ex-husband and herself and her little sister. She lost them both. She lost everything, and she’s never gotten over it. She embodies that expression “living well is the best revenge.” She works and makes money any way she can.
I would love to do Noël Coward with Kelsey. That would be heaven. We were on the same wavelength. What was so great about that show, because it was so well-established at that point, was that the audience was a step ahead of you. They know your characters so well, they see the banana peel coming before you step on it.
I’m going to be honest—I really think a lot of it had to do with the way I looked in the show. I think casting directors didn’t know what to do with me after that.Well, it wasn’t a wig, first of all. That was my hair. I had to cut it and dye it and perm it.I’ve been a character actor off and on long enough that that’s not the big concern. But I do have to admit, I am incredibly vain. I’m in complete denial about my age and my looks right now.
On the subject of the Jeanaissance discourse, does it make you feel happy, or do you feel like “Come on, I’ve been here”?
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