John Lithgow: The Hollywood Interview

Actor John Lithgow


John Lithgow: Confessions of a Actorholic
By Ben Braddock

Veteran performer John Lithgow is a member of the impressive cast of Confessions of a Shopaolic. The zany comedy revolves around shopping crazy Becky Bloomwood(Isla Fisher), who can’t resist temptation when it comes to shopping. Whether it’s dresses or accessories, this irrepressible young woman has no self-control and will get out her credit card at every possible opportunity. She cannot pass a shop window without walking in and buying something.



Hoping to get a job on a leading fashion magazine – she ends up instead landing a job on a financial publication and actually becomes successful – helping readers to sort out their money problems, even though she cannot stick to a budget herself. Hugh Dancy plays the magazine editor; John Lithgow is the powerful boss. Witty and charismatic, the actor hits just the right notes in the film, directed by P.J. Hogan, which arrives on DVD and Blu-ray June 23.

Lithgow grew up in Ohio in a theatrical family - the son of a classically trained actor and college professor. He won a prestigious Tony Award just weeks after his 1973 debut in The Changing Room on Broadway. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in 1967, followed by a Fulbright scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Since then he has appeared in dozens of plays, and over 80 film and televison roles.

On screen he earned Oscar nominations for The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment. On TV, Lithgow has won four Emmys - one for an episode of Amazing Stories, three were for his role on the hit series 3rd Rock From the Sun- he has been nominated for Emmys a total of ten times and has had a distinguished career in every area of the entertainment industry. Lithgow recently starred in the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. He has also written several best selling children's books and composed CDs for children. The delightful, amusing and fascinating actor sat down recently in New York to discuss his latest adventure before the cameras.

What was the appeal of this film and story to you?
John Lithgow: When I heard about the film I was impressed by the wonderful list of people already involved, and I wanted to be a part of that group. I love the work of P.J. Hogan and I think Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy and Kristin Scott Thomas are so talented, also John Goodman and Joan Cusack, they are formidable names and I respect them all. Isla and Hugh remind me of young versions of Irene Dunne and Cary Grant – they are a throwback to that wonderful era, with great characters sets against a glamorous back drop.

What did you like about the story?
When I read the script I knew it was going to be a beautifully acted and timed piece of work and a wonderful comedy. The subject matter took me by surprise, I think it is a great subject that everyone can relate to.

Can you describe your character?
Edgar West is the head of the publishing company, he would be someone like the CEO of a company such as Condé Nast, the head of the entire magazine empire, in charge of many different magazines. He is not a fashionista at all, he is at the very pinnacle of the magazine publishing world and he is extremely powerful. As I figured out his character, I see him as a man with a twinkle in his eye. He sees and absorbs everything and he is involved in the big reversal, the surprise at the end, that is all him – he is the one who surprises Hugh Dancy’s character. He likes keeping things secret.

John Lithgow in Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Can you talk about his journey in the film?
Whenever you have a big boss like Edgar West, he represents sheer power, everyone quakes when he walks down the hall, it’s an easy part to play because everyone else has to do all the acting and respond to him.

How do you play it?
I play him fairly straight, with that twinkle.

Lithgow and Debra Winger in Terms of Endearment.

What was it like working with P.J. Hogan?
I hadn’t met him before showing up to work on the movie and he is my kind of director, he is wonderful and creates a terrific atmosphere on the set. He makes movie making seem fun and movie making is not fun, it is hard drudgery as I am sure you know, you wait around for hours and hours.

Most people think it is glamorous and fun?
Oh it is tedious. If you like waiting in an airport for an entire day, you might like it, you will love being on a movie set. That said, within a whole hour you may have a minute of wonderful fun and of course that magical minute of filmmaking is all you will see, the results of those special minutes are put together into a two hour movie and it looks like it was ecstatic fun making the film, but that is not quite true. Of course you meet wonderful people. I have become such a good pal with Fred Armisen, he makes me laugh so hard and it is great working with Lynn Redgrave.

Do you interact with her?
No we don’t interact, but we are old pals, we worked together on Broadway, Good God it was about 30 years ago for an entire eleven month run, so we are very good friends. It was great to see her; I didn’t even know she was in the movie till I arrived to start work. What a lovely surprise.”

Lithgow in The World According to Garp, his first Oscar-nominated role.

What do you think of Isla and Hugh, who are rising stars?
They are a terrific combination. Isla is just perfect for this part, she is bursting with manic ideas, she is just lovely, she is so talented and funny and Hugh is a very, very attractive and talented guy, you just root for them as a couple. I think the whole film is fantastically well cast.

Your career is so varied and extensive, what do you look for these days in terms of work?
I really love meeting fabulous, new, talented people. It was such a thrill to meet Kristin Scott Thomas. I sat next to her for a whole scene, so basically we became like old friends and she is a marvelous person, that is the kind of thing you look forward to making movies.

In general how do you choose your projects?
If you’re very lucky you get a project that challenges you and interests you. This is just a wonderful little ‘bon bon’ for me, a real treat, it is a small part in a very endearing movie. I recently created a one man show that was fantastic, called Stories By Heart (tracing my history as an actor and story teller) and did Arthur Miller’s play All My Sons, which was very exciting.

Do you prefer theater to TV and film?
As far as the actual process and activity is concerned, theater is much more exciting for me. I love film, but you are there with the audience in theater so it is much more satisfying. I guess it is because I grew up in theater that I like it so much, it always feels like the real thing to me. Everything I do in movies and television stems from my work and background in the theater. I did the TV show 3rd Rock From the Sun for six years which was so much fun, but the downside was that it made me extremely public and well known for one thing, everybody got to know all my tricks and everything about me, it had a very big audience. Then as soon as it was over, my instinct was to go right back to theater and I have done five plays since then and have more on the way. So I enjoy going back to the smaller audiences, going back to my roots. Everything is cyclical though. Even though you get a bigger audience for TV shows and big films, I will never stop doing theater. If you are in a hit show on Broadway, a lot of people see you, but it is still just one percent of the people who see you on TV and in movies. I am lucky I can do it all.

Lithgow in his Emmy-winning role on 3rd Rock From the Sun.

You also do children’s entertainment; you write books and perform kids concerts.
I love doing my kids concerts, they are fantastic and not many people know I do them, I work with an ensemble of jazz musicians and the concerts are based on my kids albums. I think attention must be paid to kids. It is very important that they have great entertainment. But it is also purely for me at the end of the day, I do the kids albums and concerts because I love that part of my work and I am really good at. I keep the kids in the palm of my hands for a whole hour. It always seems to me to be such a challenge and such a joy. But it is exhilarating. It is more than a side line for me, it is central to my work.

Has fatherhood inspired you to write children’s books?
I doubt if I ever would have written for children, or entertained them for that matter if I hadn't had my own. My children have taught me what kids like to hear. They've also given me a sense of when I'm talking down to them and when I'm talking on their level. The authors of bad children’s books never actually got that straight I don’t think.

Are acting and writing linked at all for you?
Well for me, writing is a means to an end. I write the words to be spoken out loud, as all the best children's books should be. And I suppose I always intend to be the primary reader myself. So in a sense, I write to act, not the other way around.



Do you plan your career these days?
Not really, this business has a way of surprising you. They think of me for the most unlikely projects and I love these surprises. I love what I do. Sometimes I feel a little feverishly active, I never rest and occasionally I must say, I ask myself: what am I running from? But really my work is all so much fun.

Were you born with this gift and passion - is it drive and practice or is it in your blood?
It doesn’t seem that special to me. It comes very naturally to me. I did grow up in a theater family so it certainly it was a huge part of my life growing up. My dad was a Shakespeare fanatic. He created Shakespeare festivals and produced them in Ohio when I was growing up. And he was also a great storyteller and a reader of stories to all of us kids. 

It was just there in our household, and of course, I did a huge amount of acting as a young kid. I was in A Midsummer Night's Dream. I loved to act. Shakespeare really just washed over me like a warm bath as I was growing up.

So did you dream of becoming an actor?
Not at all, I never intended to become a professional actor as a child; I was more interested in painting. But I knew I would be doing something creative in the arts. I wanted to be an artist, a painter, but I went off to college and started acting and I realized I'd better give into it. It seemed to be my destiny. I still do painting actually and have a studio in LA; I wouldn’t show my art to you though (laughs) it is private. I respect really great painters too much to pretend that I am an artist.

How would you describe a perfect day?
A perfect day would always be spent with my wife and having my moments of creative fulfillment: that means curtain calls, finished paintings, perhaps unlocking the last puzzle of a piece of writing. But I actually think life is imperfect though very enjoyable.

And finally, your greatest achievement?
My greatest achievement is my children – definitely.


Trailer for Confessions of a Shopaholic.