Kathleen Turner on Bringing High to Broadway and Surviving Her Stint as a Sexual Icon

As screen icon Kathleen Turner made her way through three pre-Broadway productions of Matthew Lombardo's High, the buzz was fairly single-minded: Turner—she of Body Heat on screen, The Graduate on stage and the voice of animated sexpot Jessica Rabbit—was playing, of all things, a nun. At this stage of the game, the husky-voiced actress is known for her unwillingness to repeat herself. Building on a Broadway career that includes Tony-nominated turns as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Turner is now taking on the role of Sister Jamison Connelly, a foul-mouthed, non-traditional nun who found her calling working in a Catholic rehab center after her own battle with alcohol addiction. The famously candid actress, author of a memoir (Send Yourself Roses) that touches on everything from her own battle with alcohol to the dissolution of her marriage in the introduction, chatted with Broadway.com about discovering the next Jude Law and how she, too, sometimes gets caught up in the sound of her own voice.

What first attracted you to High?
The character of Sister Jamie, definitely. She doesn’t fit any stereotype, and those have always been the characters that attract me. I don’t believe I’ve ever done someone very predictable. What [playwright] Matthew Lombardo has achieved in this play is the terror and power of addiction and the battle with faith. She’s a nun, but she’s not a nun, you know what I mean? It’s an extraordinary conflict and very compelling to me.

Lombardo has said that he wrote this role with you in mind. Did you know that when he approached you about the project?
I did, because he had approached me previously to do his play Looped. But I had already done a one-woman play about Tallulah Bankhead so I thanked him very much and said I had already explored her. He then asked if I would I read something else he was working on and I said yes, of course.

Were you immediately on board when you got the script?
Actually no. It was intriguing, but I didn’t think it was as yet a really produceable play. So Lombardo and I talked with [director] Rob Ruggiero on the phone, we went over the script and I made some suggestions and asked questions. About three months later, I got a rewrite that incorporated a lot of the things we'd talked about. It was, let’s face it, a little flattering. I was truly impressed by the two of them, their intelligence, their energy, their enthusiasm, their complete commitment to this whole project. So we did some more rewrites and tweaking and we came to the point of decision and I said OK.

After playing iconic roles like Maggie the Cat and Martha [in Virginia Woolf], does having created this role make the experience special?
It’s very special; this whole process has been quite a learning experience. I’m usually taking plays and characters that are set, that aren’t going to be polished or altered in any way. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was with Virginia Woolf. Martha was everything I ever dreamed I could do with her. But this is helping to create a new piece of theater for the library, you know? It’s scary as hell, which is exciting.

Was it difficult to cast the role of Sister Jamison's charge, teenage hustler and addict Cody Randall?
Oh, honey, it was simple. It was down to three actors for that role. I worked with all three, and when they left, Matthew, Rob and Leonard [Soloway] the producer looked at me and said, “Well?” And I looked at them and said, “Are you kidding? Evan Jonigkeit.” Lord have mercy, were we right! I did Indiscretions on Broadway with Jude Law. Now, Jude had done the role in London, but he was maybe 22 when he did it on Broadway with us. It is most unusual to find a young man with such skill, such discipline and such commitment, and Evan is the same.

Your voice been compared to everything under the sun, from honey to whiskey to cigarettes. Do you have a favorite description?
You know what? I have no idea. I just like the way it feels in me. I tell my friends to come to the second show of a two-show day, because I love my voice in the second show. It’s completely and thoroughly warmed up. There are times when I’m on stage and I open my mouth and I think, “Oh yeah, that sounds good.” It just feels good in my head and my chest and my mouth.

Is that voice the reason you were never really an ingénue?
Ha, can you imagine me saying, “Oh Romeo, doff thy name”? I don’t think so, honey. Just wasn’t gonna happen.

Was that frustrating as a young actress?
I always told them I was older. When I was being cast in Body Heat, the casting director asked how old I was. I said 25 and he said, “No you’re not, you’re 30.” So I said, “OK, I'm 30.” Up until Martha, I always played older than myself.

You said in your memoir that these days you think older women have more options, not fewer. Are you finding that to be true?
In theater, absolutely, there’s a wealth of roles out there for me, and that was always the plan. That’s why I never left the stage for more than two and a half years, because I never wanted to lose my chops or fall out of the loop.

But you do find time for some fantastic TV roles, like your recent stint as a sex-crazed agent on Californication.
I like those blitz things: Go in and do an outrageous character and leave. That one was embarrassing, though, because I had to ask people what I was saying. I had to ask my 23-year-old daughter, which was really embarrassing, though I’m not sure which of us was more embarrassed. It was kind of shocking that she knew.

She’s coming up on the age you were when you did Body Heat. Is that a hard thing to fathom?
Oh is it, but I was a heck of a lot more naive than she is. Oh, honey! I went from complete naivete to overnight sexual icon.

How does one survive that?
Very carefully. Timidly. Hiding out. Not going to L.A., staying in New York and avoiding all that insanity. It's the only way.

See Kathleen Turner in High at the Booth Theatre.