Dennis Letts: My Son the Playwright, and Other Secrets of Success
Imagine playing the patriarch in a pitch-black epic of familial dysfunction—written by your own son. Depressing? Upsetting? More like exhilarating, according to Dennis Letts, who's making his Broadway debut in August: Osage County, the latest work by his playwright offspring, Tracy. It helps that father and son share a lifelong love of the theater—they even co-starred in a community theater production of The Solid Gold Cadillac when Tracy was in high school and Dennis was an English professor at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. A shared streak of free-spiritedness led Dennis to abandon academia at 50 to become an actor he's been in some 40 films and Tracy to write a pair of compelling, disturbing hit plays Killer Joe and Bug, plus the Pulitzer Prize finalist Man from Nebraska. As viewers of Broadway.com's video preview of August: Osage County know, Dennis Letts also shares his son's wicked sense of humor, which serves him well in performances of Tracy's no-holds-barred family saga at the Imperial Theatre.
Here is my formula for success in show business, which I entered at the age of 50.
Marry Billie Letts. She'll make you laugh, cook for you, bring you comfort, joy and madness, bear wonderful children—then write the novel Where the Heart Is and appear on Oprah, reaping the fame and fortune of an Oprah-selected book and allowing you to live happily ever after.
Meet Shari Rhodes. She is a delightful woman, a dear friend, who will cast you in your first professional acting job. She will see you through TV movies and series and feature films such as Man in the Moon and Passenger 57. She is not responsible for your appearance in Bloodsuckers from Outer Space or Barbecue of the Dead.
Work With G.W. Bailey. He will direct you in Larry. L. King's play Dead Presidents' Club and play the dead Nixon alongside your dead L.B.J. He will later play a lobbyist in the Texas House while you play the Texas House Speaker in the play Sonny's Last Shot by Larry Wright. Yes, the Lawrence Wright who won the Pulitzer Prize for The Looming Tower.
Father Tracy Letts. He will put you through the traditional parental paces except he will keep you laughing much of the time. He will be one of three brothers along with Dana and Shawn, all good men, all funny, all so bright they make your hair hurt. He will become the must unsung great actor in America, then he will write four plays: Killer Joe, Bug, Man from Nebraska and August: Osage County. Each will amaze you, astonish you and terrify you.
So I get the call. And immediately say, "Of course." I hadn't worked since I had commiserated over the deaths of Michael Caine and Robert Duvall in Secondhand Lions. Here. Let me drop some more names. People I've worked with or with whom I've been in movies but have never seen in person: Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt saw them. Kevin Costner never met him. Clint Eastwood directed by him, and Coppola. Cicely Tyson loved her. Vanessa Redgrave. Wesley Snipes. Reese Witherspoon.
Oh, hell. Enough name-dropping.
I'd already had a great run as an actor. Then came Steppenwolf and August: Osage County and an entirely new magical experience—from Tracy's reading of Howard Starks' poem "August: Osage County" to director Anna Shapiro's eloquent and beautifully written philosophical and personal statement about the play. And a magnificent collection of wonderful actors and new friends, all engendered by Tracy Letts, my son, in August: Osage County.
So. My formula for my success. Meet exciting people. Don't spend time with dolts. And father a son who is so brilliant, you don't know how he got that way.
Be lucky.
Be thankful.