In short
Amy Madigan discusses her long career and her latest role in Weapons (2025), a Zack Kreger horror film. She also reflects on how her upbringing in Chicago shaped her political awareness, her shift from music to acting, and major screen milestones spanning decades.
Guest backgrounds
Amy Madigan is a veteran actress (75) with Oscar, Emmy, and Spirit Award nominations, plus Cable Ace and Golden Globe wins/nominations. Credits mentioned include The Day After (1983), The Laundromat (1985), Roe v. Wade (1989), Carnival (2003–2005), and Grey’s Anatomy (2008–2009). She is married to actor Ed Harris.
Key claims
Weapons features her as Gladys, a woman posing as an aunt to a Pennsylvania schoolboy who didn’t disappear; she knows more than she admits. Madigan says the role “grab[s] by the throat” and was a rare chance to build from the ground up. She links her father’s journalism/politics to her own social conscience and recalls award-season differences from 40 years ago.
Notable examples
Love Child (1982) leading to Golden Globe New Star; The Day After’s massive ABC viewership; Twice in a Lifetime (1985) with Gene Hackman/Ellen Burstyn; Roe v. Wade (1989) as Sarah Weddington; Field of Dreams (1989) as Annie Kinsella; her and Ed Harris’s Oscar-night protest over Ilya Kazan.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOAmy Madigan's Journey from Chicago
2:40 to 3:14
Exploration of Amy's early life in Chicago and her family's influence.
“Amy, thank you so much for doing the podcast.”
Growing Up with Music and Arts
3:14 to 4:28
Discussion about Amy's early passion for music and its impact on her life.
“My parents, my dad was a journalist and a writer, and he was the editor of the Chicago American.”
From Music to Acting Aspirations
4:28 to 6:04
Amy shares her initial desire to be a musician before transitioning to acting.
“I'm a newspaper person, my three papers a day.”
The Move to Los Angeles
6:04 to 8:02
Amy reflects on her move to LA and the challenges she faced in the music scene.
“Yes, I always did acting in school plays and things like that.”
Shifts in Career and Pursuing Acting
8:02 to 10:37
Transition from music to acting and the influence of mentors in her journey.
“Was that maybe we can gain some traction in terms of music out here?”
Early Acting Experiences and Breakthroughs
10:37 to 14:00
Amy discusses her early acting roles, auditions, and the evolution of her career.
“And you kind of go, oh, my God, you were?”
Launch of Acting Career
14:00 to 17:04
Amy Madigan shares how her acting journey began and her early experiences.
“He introduced me to my agents, and they sent me out for a television show, a heart-to-heart show, and I got it.”
First Film Experience: Love Child
17:04 to 19:16
Madigan discusses her breakthrough role in 'Love Child' and its impact on her career.
“This is called Love Child, came out in 82.”
The Day After: A Significant Project
19:16 to 21:28
Madigan reflects on her role in 'The Day After' and its cultural significance.
“But, you know, the critics noticed you and the Golden Globes noticed you.”
Collaboration with Ed Harris
21:28 to 24:40
The discussion focuses on Madigan's many collaborations with her husband Ed Harris.
“And, you know, he came up from theater and all the classics he did.”
Show all 31 chapters
Career Highlights and Challenges
24:40 to 28:00
Madigan highlights key roles and challenges faced in her acting career.
“2014 Frontera, 2016 Rules Don't Apply, Warren Beatty, 2017 A Crooked Somebody, and 2019 The Last Full Measure.”
Busy Year of 1985
28:00 to 28:40
Explore Amy Madigan's prolific career in 1985 with several notable roles.
“Well, it didn't keep you from remaining very busy because the next year – this is crazy.”
Alamo Bay and Its Context
28:40 to 29:50
Discussing Madigan's role in 'Alamo Bay' and its political implications.
“Where you're this woman in small town Texas caught between her lover, played by your husband, Ed Harris, and who's a Vietnam vet who's kind of in the shrimping business, I guess.”
Oscar Nomination for Twice in a Lifetime
29:50 to 31:02
Revisiting the significance of her Oscar-nominated role in 'Twice in a Lifetime'.
“You're playing this young woman, young married woman with kids who becomes infuriated at her father, played by Gene Hackman, for cheating on her mother, played by Ellen Burson, and a character played by Anne Margaret.”
Audition Process and Character Insights
31:02 to 33:19
Amy shares her audition experience for 'Twice in a Lifetime' and character details.
“So I don't know if it read on the page like those were going to be or, you know, if you had to be on the set to do it.”
Collaborative Work with Ann-Margret
33:19 to 34:34
Discussing the impactful collaboration with Ann-Margret during filming.
“And I remember that scene very well because it was difficult to shoot it that day.”
Reflections on Awards Season Differences
34:34 to 36:56
Contrasting past and present experiences in awards seasons.
“I mean, you were clearly, the response to this was, it wasn't like Ebert was an outlier here.”
Impact of the Oscar Nomination
36:56 to 39:08
Exploring the professional impact of her Oscar nomination at the time.
“It wasn't like there were a million things and influencers and all that kind of stuff.”
Post-Nomination Career Trajectory
39:08 to 40:04
Discussing Madigan's subsequent career developments after her nomination.
“And I once again, I like your assessment.”
Significant Works from 1989
40:04 to 42:00
Reviewing key roles Madigan played in 1989 including 'Roe v. Wade'.
“You're playing Sarah Weddington, the kind of novice attorney who ends up representing the woman who becomes the plaintiff.”
Field of Dreams and Its Impact
42:00 to 43:35
Exploration of the film 'Field of Dreams' and its cultural significance.
“even at the risk of having their property foreclosed upon and being ridiculed and all of this.”
Audition Challenges and Casting
43:35 to 45:28
Discussion on the audition process and challenges faced for 'Field of Dreams'.
“And to this day now they've actually more than ever in the last few years, Major League Baseball goes back to the field that you guys did, the Field of Dreams.”
Reflections on Iconic Roles
45:28 to 47:48
Amy shares insights about her roles in 'Uncle Buck' and her experiences with John Candy.
“And the last one, I came in another room, and there were all the people from the studio, and they were all sitting there with their bottles of water and their suits on, and they were looking at me.”
Controversy at the Oscars
47:48 to 50:02
Discussion about the controversy surrounding Ilya Kazan receiving an honorary Oscar.
“In 1999, you and Ed attended the Oscars because I think that was the year he was nominated for The Truman Show.”
Industry Frustrations and Career Reflections
50:02 to 52:38
Amy discusses industry challenges, ageism, and her career trajectory.
“But 2002, The Laramie Project, 2003 to 2005, a terrifying character in Carnival.”
Transition to 'Weapons' and Character Development
52:38 to 56:00
Discussion on her role in 'Weapons' and the creative process behind her character Gladys.
“And so he kind of said it to me in a number of different times.”
The Natural Casting Process
56:00 to 58:28
Learn about the organic way Amy Madigan got cast in the film and her collaboration with director Zach.
“And I know that he and his powers that be, they had lists of people and they get a lot of machinations for the script because it was delayed and actors had other things to do.”
Character Depth and Backstory
58:28 to 1:00:44
Explore how personal experiences influenced the character's portrayal and the thematic elements of the story.
“Like, for instance, Gladys, some of these things are not spelled out.”
The Influence of Iconic Figures
1:00:44 to 1:02:50
Discuss the inspirations drawn from iconic actresses and films for the character's look and portrayal.
“But, you know, the men who are involved in that, I think they appreciated that look of hers.”
Audience Reception and Personal Reflection
1:02:50 to 1:05:26
Find out how Amy felt about the film's reception and its impact on her personally and professionally.
“and I don't remember the name of the theater, but it's an older theater.”
Closing Thoughts and Gratitude
1:05:26 to 1:06:30
Amy expresses her gratitude for the film's success and the support she received throughout the process.
“It's overwhelming to me because it's, I haven't experienced that in a long time.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Ed Harris:I see you.
0:01Amy Madigan:Fire and Ash is now streaming on Disney+. It's the film critics are calling the best Avatar yet.
0:08Ed Harris:Go, go, go, go!
0:09Amy Madigan:A true epic and completely jaw-dropping.
0:12Ed Harris:This is the only purest thing in this world.
0:15Amy Madigan:Return to Pandora on Disney+. It will be an adventure for the whole family. And watch the Oscar-winning phenomenon at home.
0:22Ed Harris:This is sick!
0:25Amy Madigan:avatar fire and ash now streaming on disney plus rated pg-13
0:38Amy Madigan:hi everyone and thank you for tuning in to the 610th episode of the hollywood reporters awards chatter podcast i'm the host scott feinberg and my guest today is a wonderful veteran actress who has been doing great work on screens big and small for 43 years picking up along the way Oscar, Emmy, and Spirit Award nominations, and Cable Ace and Golden Globe Awards. Her credits include several landmark TV films, including 1983's The Day After, 1985's The Laundromat, and 1989's Roe vs. Wade. The TV series Carnival, which ran on HBO from 2003 through 2005, and ABC's Grey's Anatomy, on which she appeared from 2008 through 2009.
1:18Amy Madigan:And a host of great films, including 1984's Places in the Heart, 1985's Twice in a Lifetime, 1989's Field of Dreams and Uncle Buck, 2000's Pollock, 2007's Gone Baby Gone, and most recently, 2025's Weapons. the Zack Kreger horror film for which she is poised to land the second Oscar nomination of her career exactly 40 years after her first, for her haunting portrayal of Gladys, a woman who represents herself as the aunt of the only kid from his class in a Pennsylvania school who did not mysteriously disappear one night, and who, it turns out, knows a lot more than she initially lets on about what really happened.
2:00Amy Madigan:Amy Madigan. Over the course of our conversation at the LA offices of The Hollywood Reporter, the 75-year-old and I discussed her path from music to acting, and how she first gained traction in Hollywood, her many collaborations with her real-life husband, Ed Harris, her memories of making twice-in-a-lifetime opposite Gene Hackman and Ellen Burstyn, and her ensuing awards season experience four decades ago, how she was cast as Gladys in Weapons, approached the character, and has processed the tremendous response to the film generally. It's at 93 % on Rotten Tomatoes and has grossed$268 million worldwide, and to her performance specifically, plus much more.
2:39Amy Madigan:And so without further ado, let's go to that conversation.
2:50Amy Madigan:Amy, thank you so much for doing the podcast. Great to see you and meet you. I've enjoyed and admired you from afar for many, many years. And on this podcast, we go back to the very beginning and go chronologically from there. So can you share where you were born and raised and what your folks did for a living?
3:08Ed Harris:Wow, we're going to get right into that, aren't we? I'm from the city of Chicago, proudly. I went to school there. My parents, my dad was a journalist and a writer, and he was the editor of the Chicago American. as a young man. He worked at Newsweek and faced the nation during those 50s periods of time. So I was very fortunate to still be around that. And I am a news person right now. And my mom was just incredible. She ran the house and did everything, my two brothers and myself.
3:38Amy Madigan:And I know that you and your husband at Harris, you both have a very strong kind of social conscience. Do you think that maybe, and political awareness and curiosity, does that come back to your father, do you think, for you?
3:51Ed Harris:Yes, I think it definitely does. Now, certainly in Chicago during that period of time, it was the Mayor Daley time, which many things can be said about Mr. Daley and his family. He knew how to run that city, but it was big time politics and many deals were made behind closed doors, you know. But my dad and mom were much more liberal than I would say a lot of people were during that period of time. My dad is a young man, actually covered, so he had some of the McCarthy hearing things and traveled around on a lot of the presidential and candidate planes. So that was just instilled in me. And today I'm still a news person.
4:29Ed Harris:I try to get my three papers. I'm a newspaper person, my three papers a day. I also have the time to do that as opposed to a lot of people don't have that luxury. Yeah, it's informed my life and my husband too.
4:43Amy Madigan:So, you know, the arts as a kid, how important were those at home, at school? Where did it sort of first enter the picture, I believe, music before acting? But just where did that all begin? Well, I was always—now I've got this movie playing in my head when I was a kid.
5:03Ed Harris:I was always that child that was, like, wanting to perform in front of people and dance and sing. I certainly couldn't dance. I sang okay, though. I really wanted to learn how to play piano, and I asked my parents a number of times, no, I'm ready, I'm ready. I was kind of young. So I got to study piano, which was great. My dad was a classical music buff. I grew up just listening to all kinds of music. My eldest brother, Jack, was the guy who turned me on to jazz, and I was listening, let's say, to Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley and some of these people when I was a kid, when I was like 6, 7, and 8.
5:38Ed Harris:So it was just a part of me.
5:41Amy Madigan:I've read things over the years where you've talked about being a tomboy, maybe being drawn to the more kind of aggressive music. No, no, no, no. That might be overstating it. But just like you were as you yourself began to pursue music. It seems like I mean, the first aspiration was to was to be a professional musician, right? Not an actor.
6:04Ed Harris:Yes, I always did acting in school plays and things like that. But when I went off to college, I went to Marquette University. I must say right off the bat that I was not a scholar. I was there, and I got to take some theater classes and things, but I just started playing music as soon as I got there. But I was self-taught. I was the person in the bedroom smoking cigarettes out the window and harmonizing to every song you could possibly imagine. That was my—
6:34Amy Madigan:So you were the vocalist, or was it an instrument as well?
6:37Ed Harris:Well, like I said, I played piano and studied piano, But I was in a number of different bands. And I was hired and I was the person that was the vocalist. That was woodshedding for me. I missed that immediacy of being able to do that. But, you know, you're young and you're just grinding. You're just jamming every second to, like, get the equipment and figure out, can you play a gig? And you got this gig at the bookstore for 20 people and you were elated. So it just started kind of in a natural way. And I worked with very, very talented people.
7:08Amy Madigan:These were bands that you were playing?
7:10Ed Harris:and worked with very accomplished musicians, two men in particular, Justice Rowe. He lives in Chicago and another guy, Fred Blifford, and they were my writing and singing partners. And so I'm not the writer. I'm a collaborator, which is what I still do now. But I learned so much from both of them. And we just played. We just played and rehearsed and played every chance we got. So when I kind of made a turn into acting, I had been on stage for many, many years. I knew what it was like to perform. I had a lot of confidence, probably much too much. And I was not intimidated by that. But yeah, that was a really incredible period of my life that kind of formed where I've ended up now.
7:59Amy Madigan:Well, so you graduate, I believe, in 72.
8:02Ed Harris:Oh, God, that was a while ago. Yes. graduate then and move to LA in 74.
8:08Amy Madigan:What prompted the move to LA? Was that maybe we can gain some traction in terms of music out here? Or were you already beginning to think about a pivot to acting?
8:20Ed Harris:No, back then I was heavy into playing music. I played all through college and then I moved out to California with a guitar player I worked with. Was that 74? Yeah. And so once I got out here, that's all you were doing, just trying to connect with people. I didn't know people out here in the music scene, but it was during that period of time that you could hook up with people and you could play. You could work with other people. There were clubs. You could kind of get yourself in there. I know it's a very different way to locate that right now. So it was available, you know, and met a lot of just incredible people.
8:58Ed Harris:And then gradually some of the people from the Midwest, they moved out that we had all worked together. So we had a lot of permutations of that. And I actually was able to record an album with Jesse and Fred, the two gentlemen that I mentioned to you. The name of the band was Jelly. And we had one album, which I found once in a bin for a quarter, which was great. I wish I had some more of them. But it was an incredible experience, you know. Just to frame, sorry to interrupt, but I want people to know there are people that today somebody says I put out an album.
9:33Amy Madigan:That means they, and there's nothing wrong with this, but you can just make your own music and put it online or whatever. Yeah, that's true. You guys were getting traction, right? I mean, I read that, and I think this might have been in my colleague's profile. I don't remember. One of the recent profiles that, I mean, what was one of the more visible ways you promoted your music at the time? You were kind of a hot young artist at the time, right?
10:02Ed Harris:That's a loose term, artist, I guess. Well, yeah, one thing you're probably referring to is that I did this photo shoot with Playboy. And it's this little tiny picture where they had a number of people. And you can't see my body. Basically, I'm in a bathtub covered in jelly. So I have all this glam makeup on. And you see just here and, you know, part of my shoulders. And I'm smiling like an idiot. That maybe wasn't the smartest move of my PR career. At the time, it seemed like it was a good idea. That's cool. I mean, now you can look back. Yeah. You can say, yeah, I was in Playboy. And you kind of go, oh, my God, you were?
10:45Ed Harris:Hey, no.
10:46Amy Madigan:I think it's cool. But I guess the question then is you're enjoying the music. There's some traction with it. What brought about the kind of shift towards acting? I mean, I know that it's not long after that that you're, I believe, studying pretty full-time with Lee Strasberg at the Lee Strasberg Institute.
11:06Ed Harris:I studied at the Institute, yes. I didn't have the money to study with Mr. Strasberg, but when I was there, he and his wife were certainly around in the building, and he had certain master classes. he had also a director's workshop and so the directors who came in and some of them were named people they needed people to be their guinea pigs to show Mr. Strasburg a scene so I was picked to be a guinea pig to be in some of these scenes so I got the kind of a best of both
11:36Amy Madigan:worlds but even just being there why what made you start there what made was it overlapping and then sort of acting supplanted music or why what what led to you uh even starting to spend your
11:48Ed Harris:time you know pursuing acting out here well jelly and the two guys i worked with that that band was after working together so many years that kind of broke up and disintegrated in its natural way then i was playing some gigs on my own and trying to get things going on my own as a solo artist and you know what it just it just really didn't work out and I knew that I was at some point kind of bashing my head against the wall and I was not feeling that I was doing my best work and I wasn't feeling very secure and about anything and a piano player that I worked with knew me and knew of my performing abilities and he suggested why don't you go take some classes so I was steered to that through a musician and through music.
12:39Ed Harris:And everything I've been steered to kind of goes back to that seething of the plant.
12:44Amy Madigan:Could have been, you know, staring you to something else just as easily, right? Yes. That's kind of amazing.
Read the full transcript
12:50Ed Harris:But this person knew that I was a performer and we met doing gigs. So he knew of my background of playing live music from, you know, 70 on, you know, 69, 70. So in that sense, it kind of happened in a natural way. And I took some classes with some wonderful teachers over there, and I studied there for about 18 months or something. And I learned so much. I learned so much about playwrights. I really didn't know who Sam Shepard was. I knew certainly of his name, but I didn't know all the stuff that he had written for La Mama in the 60s in New York and all the other playwrights. And so I knew the classic playwrights.
13:32Ed Harris:So I got a very, very big, fast education. and I just loved it. Yeah. You know, because I was still telling stories. Sure, sure. You know, and that's what I like to do. I'm interested in that.
13:47Amy Madigan:Well, I see one point where you said, quote, speaking about right after that time at the Shrewsburg Institute, quote, then I just kind of hit the streets, auditioned for plays and parts, met my current manager. He introduced me to my agents, and they sent me out for a television show, a heart-to-heart show, and I got it. They sent me on a movie of the week and I got that. So it happened very naturally. And I guess even while you're at the Institute, before those first things started happening, was the dream in your mind that you would have a screen career or would you have been just as happy doing theater?
14:22Amy Madigan:Or, you know, what was your kind of outlook?
14:25Ed Harris:I didn't have like a concrete end result. I wanted to work.
14:28Amy Madigan:Yeah.
14:29Ed Harris:I wanted to be a working actor. and I met some people even in those early days who in fact were working actors. And I started out in theater. I started out in live performance and that's where you really learn how to do and what you're doing. But because I do so much live performing and music, that came as very easy to be on stage. Not that the acting was easy, but to be up there and realizing your responsibility and working with a group of people. Yeah, that was where I came from. So that was just part of it. And I did get a job, but that was also like starting all the years I put in to get the job.
15:13Ed Harris:And then things followed a natural course. If it didn't happen that way and I never could get any work, then I don't know.
15:22Amy Madigan:Well, so this is now all about – you brought up Sam Shepard. I believe it was in 1980 that you saw a Sam Shepard production, which for multiple reasons, I guess, was pretty important for you. Isn't that how you first became aware of one Ed Harris?
15:44Ed Harris:Yes, Ed is my husband. And he was very much a working actor and very well known in the L.A. small theater scene. And it was very vibrant and really exciting. Lots of different people just grinding it and working, working, and sharing information and ideas. And Ed was performing Cowboy Mouth that was co-written with Patti Smith. And I'm a big Patti Smith fan and still am. I have her sub stack. She's got her new book out, Bread and Roses, right now, everybody. I'll give Patti a little PR there, not that she needs it. And I saw Ed perform this with two other actors, and it was – first of all, the play was so exciting.
16:29And Ed was just mesmerizing it and really great.
16:33Ed Harris:And I had heard of this guy, Ed Harris, and I kind of looked at him and I went, hmm, just that. I kind of said, yeah, I'm going to meet up with this man. And I did about a year later in a production of Prairie Avenue. Okay. That was the beginning of it. That's great. Yeah, but met through work, which came from music, which came from performing.
16:55Amy Madigan:That all connects, yeah.
16:56Ed Harris:Yeah, it does. Now, in terms of screen acting, I think your first role in a film was one that was kind of ripped from the headlines.
17:05Amy Madigan:This is called Love Child, came out in 82. Right. You play Terry Jean Moore, teenager convicted of armed robbery, who then has an affair with a prison guard that results—I don't know if affair is the right word. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, she did. With a prison guard, then results in a pregnancy. I guess because it was the first, I'd love to hear if you remember just what the process was of getting it, but also the impact. You got terrific reviews. You got a Golden Globe nomination for the new star of the year. It all kind of, in a way, in terms of screen acting, traces back to that. So I'd love to hear what you remember of the making and reception.
17:42Ed Harris:I'm very proud of that movie.
17:44Amy Madigan:Yeah.
17:45Ed Harris:That was a real seminal turning point for me. And I was working as a waitress at the Melting Pot, which doesn't exist anymore, which is on Melrose and La Cienega. I had a number of different jobs, and being a waitress was a great one. Actually, Ed used to come in, and sometimes I'd just get some food, and I'd put it on the table, and he would eat, and then he'd go. Because we didn't have a lot of money. Sure, sure. You know, because of a couple of these little things I'd done, I actually got an audition, which was difficult to get an audition. It's still very difficult for up-and-comers to get auditions.
18:25And I auditioned, and then I auditioned again.
18:29Ed Harris:I met some of the people that were in power, and then they said, well, you'll do a screen test. And I'm like, sure, great. and I did and I know there's some other really good young actors that were up for it and um they cast me in the part so which was really nice is that I quit my waitressing job when I got the gig thinking oh this is going to work out for me I don't have to be the waitress anymore but that waitress job saved my life so I'm not short changing that at all but but it was a big enough
19:05Amy Madigan:It was a big deal for me. And that was before the response. I mean, when people saw it, you popped.
19:11Ed Harris:I guess. I don't think a lot of people saw the film, but I don't know. Did people track box office as crazily as they do now? Less so.
19:20Amy Madigan:But, you know, the critics noticed you and the Golden Globes noticed you. And that's, I guess it just puts you on the radar for the next thing.
19:29Ed Harris:That's more it, putting you on the radar for somebody else. And the next thing I believe is one that I really want to pick your brain about because I don't know if people – it's not – when you Google you or Wikipedia you or whatever, it's not the first – it's not in the top tier of the ones that come up.
19:45Amy Madigan:But it was a really significant project that unfortunately is still very timely and that is the day after. Yes. This is a TV film about – I guess how do we put it? A potential nuclear escalation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. This is Nicholas Meyer making it. You're playing a pregnant woman who was caught up in the midst of all this. Your character is told just I went back and checked it out recently. Your character is told by Jason Robard's character, who's the doctor, quote, you're holding back hope because you're getting getting a little panicked. And you sit your character says, hope for what?
20:23Amy Madigan:What do you think it's going to is going to happen out there? You think we're going to sweep up the dead and fill in a couple of holes and build some supermarkets? You think all those people left alive out there are going to say, oh, I'm sorry. It wasn't my fault. Let's kiss and make up. We knew the score. We knew all about bombs. We knew all about fallout. We knew this could happen for 40 years. Nobody was interested, close quote. And that was really kind of the – this was a shock for a lot of people to –
20:48Ed Harris:It was a big statement to make. Yeah. Very much so.
20:51Amy Madigan:And when it premiered on November 20th, 1983 on ABC, more than 100 million people in 39 million households tuned in. It's still one of the most watched things of all time on television. I think it was the seventh most at the non-sports program up to that point. Reagan and Gorbachev both did a bit of de-escalation in the aftermath of this. Whether it was caused or not, we'll see. But I guess just what are your memories of that project and being part of it and just seeing talk about viewership? That's insane.
21:26Ed Harris:That was a big piece, you know, and I was really glad that I was able to be cast in that. And I remembered working with Mr. Robards, who was, of course, a big fan. And, you know, he came up from theater and all the classics he did. But everybody took it very seriously when we were working on it. And it was hard. And that's when they, I guess they used to call it like event television, you know, like that. And we knew that just that quote that you read of the dialogue, that was really putting it out there during that period of time. And people weren't really talking about it in those terms because Mr.
22:07Ed Harris:Reagan was there and there was a lot of prosperity and everybody was going to be fine. and Mr. Gorbachev tear down that wall. Some people probably thought we were being a tad alarmist, but obviously if we look at the mirror image of what the current events are now, it's exactly playing itself out. But I was very, very, I've been involved in some things that I was fortunate to get a chance to audition for them, but I really felt strongly about it and I wanted to be included in that.
22:39Amy Madigan:Yeah, that's great. Yeah. And, you know, there's now I don't know if you've heard about or seen yet. There's a movie this year, House of Dynamite, which is sort of which I which I have seen.
22:48Ed Harris:Have you seen it? I have. That's quite riveting. The I guess, you know, in a weird way, you know, I'm trying to remember how the how the day after kind of.
23:00Amy Madigan:And in a House of Dynamite, they don't show the devastation. No, they do not. Which in some ways maybe you imagine it's better to have you, I don't know, not better, but it's another way to really impact people that you can imagine how horrible it would be. But the day after, certainly I think when you talk about that subject matter, it's one of the first things that still comes to people's mind. It was really powerful. Now you went on to do I think the first of maybe 11 films that you and Ed were in together. And this one was a big one called Places in the Heart with Sally Field.
23:41Ed Harris:Sally Field and John Malkovich and Danny Glover and the beautiful Mr. Robert Benton directing.
23:48Amy Madigan:You were a school teacher who's the best friend of the sister of Sally Field's character. Lindsay Krauss played that part. Yes, exactly, by Lindsay Krauss. Your character is also, I believe, sleeping with that best friend's husband.
24:01Ed Harris:Yes, I was. And gleefully so.
24:07Amy Madigan:I'll just say because there are so many great ones among these. So I said that was the first of 11, I believe, you both appeared in together. The next would be 1985 Alamo Bay, 1996 Riders of the Purple Sage, 2000's Pollock, which he directed.
24:24Ed Harris:And wrote and starred in. Yeah, amazing. Oh, my God. That movie – listen, I'm tooting the horn for it, but they remastered it and it's in the collection now. it's such a beautiful film and it really stands up because as you know it's hard to do an artist story and it seems like there's a lot of musicians now that people are doing that but to do a painter is difficult that was a really hard shoot but boy we had a good time
24:48Amy Madigan:excellent one yeah uh 2002 just a dream 2005 winter passing 2007 gone baby gone which i one
24:55Ed Harris:of my favorites that was really fun to do that it was really fun working with ben he's a wonderful director.
25:03Amy Madigan:Affleck directorial debut. Yes, yes.
25:05Ed Harris:He's a really good director. Wow. Yeah.
25:09Amy Madigan:2014 Frontera, 2016 Rules Don't Apply, Warren Beatty, 2017 A Crooked Somebody, and 2019 The Last Full Measure. And that's not even, you know, there's a lot of theater as well. Yes. But I guess just on that point for a moment, a lot of couples, they need a break from each other, you know, Go home and work. But yeah, it seems like you guys have really enjoyed not just living, but also working together.
25:36Ed Harris:Yes, and still do. Yeah. I mean, I've been quoted as saying this before, and it's no new idea, but I think if you're with your partner or husband, if you're intimate with that person and you work together, it's either really going to work or it is just going to be blast a hole in both of your lives. Right. And, you know, you have your moments when you're working with someone, obviously. But we've really, really enjoyed working together. And, you know, we're trying to get a couple of things going and one we thought was going to. So we look forward to doing that again. What that will be, I mean, I don't know.
26:10Ed Harris:That's exciting, though. Yeah, you know.
26:11Amy Madigan:Well, same year as Placed in the Heart was Streets of Fire, in which you play an ex-soldier recruited to help rescue a kidnapped woman.
26:20Ed Harris:A rock and roll star woman.
26:22Amy Madigan:That's right. That's right.
26:23Ed Harris:Diane Lane.
26:25Amy Madigan:Well, and it's funny because I understand that you – one of the things you've expressed over the years was this was a very high-profile, if not hit movie, but a high-profile project. And I think you've said you felt that it might have limited the way some people in the industry saw you because your character was not particularly glamorous or whatever, a tough cookie. She was kick-ass. Yeah, kick-ass.
26:50Ed Harris:It didn't fit the feminine paradigm.
26:52Amy Madigan:So do you think really – just so people can – outside of the business, in the same way some people get typed in one way or another, you think that might have limited people for a few years?
27:05Ed Harris:You can't really say. I don't know. I don't think anybody was paying that close attention to me of like really saying, well, she's really great but you know what? She can't put on a skirt or whatever. You know what I mean? I might have limited myself in that. So I'm not going to put any onus on that. You know, it's an incredibly difficult business. It's a very fickle business. You know, when I was coming up and even in the middle years, you know, women are still underrepresented in many aspects of the business. And it was just a hard thing to get your due, you know. But if I had a chance to play a rough or gruff or character, I was excited about that because that's who we are.
27:53Ed Harris:That's one part of who we all are, 50 percent of the population. So I have never backed away from that. No. You know.
28:00Amy Madigan:No. Well, it didn't keep you from remaining very busy because the next year – this is crazy. I want to just bear with me for a moment while I lay out how busy 1985 was because you have a part in this TV film, The Laundromat, from Robert Altman.
28:16Ed Harris:That was great.
28:17Amy Madigan:Where it's you and Carol Burnett. You're a kind of a chatty woman who meets this older woman at a laundromat, Carol Burnett. This is adapted from Marsha Norman.
28:25Ed Harris:Marsha Norman, great playwright. Great play.
28:27Amy Madigan:So this is an hour-long film, essentially a two-hander, you and Carol Burnett, for Robert Altman. And you won a Cable Ace Award. This is in the early days of cable. Let me put that on the side for a moment. Also, that year was Alamo Bay.
28:40Ed Harris:Yeah.
28:41Amy Madigan:Where you're this woman in small town Texas caught between her lover, played by your husband, Ed Harris, and who's a Vietnam vet who's kind of in the shrimping business, I guess. And then also these Vietnamese refugees to whom your character's father rents fishing boats and who the Ed Harris character feels is threatening their livelihood. So you're caught in the middle of this thing, that character.
29:08Ed Harris:And our State Department during that period of time was relocating the Vietnamese communities in places that had no idea who these people were. many of their sons and fathers were in the military and um it was a and just dumped people there and said bye good luck to you uh it was a really fraught political time yeah yeah yeah well
29:29Amy Madigan:and then the third of 1985 is one that i just i was trying to track down a dvd to buy a bit or whatever it was hard but i found it entirely in its entirety on youtube and this is the movie for which 40 years ago, it came out 40 years ago, and you received an Oscar nomination, Best Sporting Actress. This is twice in a lifetime. Bud York in directing. You're playing this young woman, young married woman with kids who becomes infuriated at her father, played by Gene Hackman, for cheating on her mother, played by Ellen Burson, and a character played by Anne Margaret.
30:05Ed Harris:Yeah, look at that cast.
30:06Amy Madigan:Quite a cast. Yeah. And here's what Roger Ebert wrote about it at the time. Quote, The most complicated and interesting character in the movie is Amy Madigan's angry daughter. She's mad about more than the broken marriage. Her husband is out of work, and in her late 20s, she feels somewhat trapped by her marriage and children. A lot of her hopes have gone into her kid sister, played by...
30:26Ed Harris:Ally Sheedy.
30:27Amy Madigan:Ally Sheedy. She wants to go to college and make a future for herself, but Ally Sheedy is rushing into her own early marriage. Madigan acts as the contact point between the various parts of the story. loving her sister, exasperated by her, standing by her mom, resentfully excluding her father. It's quite an assignment, and she tries to balance all those demands we see. And as she tries to balance all those demands, we see one of the most complex movie characters in a long time. Close quote. Let's talk about that one if we can. I mean, did it feel like a very big deal to wind up cast in a movie with all those people?
31:01Amy Madigan:And in that kind of a multidimensional part, I know there's a couple of big scenes in particular for your character. So I don't know if it read on the page like those were going to be or, you know, if you had to be on the set to do it. But just anyway, take us back 40 years to this pretty significant movie in your career.
31:19Ed Harris:Yeah, it really was. I don't think that like a lot of people saw it or anything like that, you know. But Bud York and I certainly knew of him from all the things that he did with Mr. Norman Lear. and Bud, although wasn't in the limelight, he was responsible for 50 % of those things. It wasn't just Mr. Lear. And he really was excited about doing this piece and it came in through the people that I was working with at the time. I think they wanted me to do it, but the studio was kind of questioning. And I met him in this office that was probably half the size of this room we're sitting in. And he's behind a desk.
32:04Ed Harris:And I kind of came in and said, yeah, I'd love to do this. Yeah, I can do this. I know who this sunny girl is. We talked and talked. And he goes, well, how do I know you can do this sunny girl? I said, well, I'll show you kind of a thing. So I did some of the scenes, one of which is that I have to get quite upset and quite nasty and quite mean. That was it. Then we started shooting it. But I worked with such, I mean, Brian Dennehy was in there. I mean, I worked with some great actors. I learned a lot. I'm very proud of the performance Stephen Lang was also in that film when he was starting out
32:38Amy Madigan:the scene that you sounds like you might have done to get the part is this the one where you your character along with Ellen Burson's character kind of bust into the bar where Gene Hackman's character is kind of the bartender is the woman that he's having the affair with played by Ann Margaret and you kind of cuss him out
32:58Ed Harris:yeah I read him the riot act
33:00Amy Madigan:That's the one that you think you might have done to get the part?
33:03Ed Harris:Yeah. I mean, I just – and I understood what he was saying. You know, this woman is going to see how – through her eyes, through my character, you're going to see what's happened to the family. Yeah. Rightly or wrongly. Right. And so rightly he just wanted to know, well, you know, if we're going to mix it up, you know, let's do it. It wasn't like a big thing. You have to audition for me. But it happened very naturally. And I remember that scene very well because it was difficult to shoot it that day. and I was very into it and I was really upset that day working, but that was exciting work. You know what I mean?
33:36Ed Harris:Actually, as a result of doing that, and Miss Margaret, she had to do her side, which we call coverage of that scene, so the camera's on her. And I think she was nervous about it, if I can just say. And so she asked if I would just stay with her and kind of be off to the side and really give it to her in a certain way from actor to actor. And it was very intense. And I said, oh, yes, we can do that. It was not just reading your lines off camera. It was a very different way of intense working with another actor saying, let's do this. I need you to do this. And so I was called upon in a very specific way.
34:26Ed Harris:and I remember that very vividly and I think Ann was probably the first person who called me to congratulate me actually which was kind of nice which is kind of nice
34:37Amy Madigan:well and I'll say there's another big kind of blow up scene in that movie I believe at the wedding rehearsal so there you have the two between those two it's a really as that Roger Ebert quote you can't do much better than that that's pretty but anyway so you mentioned the nomination, which I believe came on the heels of a Golden Globe nomination as well. I mean, you were clearly, the response to this was, it wasn't like Ebert was an outlier here. Take me into what award season was like 40 years ago. Here we are, and you're going through it all over again.
35:13Ed Harris:Not like this award season. It was really very different? It was very different. You didn't, it wasn't so focused on carpets and stylists and having to do a lot of things every day. You know, it wasn't like people were saying, oh, we would love to have an interview with Amy Madigan. Yes, we would love to talk to her. No, that did not happen. And I didn't know anything about it. I didn't have a publicity person or anything. So it was, it's this, as you know, it's this large machine now. And it's somewhat antithetical to who I am certainly right now and how I live my life and all those kinds of things.
35:56Ed Harris:But I'm here because of my work. So that feels good. But it's just very different. I mean, which I've said this before. It's not like, oh, aren't you great and wonderful. I just had to go out and buy a dress. And so I didn't know what I was supposed to wear. Yeah, so I went to Neiman Marcus because I thought, oh, this could be a place for me and tried on this dress. And then this woman was like, well, why are you here, dear? And I said, well, guess what? I got an Academy nomination. She was like, oh, you can't wear that. So she went into the back room and pulled out a bunch of dresses for me. So I really got some help from another woman, which was lovely.
36:33Ed Harris:But it was just a different deal, you know. And Ed, of course, came with me, and it was just kind of a scene.
36:39Amy Madigan:I'm trying to remember. So you were along with Angelica Houston.
36:43Ed Harris:She won for Prinzies. And I think everybody assumed and knew, and rightly so, that it was her time and she was going to win for that. But there were a lot of people in that room that I'd never seen before. I'd seen them on screen. It wasn't like there were a million things and influencers and all that kind of stuff. I mean, don't you feel the difference in it now?
37:03Amy Madigan:Oh, it's certainly become a huge machine, I think, is the word you use. I think that's right. But at the same time, I imagine that the value of it is also greater. Like, I don't know how much the nomination, and I'd be curious to hear from you, did you feel there was a professional bounce from that nomination at the time? Whereas today, I mean, when everyone's paying attention every day during the season leading up to the Oscars, I do suspect that there is greater professional impact than there might have been back then. But I'd love to hear what it was like then.
37:35Ed Harris:No, that's very accurate, your assessment of that. I wish I could tell you that all these glorious things happened, but I don't recall it being that way. It wasn't like, oh, I didn't get anything. But no, it really wasn't that situation. People knew about it, you know what I mean, and people were happy. But I don't think the business all of a sudden was like giving me this laser focus or something like that, you know.
38:00Amy Madigan:Well, and it was –
38:01Ed Harris:I think it surprised some people too.
38:03Amy Madigan:What part of it?
38:04Ed Harris:getting the nomination.
38:06Amy Madigan:That you got it or that for that kind of a part?
38:09Ed Harris:That I got a nomination, I think, because it wasn't as, if I can use the word, as high profile with some other people.
38:15Amy Madigan:But that's even more a compliment to you, you know, because when there's like, you know, I've found that these days the Academy is bigger than it's ever been. Yes, which I'm a proud member of. Yes. But I think that as a result of them trying to become, You know, they've made an effort to get a lot of younger members in and all of that to seem like they're making hipper choices and whatever. But the the unintended byproduct, I think, is that a lot of people are still very busy with their careers and not seeing a ton of movies. So before their vote. So when they do nominate someone from a movie that's not getting nominated across the board, which was the case with Twice in a Lifetime, that's a real, you know, these days as well.
38:58Amy Madigan:It's more of a compliment, I think, to the performer who can get nominated for a movie that everybody's not just checking off up and down the ballot. Anyway, it's all.
39:08Ed Harris:Thank you. That's a nice compliment. And I once again, I like your assessment.
39:13Amy Madigan:Well, so even if the the next big thing wasn't right after Twice in a Lifetime, there were in the few years after that, it really did pick up. I mean, you have a Spirit Award nomination for The Prince of Pennsylvania in 1988.
39:28Ed Harris:Which was great. And Mr. Keanu Reeves, who I remember finally had not hit or anything. And he was such a young, beautiful, you know, punk, much more punk kid. And he was so charismatic. And I remember working on that going, oh, wow, who is this kid? You know what I mean? He just had he has a certain something that he still carries with him.
39:51Amy Madigan:You know, then there's another one of these crazy years like you're 85. Here's 89. I'm going to, I guess, tease people that there's three things we'll talk about. But let me – I'll go one by one. Okay. Roe v. Wade – or Roe v. Wade was the title. 1989 TV film. You're playing Sarah Weddington, the kind of novice attorney who ends up representing the woman who becomes the plaintiff. You won the Golden Globe for this, Best Supporting Actress in a series, miniseries, or TV film. nominated for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Emmy. And this was a hot-button project. This is at NBC at the height of the pro-life resurgence.
40:33Amy Madigan:And look where we are now. I know. I know. But, I mean, that was a really seen and discussed project. So I guess we'll start with that one.
40:44Ed Harris:So glad that that was actually made. You know, we didn't have one advertiser. Nobody would advertise the film. And that's, as you know, that was network TV, and they made their bread and butter from it. Gregory Hoblet directed it. Michael Mannheim produced it. They believed in it wholeheartedly. They said, we're going to get this done. Holly Hunter won many awards for that, who to this day is still a dear friend of mine. And that was about something very, very important. And we took it quite seriously when we were working on it. And we knew how important it was. And I'm filled with shame and wrath and tears when I think about where we are politically on that issue right now.
41:27Amy Madigan:Totally. Yeah. The next one of the second of the three that I'll bring up from 1989 is I think maybe the first time that I realized I was seeing and enjoying it. I don't know if I put two and two together with earlier probably, but this is Field of Dreams, which is still one of my favorites and I think holds up so beautifully. You play Annie Kinsella, the wife of an Iowa farmer, played by Kevin Costner, who says he has been hearing a calling to plow a baseball field in the middle of his cornfield and who believes this – and his wife believes him and supports him doing this even at the risk of having their property foreclosed upon and being ridiculed and all of this.
42:08Amy Madigan:Phil Alden Robinson is the filmmaker. We've got James Earl Jones in there, Burt Lancaster. It's just unbelievable.
42:15Ed Harris:A young Gabby Hoffman.
42:16Amy Madigan:Young Gabby Hoffman, who was in your other 8912 Uncle Buck. But with this one, it was so beautifully executed in the end. But on paper, I wonder if you – when you read this premise, what did you think?
42:31Ed Harris:I didn't know if people were going to buy it or not. I don't think anybody really knew. But Phil Robinson, who also wrote the script, he's a wonderful writer, he just knew that this was going to work and he had assembled this incredible cast. really incredibly great to work on the film, but it was also Iowa and Midwest. We were in the middle of a drought. There was no water. It was 100 million degrees. And we brought in fire trucks of water to water our corn while surrounding farms were losing their corn. So it was a very bizarre juxtaposition. All sorts of things like that were kind of going on around the film.
43:10Ed Harris:But I just really fell in love with it when I read the script. I thought it was great. It was like magical realism to me and to work with all these great people.
43:21Amy Madigan:It plays like one of the great Frank Capra movies, right? It does.
43:25Ed Harris:It's very Frank Capra-esque, exactly. And people still love that film. People will come up to me in the airport all the time and say, you know, I never talked to my father, you know, but I saw that movie and I reached out or, you know, kind of personal stories like that, you know, or the people or the guys who are saying I never did make up with my father, you know, that kind of thing. So it touched a lot of people.
43:52Amy Madigan:And to this day now they've actually more than ever in the last few years, Major League Baseball goes back to the field that you guys did, the Field of Dreams. They have a Field of Dreams game every year.
44:03Ed Harris:It's a big tourist thing now. People come and they just want to see – if you build it, they will come. That's right. Exactly. It's kind of crazy, isn't it?
44:15Amy Madigan:Now, did you – is it true that they – that Phil – first, let's say in the end, Phil couldn't have been more complimentary of you. Here's what he said to the LA Times. Quote, in Field of Dreams, she did something extraordinary. She played someone so supportive and loving that she let him do this crazy thing, yet you knew by watching her that she had the strength to stop him whenever she wanted him to stop, close quote, which I think is a good way of putting it. It's not just the kind of, no offense, Nancy Reagan, but just gazing up and you're the greatest.
44:45Ed Harris:You're the greatest, whatever you want to do. No, it wasn't that, you know. But that's to Phil's writing, of course, in his directing.
44:52Amy Madigan:But did he also, I think he was saying this after acknowledging that he put you through the ringer to actually get the part, right? Yes, he did. What was that?
45:03Ed Harris:I just had audition a lot, a lot of times for a lot of people. It was a big studio film and it was a big thing. Kevin was a very, very large star during that period of time, as were the two great men who were there. in a different trajectory. It was Mr. Lancaster's last film, and he was quite frail. You know, I had to audition, audition, and I know there's some really wonderful actresses that were up for the part. People wanted to do it. And the last one, I came in another room, and there were all the people from the studio, and they were all sitting there with their bottles of water and their suits on, and they were looking at me.
45:47Ed Harris:and uh it was a little nerve-wracking and then i had to read with kevin of course because it had to be like you know if kevin was like who is this get out of here but that was not the case you know what i mean and so my hat's off to kevin too because he could have put the kibosh on it sure so um and i think we made a good team that was great and i will remind people that
46:06Amy Madigan:one of your great scenes and that is also at the pta you nazi cow that's right you flip out at the woman who wants to ban the books.
46:14Ed Harris:Yes, see, I like doing those flip out scenes because they're about something and you can interpret them many different ways and I like the aftermath of that scene where I slam into the lockers and I like doing physical humor and things and that's just all in the moment where you find something and you work on it, you know? And, you know,
46:35Amy Madigan:movies nominated for Best Picture, it's really become a classic as in a different way has the other 89 movie, Uncle Buck, Uncle Bob. Where you play Shanice Kovalowski. Shanice Kovalowski. Tire shop owning long-term girlfriend of John Candy's buck who's reluctant to get married. This is John Hughes. And actually people are talking a lot at the moment about John Candy because of this new.
46:56Ed Harris:Because of the documentary that's out now. Truly the nicest man you could possibly imagine. No BS. He was taken way too young. It was really hard to keep my focus and stay angry with him in a scene because he was so hilarious. He'd just walk onto the set, and he was funny. He had that gift, you know what I mean?
47:19Amy Madigan:You went to Broadway and did Stella in Streetcar in 92.
47:23Ed Harris:With Miss Jessica Lange.
47:25Amy Madigan:Pretty amazing, yes.
47:26Ed Harris:Yeah, and with Alec Baldwin.
47:28Amy Madigan:Yes, very still-talked-about production. Then there was TV film in 94. And then there was one where you won another or won the Cable Ace Award for Best Actress in Movie or Miniseries. Loved in 1997, a Best Supporting Actress Spirit Award nomination. One thing I mentioned that was also around that time, I wonder if it in some ways traces back to you talking about your father covering the McCarthy era stuff. In 1999, you and Ed attended the Oscars because I think that was the year he was nominated for The Truman Show.
48:00Ed Harris:Correct.
48:01Amy Madigan:And that night, a big point of contention was the Academy's decision to give an honorary Oscar to Ilya Kazan, who had already won a competitive one for Gentleman's Agreement.
48:10Ed Harris:I remember it vividly.
48:12Amy Madigan:So now many people were upset, including people who were still alive who had been blacklisted because of Ilya Kazan. And a lot of attention was paid to who gave him a standing ovation, who kind of sat on their hands. You guys, you and Ed certainly did the latter, and it was one of the things that was picked up on the broadcast. And I just wonder if you remember that night and what you were feeling. I was feeling that giving him that accolade was completely wrong and was not necessary, and I don't know what they were trying to prove with that.
48:48Ed Harris:He made a decision that he was going to name names and do things. and certainly what happened to my father during that period of time and how he was called certain names, being a dirty, rotten Catholic, and all sorts of things during that period of time. I remember hearing the stories about that period of time for him, and it was just wrong. This man did not deserve it and ruined people's lives. And now we seem to be in a situation politically where, once again, And we are just going to make people pay for anything that we don't agree with. It just rings of that kind of hypocrisy to me. So, yeah, Ed and I sat and we sat with our arms folded.
49:33Ed Harris:We did not know a camera was going to be honest or anything. And there were many other people who were there also who I think. So it was a very uncomfortable moment. I don't know what he thought when he got the award.
49:45Amy Madigan:Well, it was funny because I think I watched the clip again recently. And he was like something pretty brief speech. And he said, I think I'll just slip away or something was what he said. And that was it. But it was, I guess, the end of a or, you know, sort of the end of a dark period for Hollywood. I'm just going to quickly list because I know we're going to be up against the clock here. But 2002, The Laramie Project, 2003 to 2005, a terrifying character in Carnival. It was HBO.
50:13Ed Harris:It was on HBO, yes. with Clea Duvall and Clancy Brown and Toby Huss. We were way ahead of our time doing something like that.
50:20Amy Madigan:And people continue to discover it. Like it didn't get the love. In a way, it's like the wire. You know, it took years for people to realize, oh my God, this was unbelievable. Yeah. And so anyway, same with that. We mentioned Gone Baby Gone with you and your Boston accent and foul mouth character. That was great. Just great. Grey's Anatomy for a few years there, 2008 to 2009. Just a lot of different sorts of things. But I know you've spoken about that in the years – recent years leading up to weapons, there was a sense of frustration or that the industry – I don't know if it was because – if you felt it was the way the industry looks at people after a certain age or whatever.
51:00Amy Madigan:Sure.
51:00Ed Harris:There's ages a minute. Yeah.
51:01Amy Madigan:How would you describe – in recent years, it does feel like you understandably felt a bit frustrated.
51:09Ed Harris:Sure. How could you not? You know, I'm a realist. It doesn't mean I don't get depressed and down and all those things. You know, I've been able to do some theater and I've also, you know, worked on some – usually it's something that an independent film, which I still really believe that the lifeblood of finding new stories, will approach the people that I work with and say, oh, would Amy be up for doing this? And if it's something that I feel is worthwhile, it's certainly not about getting a payday or this or that. You want to do it. But, you know, opportunities were less, definitely, and they continued to be less.
51:49Ed Harris:It's difficult, but you have to make some sense of it, even if it just feels the opposite, that this is nonsensical. And Ed has always had a very robust career, and he continues to get offers and works and sees things. And I'll make some crack like, you know, boy, I'd like to get a script to read, you know, something like that. Sure. Sure. But and I said this, I think, to somebody else. But Ed had been saying kind of like in the past couple of years, about 18 months, he said, you just wait. You're ready and something is going to come along and you're going to be able to get a lot of work. And I was like, yeah, sure.
52:26Amy Madigan:You weren't sure you believed that?
52:28Ed Harris:You know, I was like, yeah, well, we'll see or those kinds of things. You know, I appreciated him saying it, but he was saying it kind of in a way that wasn't just I love you. I'm going to be supportive of you. And so he kind of said it to me in a number of different times. Then weapons came along. And so it's, you know, to have a part that you can just grab by the throat and create from the ground up and is very unique, all those things. You know, that's what actors hope for, that they get a chance to do things like that. And you going through the filmography here, which I'm kind of amazed I did all these things.
53:06Ed Harris:It's a terrific career. You know, that's what you hope. Some things turned out better than others, but they're all – I'm a character actor. They're all great characters that you want to play. It doesn't have to be a polemic, but something that you can find the through line and make sense of it.
53:23Amy Madigan:Totally.
53:24Ed Harris:You know?
53:24Amy Madigan:Well, a lot of people are going to be listening to this because they saw Weapons and they loved you in it. A lot of people are listening to this because maybe they haven't yet seen Weapons, but they know and love you from past things. So for the people who haven't yet seen Weapons and may be inspired to do so because of this conversation, let's just set it up that you play Gladys, a woman who represents herself as the aunt of the only kid from his class of 18 in a small town Pennsylvania school who did not weirdly run away and disappear in the middle of one night. This character you play Gladys turns out to know a lot more than she initially lets on about what has unfolded here.
54:03Amy Madigan:I guess, first of all, with a lot of these, I'd be curious how you first heard about it. But also, did you recognize the potential of this immediately? Because I could see and I think it would be very understandable to say like, you know, this is a bit of a wacky character and it's a genre movie. And maybe it's not the kind of thing I've normally or I've been associated with much in the past. How were you won over to the idea that this was something you should do?
54:29Ed Harris:I read the script.
54:30Amy Madigan:Yeah.
54:30Ed Harris:And I thought the script was fantastic. I just really got who this woman is.
54:36Amy Madigan:Yeah.
54:39Ed Harris:And Zach Craig is the writer-director. I had seen his first film, Barbarian, that he made on a shoestring. And it is so well-crafted. It is so good. And it scared me. And I thought, oh, this guy really knows how to make a movie. And so his people reached out and said he'd like to meet up with Amy. And I was like, really? Okay. I like Barbarian. Yeah. You know, so it was unusual to have somebody kind of, and I knew it was a studio movie that way. And then I said, well, can I read the script? Because sometimes people get overprotective of those things. And he was like, yeah, sure. And then I really, really liked the script and how he wrote it in chapters.
55:25Ed Harris:So you got to see everybody's story from many points of view. And we met. and we had a lunch together. It was very easy and he kind of was very open and volunteered a lot of information to me about what he felt about Gladys and the characters in it and you know he had seen work that I had done and he really laid it out and said you know this is what I think is going on here and he's like I'm not telling you what you would do but you know and I said well that's a good point but how about and we just had a normal conversation and zach has said in the press as i was driving there i was telling myself don't offer her the part at lunch do not offer her the part at lunch and in fact at the end of the lunch he said oh this is yours if you want to do it so it happened in a really nice and natural way yeah you know what i mean i did it wasn't like put through the ringer.
56:21Ed Harris:And I know that he and his powers that be, they had lists of people and they get a lot of machinations for the script because it was delayed and actors had other things to do. So, and then we just started a relationship. He kind of left me alone. I did a lot of work on my own, but as it got closer, I realized that this is going to be a team effort for the prosthetics and the things that I wore for the hair, for the makeup, for the special effects makeup for their costumes. I mean, everybody participated. Everybody did. But Zach was in charge because he knew what he wanted.
56:56Amy Madigan:He's also said, I don't know if he said this to you at the time, but he said in the press since then that the story, particularly the chapter at the end where your character is most prominent, was very, very personal to him. He said, he told Vanity Fair, quote, the last chapter of this movie is straight up autobiographical. That was my childhood. You live with an alcoholic parent and there's this inversion of the dynamic. The child can become the caregiver. The foreign substance comes in and changes everyone's behavior. The house becomes a scary place. You can go to school and act like everything's cool.
57:30Amy Madigan:And then you come home and you hide from a zombie parent, close quote. So here it's not specifically alcoholism as he says it was in his home, but whatever she's unleashed on the family. But I I guess was that something you guys had talked about?
57:44Ed Harris:He was very, very forthcoming and talked about that kind of as soon as we got together and we met. And obviously he said it very vocally to not only the press but to fans and stuff. It really hit me. It was very, very important to him. But then he's taken it and made this art form out of it. I can see him as that little boy because the little boy, you know, Carrie Christopher, who's fantastic in the movie, he was a prototype for, you know, Zach when he was younger, being terrified. So, yeah, he wove that right in there.
58:27Amy Madigan:And did he also answer some other questions that you might have had or audiences have had? Like, for instance, Gladys, some of these things are not spelled out. She's obviously ill in some way and derives some health benefit from controlling those around her. But it's not fully spelled out exactly what's going on with her. We don't necessarily know how old she really is, if she really even is Alex's aunt, what pricking her finger with thorns from a potted tree, how that leads her to being able to control people. Were these questions that you guys, you wanted answers from him about, or was it left to you to kind of just imagine it?
59:06Ed Harris:So Zach would volunteer some things, but I can't say that – well, first of all, when people ask me that, I think that's wonderful. I'm not here to answer these questions for you at all. I'm more interested in what do you think or what did you come up with with your friends or if you hated that and you wanted an answer. But that's not what that film does, and I like films that don't have to spell out everything for you. So I have my own ideas, and I worked on certain things that I thought, I bet this is how this happened. But, you know, Zach, if you want – I wanted to talk to him about that stuff.
59:34Ed Harris:It was very forthcoming, and we did talk about some of that.
59:37Amy Madigan:And was it a thing where you had to agree, or was it— Oh, no. No?
59:41Ed Harris:No, no.
59:41Amy Madigan:Okay. So you guys might each have different answers.
59:44Ed Harris:Yeah, we might have, but, you know, the result that we wanted of getting across who she is and the turmoil she's going through, we both were very clear about that.
59:55Amy Madigan:Now, the physicality, which you mentioned, which there's all kinds of hair and makeup and craziness, outfit, wardrobe-wise.
1:00:02Ed Harris:There's a lot of work put into that. A lot of work.
1:00:04Amy Madigan:And replicated to one degree or another on Halloween quite a bit recently.
1:00:10Ed Harris:Oh, and Gladys rules on Halloween. It's kind of fun, I think. And I love that the gay community has so taken to Gladys. And they realize that she's somebody that is an outsider, that's tormented, that doesn't fit in. And also her look, people just like said, yeah. You know, it's just a surprise to me that the community and I think people in the drag community too kind of really related to the women that are – I mean the men and the women in the drag community. Their makeup is impeccably beautiful. Gladys is a little skewed that way. But, you know, the men who are involved in that, I think they appreciated that look of hers.
1:00:54Ed Harris:And she thinks she looks great.
1:00:55Amy Madigan:And you – there were real-world references and things, right? I've read about – Dionne Arbus is the proper pronunciation? Diane Arbus. Diane is Diane? Yeah, Diane Arbus. Anyway, all that. And then Baby Jane, I've heard.
1:01:07Ed Harris:Well, you know, Miss Betty Davis working with her team on, you know, whatever happened to Baby Jane, her look and her acting ability, I mean, yeah, there's – you know, going back to black and white films I saw with my brother growing up, We saw all of the quote-unquote horror movies, all the scary movies, all the noir movies. Monsters could be in a noir film wielding a gun and beating the woman across the head. I mean, you know, all of those things inform that.
1:01:39Amy Madigan:And in a weird way, I also thought about Ruth Gordon who, by the way, won the Supporting Actress Oscar for Rosemary's Baby in 1968 for a pretty creepy, you know, ot-like character herself.
1:01:53Ed Harris:And she was fabulous, but look at the writing, look at the other actors in there, look at her acting ability. All of that comes to play.
1:02:03Amy Madigan:So just as a final couple things here, I wonder when and where did you see the movie for the first time? And what was your reaction both to the movie but also to your performance? performance sometimes maybe it takes seeing it or or seeing other people's reaction to believe that it was as good as as people like I guess I wonder where did you come away and immediately say like I'm pretty proud of this pretty this is pretty special or did you have
1:02:30Ed Harris:to hear that from others I'm very proud of my work in that film very proud and I'm really really happy that people got the film and people are enjoying the film and they see the comedy in it and they see all sorts of things in it. And there's parts of it that are very scary. I saw the movie and the opening, which was down, and I don't remember the name of the theater, but it's an older theater. It's in downtown L.A. It had a big balcony and, you know, they had done all this stuff in the lobby and everything. So to see it big on screen and to hear every little sound and this and that, and there were a lot of fans in the audience.
1:03:05Ed Harris:So that was like, oh, wow. People like this, you know. So that was exciting. And I think it's interesting because after those things, which I haven't been to many in these past few years, they have a party afterwards, you know. And people were there, business people and da-da-da. And I think, aside from the cast members, I think a lot of people did not know how to react to me, to be quite honest with you. They liked it and they were kind of mesmerized by it. But they were kind of like looking at me like, good job. But they didn't really know what to say, which I kind of thought was great.
1:03:41Amy Madigan:Well, also, I know a lot of people. I didn't know what to say. A lot of people didn't even know it was you for a while. This is true. I like that.
1:03:46Ed Harris:I didn't know it was you. I said, that's good. Yes.
1:03:49Amy Madigan:Well, the last thing here, this movie opened at number one at the box office. It has grossed$268 million. You know that. Isn't that crazy? It's amazing. And at a time when, you know, quality movies are struggling to make money at the box office in a lot of cases. But you know that what we've been talking about, the response has been tremendous to the film and to you, to the extent that people are already asking you and Zach about sequels and spinoffs and all of that, which out in the possibilities, it sounds like. But I guess just as a big picture thing here, I want to get into your headspace, especially after we've talked about all the great work, but also the periods of drier periods where, as you've said, it was leaner, the amount of work.
1:04:36Amy Madigan:There was no guarantee it was ever going to pick up again.
1:04:39Ed Harris:No, there's no guarantees in this work.
1:04:41Amy Madigan:And you've had, I know, a tough year. I was very sorry to hear about the fire affecting your home. And I mean, but for this to happen now, the response to everything and especially to your work, it's got to got to be a bit of a bomb in a tough in the aftermath of a tough thing with the with the fires. And I guess I don't want to put words in your mouth. How are you feeling at this moment, given all all the stuff that's going on and and the context in which it's happening, which we've just laid out?
1:05:09Ed Harris:And as I said, I really like my work in this film because I worked really hard on it. And I just, from the very beginning, I knew who this woman was. I had a clear path to her. So that allowed me to really move and be free with it. It's a little, it's a lot. It's overwhelming to me because it's, I haven't experienced that in a long time. And all of the stuff that goes around it, one of the things, talking to you, which has been easy and fun. But honestly, but, you know, it's also that I'm not used to doing that. So in that sense, it's been somewhat invasive to me and kind of nerve-wracking to me.
1:05:51Ed Harris:But I've got good people surrounding me who are helping me through it. And I'm genuinely gratified that people really like Gladys. Aside from the performance, they really like her, you know. So she is, quote, unquote, the villain. She is the antagonist. But there's just something about her that you kind of latch on to, which is just kind of makes me giggle. It's kind of fun.
1:06:18Amy Madigan:That's great. Well, I'm very, very happy for you. I'm rooting for you. And I so appreciate you doing this. Thanks. This is an amazing career. Thank you for coming in and talking about it.
1:06:28Ed Harris:Thank you so much. I was very nervous beforehand, and I'm completely not nervous now.
1:06:42Amy Madigan:Thanks for listening to Awards Chatter. We really appreciate it and would really appreciate you taking just a minute more to subscribe to the podcast and to leave us a rating and review on your podcast app. And to follow us on Twitter and Instagram, where our handle is at Awards Chatter. On those platforms, we announce upcoming guests and provide details about special live recordings of the podcast that you can attend. Until next time, thanks again for tuning in.
1:07:34Amy Madigan:glow up. Spring's Calling. Ross, work your magic.
From the publisher
The veteran actress, who was Oscar-nominated 40 years ago for 'Twice in a Lifetime,' reflects on how her music ambitions gave way to acting, how she met — and her many collaborations with — her husband Ed Harris, her memories of working on classics like 'The Day After,' 'Field of Dreams' and 'Uncle Buck,' and how she wound up giving one of the performances of her career as Gladys, a crazy aunt, in Zach Cregger's acclaimed blockbuster horror film.
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