Elizabeth Marvel, Actor

We're told Parks has "drawn a family portrait shattered by issues of rage, revenge, power and betrayal. When a young man returns home to South Texas to confront his father, everyday life erupts into a battle for personal survival." Last week we spoke with Marvel about the play, her career, and her cameo in Synecdoche, New York.

So, where to begin? You told Time Out that you're a "lucky motherfucker?" Did I?

That's what they say.Yes, that sounds like something I might say.

What does being a lucky mofo mean to you? Well, I feel very fortunate that I got my start working in Manhattan when I did, because when I came up I got to play big juicy lead roles in productions in the park, and here at the Public, and other theaters because it wasn't such a tough financial environment. There was still room for young actors to break in lead roles on stage and really learn their craft. It wasn't as celebrity-driven as it is now, and I've been able to play a lot of wonderful roles very early in my career that now I'm beginning to revisit at a later stage in my career, which is really thrilling and I feel very fortunate. And I feel incredibly fortunate that I've gotten to work with the people I've gotten to work with over the years. The first play I ever did was with Michael Langham, Brian Bedford and Colm Feore, at Stratford Festival. That was my first professional job, and I got to work with Garland Wright, and so many great artists.

Right. I saw you in Hedda Gabbler which is one of the best things I've ever seen in NY. I didn't want it to end. Oh, cool! Well, Ivo van Hove, I feel like I'm sort of his actor. He's my great director; he definitely changed me as a performer permanently, in the way I make theater.

I was curious about that, because in that production, the performances were quite different from what you might see in a naturalistic play. How do you modulate your technique when moving from different productions that can be so disparate? It's interesting. It's always very difficult after I work with Ivo, because I've worked with him a few times now, and will again this season, I'm doing The Little Foxes with him in the fall. It's sort of like... You know when the astronauts first went to the moon, and then they returned, and they all went through a period of deep depression and confusion after being in outer space? I always sort of experience that after working with Ivo. I come back down to earth and go, "Oh, they just want me to sit in a chair, and talk at a kitchen table. Oh." The thing that is so thrilling about theater is it truly is a magic space where anything can happen. Personally I don't want to do theater that's very stylish, when it's just stories on stage that are basically the same as TV or film.

Oh that's what I hate, when I go to see a play and I can't think of any reason why it shouldn't just be a TV show or movie. Yeah, and that's the kind of theater that I'm not personally very interested in. And that's my taste, that's not a comment on theater, it's just my taste.

Do you go to see a lot of theater in NY? I'm going to be totally frank with you, I don't. I used to, a lot. I have a small child and my husband and I are both working actors, and we're incredibly fortunate to work a lot, so babysitting costs a lot of money, and because we work a lot, when we're home we really want to be home with our son. But there are a couple of actors who, if I know they're doing something, I will make a point of seeing them, and a couple of directors I will make a point to see no matter what. But most of the time, like on my day off I took my son to see Tino Sehgal at the Guggenheim. I see a lot of art, we see a lot of music, films at Sundance... that influences me and informs me more than theater, just because I make a bigger effort to see other art forms. But if I know Linda Emond or Kate Valk or Viola Davis is performing, I will find a way to get into the audience.

I thought of you when they announced that the Royal Shakespeare Company was coming New York and building a replica of their theater inside the Park Avenue armory—it reminded me of Synechdoche, NY, in which you played the realtor showing Phil Hoffman that huge warehouse. When you were filming that, did you have anything to go on? No, no, Charlie just described it, he was like "And they'll be a massive green screen, and it's gonna look this and that!" And I said, "Okay, cool, great."

I assume you've seen the film; what was your reaction? I'm ashamed to say I have not seen it.

Oh really? [Laughing] I don't see a lot! Again, it's just...

It's on DVD though, now. Honestly, I get home from rehearsal, I get my son to bed, we do bath time, bed time, book time, and I have enough energy to read a chapter of my Raymond Carver biography, then I'm asleep.

That sounds very normal from what I hear, what I see happens to my friends and family who have kids. I'm sure it's fulfilling, and you have a very fulfilling artistic life. Tell me about what you're working on now. The Book of Grace. It's Suzan-Lori Parks's new play, and I have been involved with it for over a year. I think she's one of the great writers of our time, an extremely important writer, and because no one has time these days, if you're going to ask people to give you two hours of their attention, I believe you better have something to say more than a vanity project. And this play definitely has something worth an hour and a half of someone's time. To me, she's a writer who really cuts down to the bone. Her language is so distilled and immediate and it demands intense rigor from an actor, which interests me a lot.

[Director] James Macdonald and I did Top Girls together, and I think he's just fantastic, although we couldn't be more different as far as temperament; it works really well in the room, because I'm very fast, I have a very high metabolism creatively, and he's very slow and patient. And somehow when we mix it, it works really well. And John Doman and Amari Cheatom are the other actors, and this is my first time working with either of them, and it's been a really good experience, they're both fantastic actors.

What was it about the play that resonated with you when you read it? Well, her writing just speaks to me, I just think it's amazing, so being a part of a play of hers is very exciting. The character I'm playing is somebody who has been through a lot of painful territory and has come out the other side of it realizing she has the opportunity to make a decision, either to spread love or spread shit. Either move toward the positive, find the positive in life, evidence of good, or stay in pain and suffer, and she moves toward good. That was very interesting to find, to experience this woman and to slowly get inside her. The play is also about the border, in a sense, the border that runs along our southern edge of our country, and also how we build borders within ourselves, outside of ourselves, what it means, the whole concept of us and them, which I think is very timely stuff, in this period of growing xenophobia in our country.

Yeah, it keeps getting worse and worse in that regard, I think. It seems to, but it's not the first time. This country has gone through intense periods of this before. But we are in the middle of one.

Do you live in NY? I live in Brooklyn.

Oh, what part? Carroll Gardens.

That's great, I lived in Brooklyn too. I love Carroll Gardens. Me too, me too. It's fantastic. We live in an old converted candy factory.

Oh, the candy factory on Court Street? Yeah!

I've been in there one time, cool place. Are you concerned about the F train disappearing? I'm not gonna talk about that, I'm gonna live in denial right now. Because I am just too tired to ride a bike in the snow.

Do you ride your bike in warmer weather? No, no. I am totally dependent on the train.

I ask about Brooklyn, because living in NY, I think we get a distorted view of what's going on in the rest of what's been called "real America," to borrow the phrase. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on that. Do you ever think about how we have a kind of feedback loop in NY, where, at least for me, the people I encounter seem to have the same liberal point of view, especially in the theater community? Yeah, that's interesting, an excellent question. One of the things I do in my life is I'm part of this project called "The Theater of War," which was created by this man Bryan Doerries, and we have been hired by the Dept. of Defense, and we are on contract with them.

We perform two Greek texts, Ajax and Philoctetes, for all people in the military, and veterans. We've performed everywhere from homeless shelter for veterans to an audience of folks at Pentagon, we performed for the top brass. And lots of people on their fourth or fifth tour, suffering from PTSD. So we travel all over the country, my husband, son and I, and a group of other actors, we sort of cycle around depending on people's work schedules, but it's sort of me, Bill Camp, my husband, David Strathairn and this young man Adam Driver, he's a wonderful actor.

And now it's growing bigger, and I'm in a play, and other people get plays, so more actors come in. Which is very interesting for me because I'm a Quaker, so spiritually and philosophically I'm a pacifist, so it's been a remarkable experience in my life, working with these people and speaking with them. Because a big part of the experience is we present these pieces and then we have a town hall meeting, where they speak about how these pieces resonate with them or whatever they need to speak about, and it's been really life-changing. So I feel because of this I have a very strong lifeline to all kinds of communities that I'm not necessarily party to in my bubble in NY. I fell extremely fortunate to have a much broader understanding of our nation and our current conflict.

That's amazing, I didn't know you were involved with that! Yeah, it's tough not doing it right now, though fortunately I love this play. We did a whole pile of them this past year, and it became sort of our main work, and it's a remarkable thing when you get to do your art as a form of service.

And beyond The Book of Grace, what do you have coming up? Right after that, I go into That Face at MTC, the Polly Stenham play, with Sarah Benson directing it, and then on the heels of that I do The Little Foxes with Ivo. So I have a big theater season, and then I probably won't do a play for a couple years because I really need to make money because my son has to go to school.

So that means off-to-Hollywood? Oh no, not at all, absolutely not. I will happily work anywhere they need me to if they pay me well.

But you're going to be doing more film and television? Yeah, yeah. I'm giving myself this chunk of time to do these plays, because I love all three of them, and I've been attached to them for awhile, and they all ended up lining up one after another for various reasons, and after that I need to be Mom again, and focus more on the economics side of my career.

Any Coen brothers films in the works? No, their next thing is True Grit, and I don't think there are any women in it. So hopefully the next movie they do will be all women. It'd be good for them.

That would be something. It would be great, I think it would be a great idea!

Okay, I'll make a few calls. Excellent, get on that please.