Mary Tyler Moore: (from September '96 Reed College Quest) |
| I know there are more than a few of you who were peeved at the camera
crews on campus recently. At Old Reed™ half the ODB inhabitants were locked out of
their rooms for eight hours because the crew didn’t want to see any shadows in the
windows when they were shooting on the front lawn. So consider yourselves lucky. Unlike the perceptive people at FOX who decided that Reed was a monk-run sanitarium, the TV movie folks decided to use Reed as a college. The movie, called Payback, stars Mary Tyler Moore (MTM) as a woman who testifies to witnessing police brutality. The cop she nails then proceeds to ruin her life by towing her car, convincing other officers that she is armed and dangerous, and planting evidence to convict her son of murder. So she teams up with an internal affairs officer, played by Ed Asner, to get her life back. What does all this have to do with me? Well, on Tuesday, I cut my real world job, went to the shoot and interviewed Mary. For those of you who don’t know much about her, MTM was on the Dick Van Dyke Show from 1961-66, the MTM Show from 1970-77, got nominated for an Oscar, won multiple Emmies, did three workout videos, was in Elvis’ last movie, chaired the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, and once attempted to buy a lobster for a thousand bucks just so she could set it free. She smiles a lot. She also let me sit in her chair. What follows is a reconstruction of the conversation we had. (I know it isn’t swimming in a buttery-rich sea of journalistic integrity, but this is the Quest after all). MTM: (worriedly) Do you have a tape recorder? Me: Um, no. MTM: Well then how are you going to remember what I say? Me: (fumbling): Uh, I have this notebook. I used it to write my thesis. MTM: (cheering significantly) I used a notebook to write my book [her autobiography, After All]. Me: What did you think of Reed? MTM: I loved it! …It was such a change of pace from all of the other places we were shooting …alleys and parking lots. The air was so crisp…there was a bite in the air when we were filming...the seasons were changing. It’s such a beautiful campus! Me: This movie reunites you with Ed Asner from the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Is this the first time you’ve worked together since then? MTM: This is the first time we’ve worked professionally together since the show. We’ve presented awards together and done charity events…which is also what I’ve done with Dick Van Dyke. Me: I grew up in the same town as Dick Van Dyke. MTM: You grew up in Danville? Do they have a statue of him there? They really should. Me: No, but they have a big sign up on the main street with a picture of him. All of the hometown celebrities have their own signs. There are only about five of them. MTM: Who are the others? Me: Jerry Van Dyke [Dick’s brother], Gene Hackman, Donald O’Connor [from Singin’ in the Rain], and some football coach. MTM: I grew up in Brooklyn. There are only about four hundred and ninety five celebrities from there. Me: I read that in the movie Flirting with Disaster you were originally cast to play Ben Stiller’s natural mom [an ex hippie sculptress who makes LSD]. Lily Tomlin ended up playing that role and you ended up playing Ben Stiller’s adoptive mom [very manipulative and obnoxious]. How did that happen? MTM: Well, David O. Russell [the director] originally wanted Dick Van Dyke and me to play the roles of Ben Stiller’s natural parents [played by Tomlin and Alan Alda]. It was a brilliant joke; he wanted Rob and Laura from the Dick van Dyke show [the ultimate white bread suburban couple] to become these really wild characters. The joke was left in… the parents in the movie were still called ‘Rob’ and ‘Laura.’ I wanted to play [the adoptive mom]. I hardly ever get to play that kind of obnoxious, pushy character, though it wasn’t very far from my character in Ordinary People. Me: Did you see Spanking the Monkey [also directed by Russell ] ? MTM: Not before I had taken the role…I watched the tape expecting it to be this movie about masturbation but it was really much more complex and well done than that. I don’t see how anybody could call it vulgar or obscene. Me: Do you have any other projects coming up? MTM: Not really. I’ve been doing speaking engagements. I guess when a woman reaches my age people think she has something to say. I gave a commencement speech this year and I have about six other speaking engagements scheduled within the next few months. I’m happy if I get work once a year or so. I love being at home with my horses and dogs and my garden. I’m really happy then, because in the past when I was working all the time I didn’t have time to enjoy my home. [Mary had to go back to filming at that point, but she let me ask one more question.] Me: [Francisco, then Quest editor] wanted me to ask me if you had been on the Muppet show, and if so, how many times? MTM: I’ve never been on the Muppet Show, but I’d love to do it…Are they still making episodes? Me: They were doing some recently…I don’t know if it’s still on though. MTM: Well, if anybody who knows anybody at the Muppet show reads this I’d love to be on! And with that, Mary smiled, shook my hand, and went back to shooting. |
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