ANDY DRACHENBERG: First off, congratulation on the debut!
CYBIL SHEPHERD: Thank you! This is a lifetime dream and a thrill, particularly doing Gore Vidal’s play since I knew him. We weren’t very close, though. His quote was, “If you cut me open, there is ice water in my veins.” But he was one of my mentors and very important to me. Of course, I read a lot of his work before doing this play. The minute it was emailed to me, I read it and said, “Yes!” Then we had to work it out so that I could do the play because I’m doing “The Client List” with Jennifer Love Hewitt. A lot of people – Lifetime and Sony – had to say, “Yes, you can have this time off.” Then I really went to work.
AD: Do you remember the first time you met Gore?
CS: I would run into him at Turner Classic Movies because we were both doing interviews about our favorite movies. Whenever I went to his house after that, I would always take single malt Scotch. Sometimes I’d embarrass myself because I’d want to take him like six bottles. I’d say to myself, “I can’t give him that!” My daughter went with me and Wes Anderson and Peter Bogdanovich one time while she was a freshman at Yale and I think Gore asked her about something and she was very shy… afterwards, she said, “Mom, I had no idea what all y’all were talking about.” (Now I’m talking southern!) Once you’re with Gore – particularly with Peter and me – we know what to ask him. I just asked Gore questions and listened. He was so brilliant, so bright and so acerbic. He didn’t tolerate fools lightly. At the end of the show, one character calls the to the other “You are a fool.” I think that was Gore’s feeling too.
AD: You’re based out in California, correct? What has stood out for you so far in your move to New York City and Broadway?
CS: Yes I’m from California, I love just being in New York, and I love my children coming to visit. I think that a lot of times kids don’t know how hard we actors work. In the studio, we get a couple of hours off. But to have them come see me work live, and for them to come see this cast in this great play… It’s a great play and it’s a great group of actors.
AD: In film and television, you’re used to creating characters from scratch. But here on Broadway, you’re coming in and replacing a previous performer who played the same role you are now. What’s the difference in that experience for you?
CS: Everyone kept telling me, “Don’t try to be Candice.” We’re very different, though I’ve known her for 25 years. She was sweet to me, very encouraging. It was almost like having a sister show me the ropes. I shadowed her backstage. It was really exciting, but it was a difficult period. For most of us, we had two weeks of rehearsals, which was pretty fast before suddenly, we were performing in front of audiences!
AD: Two weeks is a very short amount of time to get inside of a character. What was the easiest access point to her for you?
CS: Alice Russell is from a finishing school, which means she knows how to speak right. Of course, my character is not cozy. She’s highly intelligent. A little reflective of Jacqueline Kennedy, who didn’t realize how their lives would change when they came to the White House. How they would be under scrutiny… Alice comes in and she’s always loved this man, Bill Russell. She’s there to try to support him in becoming President, but there are some personal issues going on. It’s a thrilling thing to watch the arc in her and their relationship, and it allow the end to be taken in a lot of different ways. The play doesn’t lie: some men need a lot of women (that’s a line from the play).
AD: You have a lot of personal experience being a political advocate for certain issues, yet Alice seems to want to avoid being that type of public woman. Did that make your process more challenging?
CS: Well back to the point about issues: the brilliance of what Gore did in this play is that it’s completely relevant today. We talk about birth control. We talk about that it’s okay to have affairs with women but not okay to have affairs with men. In that way, it’s a very strong political piece today. Women’s issues are part of it too: Alice Russell knows she’s supposed to follow the female script: we talk about Mabel’s children, then we talk about my boys, then we discuss the role of women in politics and we both agree that a woman’s true place is in the home, which is a joke! It is about women’s rights. Once you get into the spotlight of political life, you are giving up a lot of what a mother would be able to do. Suddenly, every time you’re doing something, you’re in the spotlight. Being a politician’s wife is not an easy thing to do. You see Alice Russell adapting to that.
AD: What is your favorite moment on stage every night?
CS: The end (she laughs)! I love the ending. It’s so dramatic. You don’t know what’s going to happen. You don’t know who’s going to take which step and who’s going to make the decision. Certainly that end part when I’m on stage with James Earl Jones and Mark Blum and John Larroquette and John Stamos. It’s a very dramatic moment. I had to really learn the rhythm of the scene they were doing, and if I didn’t get that rhythm right… you just have to be on your Ps and Qs. You really have to listen and be in that moment.
AD: What do you think is the most exciting thing that people should be looking forward to with this show that they probably don’t know yet?
CS: This is history written so accurately for what’s happening today. That’s the genius that Gore Vidal brought to it. Everybody needs to see the play. It’s a part of history, and it puts a perspective on what’s happening now before another Presidential election. It makes you think. A drama with two intermissions is not a musical. It’s not about anybody dancing. It is historic, and you definitely want to see it. I think kids would be amazed. It is history. And with the new cast, it’s a different play. If you liked the play with the original cast, seeing it with the new cast is another whole experience. You’re seeing the same play, but really different interpretations. I’d say see it with the new cast. Actually, see it as many times as you can!
CYBILL SHEPHERD (Alice Russell) currently appears opposite Jennifer Love Hewitt in the Lifetime series “The Client List.” Other recent guest star appearances include “Hot in Cleveland,” “Psych” and “Franklin & Bash.” She made her film debut in 1971 in the highly acclaimed The Last Picture Show, which led to starring roles in The Heartbreak Kid, Daisy Miller, At Long Last Love, Taxi Driver and Chances Are, among others. Cybill has starred in three television series including, “The Yellow Rose,” “Moonlighting,” (2 Golden Globes and an Emmy nomination), and “Cybill,” (also 2 Golden Globes and an Emmy nomination) on which she also served as an executive producer. In addition she appeared for 3 seasons on Showtime’s “The L Word.” Cybill has also recorded a number of albums, blending rock, blues, ballads and standards. Her most recent theatrical appearance was in Bobby Goldman’s one woman show Curvy Widow, at both the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and the Post St. Theatre in San Francisco. The Best Man marks her Broadway debut. Cybill’s website is www.cybill.com.